New inexpensive bloodwork

[xponentialshift]

[This should probably be in the health news section but I am on my phone and it is too much effort to find and paste a link for an article]

I read the other day about a new company in the US, Theranos, which will do blood work (up to 50 tests) on just a finger-prick's drop of blood and it only takes about 4 hours to process.
The cost is supposed to be very affordable (most tests are $2-$10). An Estradiol test is a bit pricier at $19.21

Right now they are only at a Walgreen's in Palo Alto but they are supposedly expanding nationwide this year.

I hope this company succeeds so those of us without hrt insurance coverage can have more affordable blood tests.

[Jill F]

Holy crap, that is so awesome.   You'd think they could have things like blood glucose monitors for transsexuals by now with all the available technology.

[xponentialshift]

Well once this company is in every Walgreen's you can just walk in, pay $2.70 and have them email you the fasting glucose results in 4 hours. Not quite a wearable monitor, but then again you don't have to carry anything around

[Jennygirl]

Wow nice! I've been curious about doing this

[Ginny]

As a person in the medical field (lab/person who tests blood), I'd be very interested in particularly how they are doing this. As from a drop of blood I only can get about 9 measured test results and 2 that are calculated from those measured values, such as Anion Gap and Hemoglobin. I'll get back to this once I do some further research on Theranos.

...

Ok, I am really impressed by this company. And their costs are hugely less than our own. I really hope that this company thrives like I believe it can. Heck, I may even have to submit a resume to them either as a lab tech or engineer. I would still love to know what their methodology is and how they are keeping costs so low as you have to pay for the bloodwork itself, pay for whoever is employed, and facility costs such as lighting/heating/water/rent. Like I said, I am really impressed.

~Jen

[xponentialshift]

Well I was going to try this place out this weekend but the lab was just downstairs from my doctors office today and UCSF is digital so I caved and tested everything normally.

When I start hormones (in hopefully 2 weeks) I plan to get hormone levels checked at Theranos (because insurance won't cover it for me)

I'll post an update once I do actually try it out.