Stress is a normal adaptive response. In the short term, it helps the body react quickly to demanding or threatening situations.

The stress response involves the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, commonly called the HPA axis. This system regulates the release of cortisol, a hormone involved in energy mobilisation, immune activity and the body’s response to pressure.

Once a stressful event has passed, cortisol normally returns towards its usual pattern. When stress is frequent or recovery is inadequate, this rhythm may become disrupted.

Measuring cortisol at several points during the day can provide insight into your daily secretion pattern and help you discuss appropriate lifestyle or clinical follow-up with a qualified professional.

Physical exercise has important benefits for health and can play a valuable role in stress management. However, prolonged imbalance between training load and recovery can contribute to fatigue, reduced performance and, in some athletes, Overtraining Syndrome.

Exercise activates the body's stress-response systems and can influence hormones such as cortisol. Measuring salivary cortisol can provide information about hormonal responses to exercise and recovery when interpreted in the context of factors such as training load, time of day, sleep and other sources of stress.

Testosterone is also of interest in resistance training because of its role in muscle and protein metabolism. Researchers have therefore studied testosterone, cortisol and the cortisol-to-testosterone ratio in relation to training load, recovery and athletic performance.

Hormone measurements can provide additional information about physiological responses to training. They should be interpreted alongside performance, recovery, wellbeing and other relevant information rather than used on their own to diagnose overtraining or determine a training programme.

If you already have a specific biomarker in mind, Persometrics also offers home test kits for selected individual hormone measurements.

For example, testosterone testing may be of interest to men who want to better understand their hormone profile, including in the context of concerns such as reduced sex drive, fertility or sexual function. Cortisol testing may likewise provide additional information about the body's stress-response pattern.

Persometrics does not provide medical diagnosis or treatment. Depending on the test selected, saliva analysis can provide information about free, unbound hormone concentrations that may be useful for personal understanding or for discussion with a qualified healthcare professional.

Persometrics combines psychometric data obtained from questionnaires with biomarker data to generate our personalised reports. We also offer a selection of standalone questionnaires free of charge.

Whether you are interested in stress management or simply understanding yourself better, our questionnaires provide an excellent starting point for your personal wellbeing journey.