Timings for at home blood test

[Clauds123]

Hi, I’ve got the blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold blood test and plan to do it in the morning, as per the advice before taking any thyroid medication.

I was going to do it on waking at around 6:30 am, but noticed on the instructions it said to take the sample between 8 am and 10 am. Does it need to be that late, or can it be taken any earlier? It says fasting not required. I’d like to get it out of the way first thing, take my Meds then be able to have breakfast at a reasonable time. Either way, not looking forward to the finger prick 😬 thanks

[SmallBlueThing]

Spring-loaded lancets make things bearable, but I messed up one test and made sure to drink a fair amount of water during the hour before I commenced the next one. On another occasion, I chose to test during the evening, when I felt I was more likely to experience thyroid-related symptoms. We used to have an afternoon postal collection, but now it's in the morning, which would alter things for me if/when I choose to do another test. I've had NHS tests sprung on me, and have sometimes been surprised by the results e.g. higher than expected when done in mid-afternoon, after my morning dose.

[SilverAvocado]

Hi Clauds123,

Sorry you didn't get an answer to your question early enough to do your test as planned. Yes, you can do your test earlier than 9am. I have no idea why that instruction is in the test pack.

For thyroid hormone, the biggest reason to do the test as early as possible is because TSH has a natural cycle throughout the day, and is at its highest very early in the morning. In fact even 9am is a little on the late side to do the test, as TSH is already starting to drop at that point. But is often the earliest time you can have blood drawn by a phlebotomist or at the GP surgery, so it is a common compromise time. Your own earlier time will be better.

The other major reason it is better to test on waking is because you'll have had a nice long fast and won't have had a chance to do anything that might skew the results of any of the tests, and it keeps the conditions as similar as possible for all your blood tests over time.

As it is now Wednesday, if you didn't do your blood test this morning as you planned, I would now put it off till Monday. Unfortunately with mail order blood tests we also have the postal service to contend with. It is better to send samples early in the week, in case they end up arriving at the lab over the weekend and sitting around until someone can deal with them on Monday.

In your other reply they mentioned drinking water in the morning before taking your sample. In my experience of finger prick blood tests it is very helpful to keep nice and warm (this applies to phlebotomist drawn blood, too, if you are hard to get blood out of like I am). Drinking cold or room temperature water is one of the things I find can cool me down a lot. If you want to drink before you draw your blood, I suggest making a mug of hot /warm water as if you were having a cup of tea, instead.

[Clauds123 in reply to SilverAvocado]

hi, thanks both for your comments. I did the test anyway this morning pre-medication or anything to eat at 8 am. I managed to get it to a priority postbox so didn’t have to wait another week I’ll see what the results say. The fingerprick wasn’t too bad as you say, being well hydrated and using the warm water worked.. think it’s more the thought of doing it and the anticipation of pressing that button!!

[SilverAvocado in reply to Clauds123]

Yea, I think it's not too bad, really. The worst thing is if you get off to a bad start and everything goes wrong 😅

I definitely swear by soaking my hands in warm water. I have been doing finger prick blood tests for ten years-ish, and soaking in warm water is the one thing I always do.