To do an at home full blood count test?

[IHaveHealthAnxiety]

I will preface with the fact I have health anxiety, it’s getting better but not massively.

I have long suspected I am anaemic. I am tired a lot, pale, get headaches and sometimes get a bit dizzy when standing up. I have put in a form at my GP and although they agree it is probably anaemia, they won’t do anything unless I start passing out regularly. I’ve asked for bloods and they’ve that out said no. It improved mildly when I started taking iron supplements but not massively.

I really want to know what’s going on, because it’s impacting my life and if it’s not anaemia I’m worried it could be something more serious. It feels like my only option is one of these, but I’m also wary of feeding into my health anxiety and making it a lot worse

Why are they not doing bloods? Have you had some done recently? When I was tired all the time they ran a load of bloods straight away and it came back as low iron and low folate.

I’ve never had a set of bloods in my life. They’ve said it sounds like anaemia and they won’t run bloods unless I start to pass out all the time because it’s not a major condition

Even if they did a blood test that proved you were anaemic, they're only going to give you iron supplements anyway.

So you might as well just continue to take them 🤷‍♂️

Yeah but I’d like to know if it’s severe or not because if it is, I can take the test to my GP and ask for repeat bloods or a prescription. The iron helps a bit but not a lot

Has anyone done one and have any recommendations?

This doesn't ring true.

Iron supplements are often best taken every other day rather than everyday. The levels in your blood will rise faster , sounds weird but I promise it’s true

Drink orange juice with your iron supplement helps apparently

Also its really unhelpful of your Dr's to refuse to do bloods because what if your not anemic? Or what if its severe and you need stronger meds?

They’ve told me they don’t have the capacity to run bloods for basic anaemia and that it’ll likely work itself out

They’ll do them when I start passing out k guess!

How weird, our docs do bloods all the time. Good to have a baseline

They just say that because I’m a healthy 26 year old they think it’s likely just anaemia and they’ll see me when it gets worse

Surely there are NICE guidelines about what bloods should be done for your symptoms? Do they know you have health anxiety? If so, they may be dismissing you when they shouldn't.

Yes, every GP I've ever had has tapped a few buttons and thrust a blood test form at patients.

It's just standard practice so it's weird they won't do it for the OP.

OP this doesn’t sound right as someone who has low iron for years and it yo yo around.

You should have your levels checked and then if it’s low be put on iron tablets from the pharmacy that are 200 or 210mg (1-3 tablets a day).

I did a private at home blood test that included my iron levels last year and it was in right ball park for me.

I used Forth where you collect at home. Or I have used blue horizons.

These guys have a nurse take your blood at a private hospital:
bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk

I think it’s because of this and also because I saw them once for trouble sleeping during a very stressful period in my professional life. All I wanted was to be signposted to somewhere I could get some short term relief (it was literally a month of stress. I just needed a good nights sleep for a week to feel a ton better). So even though it resolved itself very quickly they see trouble sleeping and assume I’m after sleeping pills.

This is very strange and very unusual. I’ve been given a blood test almost everything iv ever seen a GP about.

Come on now, there are different types of anaemia and a range of treatments. Only the very mildest is solved by basic OTC iron supplements.

A blood test is just the starting point.

ive never had a blood test! Even when I had surgery they didn’t do bloods for it. I think it’s because my NHS trust is very underfunded and we have a very elderly population so anything minor is just left

I don’t want to not believe you but I can’t see how this can be true. I’ve been an inpatient and had surgery multiple times and they take bloods daily from everyone on the wards.

I was a day case and at our trust day cases don’t routinely get bloods unless it’s something like an orthopaedic surgery or you say something in your pre op to trigger it