Today there are so many reasons for patients to seek out the do-it-yourself home medical testing kits.  Paternity DNA testing, ovulation and pregnancy, disease and STD testing, hormone imbalance, teen drug and alcohol screening, just to name a few.

With today’s innovative healthcare technologies, more and more people around the world have access to determining their own state of health and disease.   The main reasons patients self test are curiosity and the need for a second opinion.  Patients want to know if there is a medical problem or they may have a need to know what the various symptoms that they are experiencing mean.  It has never been easier to go get tested now!

In today’s instant gratification and do-it-yourself world – medical and laboratory testing is no exception.  The internet has been a wonderful tool for anyone seeking medical information.  Although care must be taken to insure that the websites giving medical information and advice are authority driven websites.  With all the information available it can be easy to misdiagnose an illness or be misled into thinking that nothing is wrong when there could be a serious underlying medical condition that can only be determined with a trained doctor.  The medical information found on the internet should not be a substitute for actual medical care by a physician.

There are at-home do-it-yourself test kits available for many, many, health related and serious medical conditions.   The patient community now has access to determining whether they have a specific disease or illness with the use of a DIY test kit that can simply be ordered online.

* Women have been able to confirm a suspected pregnancy by simple DIY test kits for many years.  In the fertility arena in recent years, women have been able to pinpoint ovulation and a variety of hormonal imbalances to increase the chances of achieving pregnancy.

*A popular television program has made it commonplace to determine with pinpoint accuracy (via the use of DNA and genetic testing) the paternity of a child when the mother has had multiple partners and is not sure who the child’s father is. This test can now be done discreetly at home.

*Parents are now able to use a drug test kit to test their teens for drug and alcohol use as well as steroid use which could potentially avert a serious addiction.

Parents Drug Test Kits

*Hormone imbalances can now be detected easily with a home test kit.  This is important for many illnesses and conditions as well as for PMS sufferers and women dealing with menopausal symptoms.  A simple hormone imbalance can mimic a serious disease  when in fact there is none.  Appropriate treatments can then be planned with your physician.

Now the medical technology comes to the hands of the entire patient community.

The tests kits are just as reliable as the tests done by medical laboratories because many of the DIY test kits are sent to those very same labs for analysis.  Some tests offer instant results (such as the dip-stick type of tests for urine) but many (cheek swabs, nail and hair clippings, etc) need to be analyzed by professionals thereby giving the patient accurate results as would be the case when your own doctor orders the very same lab test.  Directions will be given with your kit on how to perform the test as well as where to send it for analysis.

The upside is patient empowerment but there is also a downside.  The results of a paternity test could be unexpected and lead to legal issues or emotional trauma, or a genetic test could show a gene mutation that is indicative of a fatal disease such as ovarian cancer or errors in determining the sex of an unborn child.

Early Disease Detection

The home medical testing market is on the rise and with the accuracy and advances in genetic testing  will continue to be very popular.  The prices are within the reach of the average patient.  Many DIY medical test kits will not be covered under many health insurance policys that go outside the plan for lab testing.  Check with your personal health insurer.

Go get tested now!