Blood Tests In The UK

dd99

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Apr 26, 2014
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Does anyone know an affordable way to get blood tests / lab work in the UK?

I went to my GP today (after waiting 2 weeks for an appointment) with a list of things I wanted to test. She refused to allow tests for serotonin, prolactin, PTH, CO2, lactic acid, BUN and vitamin d. She said they were unnecessary. I disagreed, but that was that.

The NHS seems very opposed to people taking charge of their health and trying to prevent future issues. (I wish Theranos was available in the UK: cheap, fast. Private blood tests are about £60 for each test - expensive!)

The doctor only agreed to allow things where I said I had a parent or grandparent with a condition: cholesterol, liver, kidney (not BUN), bone (i.e. calcium-magnesium), thyroid (but not rT3) and ferritin.

I've learnt my lesson. Next time I will say I have the unhealthiest family that suffers from prolactin-induced baldness, burning muscles and inflammation from excess lactic acid and chronic rickets from vitamin d deficiency.
 

sugar daddy

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Apr 28, 2015
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The doctors in the NHS are more interested in denying access to treatments than helping people it's a disgrace.

I'd also love to get regular blood tests done but it looks like it would be very expensive.

I hope someone here has found a reasonable option.
 
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dd99

dd99

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Sugar daddy, it gets worse. She said they discouraged people from getting 'unnecessary' blood tests to prevent people focusing too much on their health.
 

sugar daddy

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They would rather you didn't bother them until you have a proper disease in full swing.

The idea of preventing things seems pretty alien to them.
 

BobbyDukes

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That's pretty much what I done a while back. I went to the Doc, and said I was having 'performance issues' whereby I couldn't even get it up. He gave me a menacing grin, and announced his intention to prescribe me Viagra (to 'help' me and my girlfriend). But more importantly, I had the basic GP blood tests. I sold the Viagra.

The only thing that was relevant for me from the tests, was that my red blood cell count was slightly high, and I had high TSH. This is probably a year ago I had these tests.

I guess it was free, and better than nothing.

I would love to test more relevant things, though. Is it really that much easier to get these things in the US?
 
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dd99

dd99

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Haha smart, BobbyDukes!

Well, some whizz kid scientist came up with a way to run 30 blood tests from a single drop of blood. Their tests apparently cost less than a quarter the price of standard industry tests (e.g. cholesterol costs $3) and take about four hours to process. She's now a billionaire - and rightly so. The company - Theranos - is currently only in North America, but Boots are supposedly in discussions to have their product in stores. That would be brilliant.
 

Nstocks

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I share your frustration. After 2 years of going back and forth complaining about my cold feet, to which he replied "So does my daughter - you have to live with it", I finally got a basic blood panel done. "Living with it" (Hypo) is the reason I would never go back to that Doctor again. He didn't understand my issues and if I didn't make any changes at that time, I'd be even more worse off than I am right now!

https://www.medichecks.com are quite reputable and many are available via posting your blood sample. They have some on promotion which helps but they still aren't cheap by the time you get a few ordered.
 

marsaday

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I am in the UK and blood testing is a big issues.

I am hypothyroid so want to test a bit deeper and more often, so i have to go private. Blue horizons have test centres all over the UK at Nuffield hospitals. They often do offers. I have twice done a comprehensive package tests which includes all the basic liver and kidney tests, basic thyroid, full iron panel, vit D, cholesterol etc PLUS you can get another main hormone done free. I usually go for testosterone. This comes to £140-160 i think.

They do a full thyroid panel as well which is about £90.

Someone else has told me of another way to get all blood tests done. You pay bupa to see an endo and the consultation costs £250 and is open to all. At your first assessment he will ask what blood tests you want doing and so you can have as many as you want. So this sounds like a really good way to get what you need, plus some free advise thrown in. Basically if you are just using the endo to get access to the bloods he will probably be more relaxed and so just discuss the hormones issues without any angle.

Genova diagnostics do urione and saliva testing plus blood, but you need to find somewhere to take the blood unless in London as they only have a centre for this in london.
 
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dd99

dd99

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Thanks for the bupa tip, marsaday. I'm going to try that out!
 

marsaday

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Ok, great. Whatever experience you have please post it up here because i may go for it one day.
 
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dd99

dd99

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marsaday said:
Ok, great. Whatever experience you have please post it up here because i may go for it one day.

Will do.
 

jyb

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I paid £28 for a vitamin D test by post with http://www.vitamindtest.org.uk. Just to check my vitamin D was really high, because it's been sunny so it should be over 70 at the least unless I have inflammation (I read it could be a cause of low vitamin D).

You should be able to get your NHS GP to have an iron panel (if your diet has been extremely low in iron) and thyroid (if you got typical thyroid symptoms or if you ever got a high TSH in the past).

I would be interested to know if any other marker like CO2 is unusually low but I'm not really sold either. Maybe when I have more cash as it's expensive for just a set of samples at a fixed point in time. In comparison, the best marker to look at is free: temperature, mood, energy, anxiety, productivity...
 

tara

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dd99 said:
Sugar daddy, it gets worse. She said they discouraged people from getting 'unnecessary' blood tests to prevent people focusing too much on their health.

Given how many people do their health in trying to be healthy
(switch SFAs for PUFA, eat lots of salad, whole grains and pulses, no sugar and not enough calories, the more exercise the better
or
low carb paleo/atkins
or
raw vegan),
it may not be entirely irrational.
What proportion of posters here who have tried various ways to get healthy that did more harm than good?
The stats might favour the NHS approach. :lol:
 

montmorency

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tara said:
dd99 said:
Sugar daddy, it gets worse. She said they discouraged people from getting 'unnecessary' blood tests to prevent people focusing too much on their health.

Given how many people do their health in trying to be healthy
(switch SFAs for PUFA, eat lots of salad, whole grains and pulses, no sugar and not enough calories, the more exercise the better
or
low carb paleo/atkins
or
raw vegan),
it may not be entirely irrational.
What proportion of posters here who have tried various ways to get healthy that did more harm than good?
The stats might favour the NHS approach. :lol:

I hope you are just playing Devil's Advocate here. :twisted: :mrgreen:
For a start, the crap :D the things you mention in the first line are all NHS recommendations I think :twisted:

Anyway, some years back, i found a place in London called "The Doctor's Laboratory" who would do any tests you wanted for a fee, but you needed a prescription for it. I think they had a link on their website to a place who could provide this (for a fee). I went there to pick up the prescription and then went on to the front office of the Doctor's Laboratory (in the Harley Street area I think) to get my blood drawn, and the test results were emailed to me in due course. Cost a few hundred, but seemed to be worth it at the time; better than pointlessly jumping through hoops for my GP. Anyway, it sounds like there may be better options available now, and not before time.
 

tara

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montmorency said:
tara said:
dd99 said:
Sugar daddy, it gets worse. She said they discouraged people from getting 'unnecessary' blood tests to prevent people focusing too much on their health.

Given how many people do their health in trying to be healthy
(switch SFAs for PUFA, eat lots of salad, whole grains and pulses, no sugar and not enough calories, the more exercise the better
or
low carb paleo/atkins
or
raw vegan),
it may not be entirely irrational.
What proportion of posters here who have tried various ways to get healthy that did more harm than good?
The stats might favour the NHS approach. :lol:

I hope you are just playing Devil's Advocate here. :twisted: :mrgreen:
For a start, the crap :D the things you mention in the first line are all NHS recommendations I think :twisted:

Well kind of yes and no.
I do seriously believe that many people do their health harm by trying to improve it by following poor advice, and sometimes that is partly based on misinterpretations of blood tests etc.

I also think there is a fair amount of ignorance, misinformation and mistreatment being propagated by the medical establishments that it is often wise for people to get informed and take charge of their own health, and that means sometimes getting tests that the drs don't think are relevant/necessary.
I've also been frustrated that so far I haven't been able to get some of the tests I want done.

I agree that some of the poor nutritional advice is promoted by public health institutions.
 

montmorency

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Messages
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Location
Oxfordshire, UK
marsaday said:
https://raypeatforum.com/forums/posts/86675/ I am in the UK and blood testing is a big issues.

I am hypothyroid so want to test a bit deeper and more often, so i have to go private. Blue horizons have test centres all over the UK at Nuffield hospitals. They often do offers. I have twice done a comprehensive package tests which includes all the basic liver and kidney tests, basic thyroid, full iron panel, vit D, cholesterol etc PLUS you can get another main hormone done free. I usually go for testosterone. This comes to £140-160 i think.

They do a full thyroid panel as well which is about £90.

Someone else has told me of another way to get all blood tests done. You pay bupa to see an endo and the consultation costs £250 and is open to all. At your first assessment he will ask what blood tests you want doing and so you can have as many as you want. So this sounds like a really good way to get what you need, plus some free advise thrown in. Basically if you are just using the endo to get access to the bloods he will probably be more relaxed and so just discuss the hormones issues without any angle.

Genova diagnostics do urione and saliva testing plus blood, but you need to find somewhere to take the blood unless in London as they only have a centre for this in london.


I have read that in some areas, you can try ringing up the blood/Phlebotomy department of your local hospital, and ask if they will do it for you for a fee. In some cases, people have been charged a small fee like £10. I've heard of one person who didn't get charged. It has to be worth a try.
 
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ddjd

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Jul 13, 2014
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2017!! you can get quite cheap tests from Medichecks. thyroid panel with about 15 tests is 130 quid i think
 

zes

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Joined
Sep 26, 2017
Messages
51
Thank you for this, I will go with medichecks and get blood tests done. my GP/NHS doctor is a prick. I really need to know what my iron, thyroid, testosterone and loads of other hormones levels are!
 

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