Adrenal & Steroid Hormones
Every adrenal & steroid hormones calculator on CalcEngines — unit converters, derived indices and interpretive tools, each with its formula, a worked example and the reference intervals it is judged against.
24 calculators in this section
- 11-Deoxycortisol Unit ConverterConvert 11-deoxycortisol between ng/dL, nmol/L, ng/mL and µg/L — the steroid one enzyme short of cortisol, which accumulates in 11β-hydroxylase deficiency and is the thing the metyrapone test actually measures. The conversion is simple; the reference intervals and the metyrapone thresholds are where published sources stop agreeing.
- 17-Hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) Unit ConverterConvert 17-OHP between ng/mL, ng/dL, µg/L and nmol/L — and read the result the way the screening analyte for congenital adrenal hyperplasia has to be read: early morning, in the follicular phase, and with a short Synacthen test rather than a repeat when it is borderline.
- ACTH-Dependent vs Independent InterpreterCushing's syndrome has been confirmed; the question now is what is causing it, and plasma ACTH splits the differential in two. Read the next sentence before using this page: ACTH is not a screening test for Cushing's syndrome and a single value is uninterpretable unless hypercortisolism has already been established on at least two first-line tests. Used as a screen it produces nonsense in both directions. For the screening step, see the 1 mg overnight dexamethasone suppression test interpreter, the late-night salivary cortisol interpreter and the urinary free cortisol unit converter.
- Adrenal Crisis and Stress Dose InterpreterIf you take a steroid to replace the hormone your adrenal glands cannot make, being ill changes what you need. Read this first: an adrenal crisis is treated straight away with an injection of hydrocortisone, and treatment is never delayed to wait for a blood test. If someone is collapsed, drowsy, confused, vomiting repeatedly or has severe abdominal pain, call emergency services now. This page tells you what the published guidance says; it is not a substitute for medical care and cannot manage a crisis for you.
- Adrenal Incidentaloma InterpreterAn adrenal mass turned up on a scan done for something else. Three questions decide everything that follows: does it look benign, is it making a hormone, and does it ever need re-imaging. The third answer has changed — the 2023 European Society of Endocrinology and ENSAT guideline recommends against routine follow-up imaging and against repeat hormonal testing for a lesion that is clearly benign on imaging and hormonally silent, and it dropped the 4 cm size limit from the benign imaging definition at the same time.
- Adrenal Vein Sampling InterpreterAdrenal vein sampling decides whether someone with primary aldosteronism gets an adrenalectomy or lifelong medical therapy, and it is misread often. This computes both indices side by side and applies them in the only order that works: selectivity first, because a failed cannulation makes the lateralisation index meaningless. Where the published thresholds disagree, the page prints the disagreement.
- Aldosterone Unit ConverterConvert plasma aldosterone between ng/dL, pg/mL and pmol/L, with the posture, sodium intake and drug-preparation rules that determine whether the result can be trusted.
- Aldosterone-Renin Ratio (ARR) CalculatorScreen for primary aldosteronism from plasma aldosterone and plasma renin activity, and see why the ratio is unreliable without checking the aldosterone alongside it.
- Androstenedione Unit ConverterConvert androstenedione between ng/dL, ng/mL, µg/L and nmol/L — and read it knowing that it is never interpreted alone, and that an immunoassay result and a mass spectrometry result on the same serum are not the same number.
- CAH 17-OHP Interpreter17-hydroxyprogesterone interpretation for 21-hydroxylase deficiency, in the order that actually decides the answer: which unit, was the sample taken before 8 am, and was it baseline or cosyntropin-stimulated. A normal afternoon baseline excludes nothing — only a stimulated value excludes non-classic disease. For the units alone, see the 17-hydroxyprogesterone unit converter.
- Corticosteroid Equivalent Dose CalculatorConvert a corticosteroid dose to another agent's equivalent using relative glucocorticoid potency — and see why mineralocorticoid activity does not travel with it.
- Cortisol Unit ConverterConvert serum cortisol between µg/dL, nmol/L and ng/mL, and see why the sampling time and the patient's oestrogen status matter more than the number itself.
- Dexamethasone Suppression Test InterpreterInterpret the 08:00 cortisol after a 1 mg overnight dexamethasone suppression test, using both the traditional and the more sensitive modern cut-offs.
- DHEA-Sulfate Unit ConverterConvert DHEA-sulfate between µg/dL, µg/mL and µmol/L, and see why it separates an adrenal from an ovarian source of androgen excess.
- Glucocorticoid Withdrawal InterpreterWho can stop a steroid outright, who needs a taper, and who needs their adrenal axis tested before stopping. The dose-and-duration rules everyone quotes — three weeks, 5 mg of prednisolone — are conventions rather than validated thresholds, and the 2024 ESE and Endocrine Society joint guideline says so itself: it writes every one of its own figures as a range and describes glucocorticoid exposure as a multidimensional risk factor. The axis can stay suppressed for months, and in some people for years, after a long course.
- Late-Night Salivary Cortisol InterpreterOne of the four first-line tests for Cushing's syndrome, and the one whose result is most often read against the wrong number. Two things decide whether this result means anything, and neither is the value. The cut-off is assay-specific — immunoassay and LC-MS/MS produce different numbers on the same saliva and are not interchangeable — and the test measures the loss of the normal nocturnal cortisol nadir, so a patient whose sleep-wake cycle is disrupted has no nadir to lose and the test is invalid before it is run.
- Plasma Metanephrine Unit ConverterConvert plasma free metanephrine between pg/mL, ng/L and pmol/L, and see why the sample must be drawn supine and off interfering drugs before it can be trusted.
- Plasma Metanephrines InterpreterPlasma free metanephrines are close to 99% sensitive for phaeochromocytoma and paraganglioma, and that sensitivity is bought with specificity: in unselected testing the false-positive rate is around 20 to 25%. This page takes a raised result, the posture it was drawn in, the drugs the patient was on and how ill they were, and says whether it is likely to be real. The single most useful rule is that an elevation of three times the upper reference limit or more is rarely a false positive, and a marginal one usually is. For the arithmetic, see the plasma metanephrine unit converter and the plasma normetanephrine unit converter.
- Plasma Normetanephrine Unit ConverterConvert plasma free normetanephrine between pg/mL, ng/L and pmol/L, and see why it is more posture-sensitive than metanephrine and points towards extra-adrenal disease.
- Pregnenolone Unit ConverterConvert serum pregnenolone between ng/dL, nmol/L, ng/mL and µg/L. This is the first steroid made from cholesterol, so it sits above every branch of the pathway — and it is the same molecule as the over-the-counter supplement, which is an entirely different conversation from the one on this page.
- Renin (Direct) Unit Converterng/L, pg/mL, ng/dL and ng/100 mL are four labels for two numbers, and converting between them is arithmetic. The two things a renin report actually needs — the mIU/L calibration and the relationship to plasma renin activity — are neither of them conversions, and this page keeps them off the ladder and explains why.
- Saline Suppression Test InterpreterTwo litres of saline over four hours should switch aldosterone off. Whether it did depends on which threshold you read it against — and the recumbent and seated protocols have different cut-offs, derived from different studies, with the immunoassay figure higher than the mass spectrometry one. Set the protocol and the assay before reading the number.
- Short Synacthen Test InterpreterThe 500 nmol/L cut-off everybody quotes was set against a polyclonal immunoassay that read high because it cross-reacted with other steroids. Modern specific assays read lower, so the same patient can pass on one platform and fail on another. Pick your assay and your sampling time and the page uses the cut-off derived for them.
- Urinary Free Cortisol Unit ConverterThis is an amount excreted over 24 hours, not a concentration — so a bottle that was over- or under-collected changes the answer without anything changing in the patient. Convert µg/24 h to nmol/24 h here, but check the urine creatinine first, because that is what tells you whether the collection was complete.