Measure your hormones,
do not guess them.

With a regular cycle the standard window for FSH, LH and estradiol is between days two and five, counted from the first day of bleeding. Progesterone, by contrast, is measured in the second half of the cycle, roughly seven days before the next expected period. If the cycle is irregular or absent, the day matters less but the interpretation becomes more demanding. You receive the instructions matching your panel with the kit, and because the kit sits at your place, you can wait for the right day.

Measuring, yes; interpreting, only to a limited extent. Combined pills suppress FSH and LH and lower your own estradiol, while SHBG rises markedly, which mathematically pushes down free testosterone. The profile then shows the effect of the contraception rather than your own hormonal situation. With a hormonal IUD, an implant or a progestogen-only pill the picture is less uniform. Tell us what you take and we will say in advance whether the measurement is worth it in your case.

Only partly, and that is a limitation of laboratory values in general rather than of this test. During perimenopause FSH and estradiol fluctuate strongly from cycle to cycle, so a single value can look unremarkable even though the transition is well underway. The professional societies make the diagnosis clinically, through cycle patterns and symptoms, not through the laboratory. The value helps to place things and to exclude other causes. Conversely, a high FSH alone proves nothing.

Neither; they only partly overlap. The hormone profile contains the full axis: FSH, LH, estradiol, prolactin, DHEAS, testosterone, SHBG and albumin. The “complete” panel contains only estradiol and progesterone from the hormones, and instead lipid metabolism, HbA1c, liver, kidney, TSH, vitamin D and B12. If your question is hormonal, the hormone profile is the better fit despite the lower price.

No, and that is the difference to a test bought online. Every panel comes with a medical interpretation: what the values mean in context and on the stated day of your cycle, what has changed against an earlier measurement, and what concretely follows. You find it in your YEARS portal.

As a private medical service we bill according to GOÄ, so reimbursement is possible depending on your policy. Privately insured patients submit the invoice to their insurer; with occupational health insurance the annual budget applies. German statutory health insurance generally covers hormone values only with a concrete suspicion of disease, not for taking stock. The insurer always decides bindingly.