Are home health test kits worth it?

From hormone levels to thyroid health to vitamin deficiencies, you can buy one-off tests for more conditions than ever. But you might just find yourself with more questions and less cash. 

During the pandemic, millions of us used self-test kits for the first time. Now, with access to some health services still under strain, DIY tests have really taken off. 

A quick Google will reveal tests for everything from your gut health to your risk of serious diseases, and a raft of blood test checks. But with many costing hundreds of pounds, it's worth knowing the limitations of this approach.

It's likely that any tests you really need will be available free from your GP, and anything else may well be unnecessary.

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What can you test yourself for at home?

The at-home test catalogue from Randox – just one of the private health firms selling kits – lists 12 varieties, with the cheapest costing £1 (a Covid antigen test) and the most expensive costing £179 (a ‘microbiome test’ that promises to reveal ‘everything your gut isn’t telling you’).

You'll find self-test kits at pharmacies and even Tesco, which now stocks nine health test kits from Newfoundland. Costing from £8 to £18, they include a male fertility test, a menopause test and an HIV test.

Depending on where you look, you can find tests for cholesterol, STIs, blood glucose levels, prostate health, and more. You can even buy ‘general health’ MOT test kits that check for dozens of conditions (and which cost hundreds of pounds). 

With some, you'll need to send blood samples or swabs to a lab to get results; others will reveal the results immediately.

But it's worth thinking carefully before parting with your cash and knowing what to expect.

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What can home test kits tell you?

Some test kits will give you a simple indicator of whether a certain marker level is raised or not, and they're relatively simple to interpret (though still not foolproof). Others will give you reams of complex information that isn't necessarily easy to unpick. 

You might get an expert consultation or follow-up thrown in for free with some of the pricier packages, but many will charge extra for the privilege.

When we asked health experts to analyse a range of self-test kits in 2020, they were unimpressed. 

There’s a major flaw at the heart of all of these tests: they don’t know why you ordered them. The other one? You might not know what needs checking most.

One GP told us: ‘Interpreting bloods is a real art and needs to be done in the context of why they were ordered and what else is going on.’

One diabetes test kit we analysed, for example, didn’t address non-blood-related symptoms of the condition in the user information pack. If someone's blood test looked OK, they might not seek further treatment, which could be dangerous. 

The risk of false reassurance is a problem. It's likely you'll take a test if you’re worried about a certain problem. But getting a normal result from one test doesn’t necessarily mean there’s nothing wrong. 

In some cases, abnormal test results won’t in fact be cause for alarm, which means an at-home test could cause more worry than it needs to.

It's likely you will need to follow up with your GP anyway if you receive an abnormal test result, so you’re better off involving them from the start.

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Why private self-test kits aren’t worth it

Testing yourself at home isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's convenient and quick, and the NHS is making more use of it for screening checks such as bowel cancer and STIs. And if you're struggling to be heard on a certain issue it can be handy to have back-up.

But losing the context of discussion with a health professional before and after can limit its usefulness and leave you out of pocket. 

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Free self-tests and health checks you can get on the NHS

A range of tests are available for free as part of NHS initiatives or screening programmes for certain age groups:

• NHS bowel cancer screening Available for people aged 60 to 74.
• STI tests At-home STI test kits are provided by different organisations in different areas, such as Sexual Health London and SH:24

Over-40s can make use of the NHS Health Check, also known as the 'health MOT'. It's available to people aged 40 to 74, and it checks your risk levels for common later-life health issues including heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease and stroke. 

It includes a cholesterol test, blood pressure check and may include a blood test.

You can have one every five years (unless you already have a related condition, in which case you should already be having regular checks).

Other screening tests done at health centres include cervical screening, breast screening and AAA screening. You can find out more on the NHS screening guide.

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