At Home Health Testing with LetsGetChecked

This is a sponsored post by LetsGetChecked, but all opinions are 100% my own

I remember the first time I ever had to get blood work done for my health insurance was such a MISERABLE experience.  I woke up early so I could try to fit in my appointment before work, had to drive out of the way to go to a testing center, waited to be seen for half an hour, only to be told I had to first have a referral sent in through my doctor's office and they couldn't see me that day.  I was fasting, grumpy, and late for work.  The second time I went back WITH a referral from my doctor I had to wait an HOUR before I could be seen by a nurse.  It was so inconvenient and frustrating! Since then, I've never wanted to go back to one of those facilities to get blood work done.

I still want to be able to stay on top of my health though, and to be able to easily screen for things that could potentially cause problems down the line.  Ever since I opened up on Instagram about the issues I have had with hair thinning, a lot of followers of mine recommended that I have my thyroid checked because hair thinning is a common side effect of hypothyroidism.  An underactive thyroid can also make it very difficult to lose weight, and since I have struggled with obesity in the past and have gained a bit of weight back recently, I thought it would be a good idea to have my thyroid checked out to make sure everything was working properly. 

I had NO desire to wait around for an hour or more again though at a testing center just to have simple blood work done, so I decided to give another option a try: convenient, confidential and accurate health testing with fast and easy online results with LetsGetChecked! 

I was first just interested in getting my thyroid checked, but I was amazed at all the different tests available on LetsGetChecked for such a variety of health matters.  They have a multitude of tests available for both men and women including cortisol tests, vitamin tests, fertility tests, sexually transmitted disease tests, diabetes tests, Lyme disease tests, and more! I decided to do both a thyroid test and fertility test since I'm definitely hoping to be starting a family in the next few years ;)

The ordering process was very simple: you just go online to pick out which tests you are interested in (I actually have a 15% discount code available: "REBECCA15" will get you 15% off any test online) and the kit is shipped out to you with next day delivery.

After you receive your kit you have to go online to the LetsGetChecked website to activate it, because all of your results will be delivered back to you electronically.  The process for collecting the blood sample is fairly simple, but just make sure you read through all of the instructions first BEFORE getting started. For example, I didn't realize that the fertility test had to be done during a certain day during your menstrual cycle, so I actually still have to wait a bit to take that test.  I was able to take the thyroid test, but didn't read at first that they recommend that you take the test while standing UP to help your blood flow for collecting a large enough sample.  After I reread things and stood up, I had a much easier time collecting the sample.  I'm not huge on blood, but the kit really included everything you needed to make the process as easy as possible.  There are no big needles or anything like that you have to stick yourself with, just a little pinch on your finger and you are good to go.

After the sample is collected, the kit has everything you need to package it up and drop it off and your local UPS shipping box to be sent off to a lab to be tested.

After just a couple days, your results are available for you to review online! I was actually also surprised to receive a personal call from a nurse from LetsGetChecked to personally deliver the news as well.  I've never been very "with it" on medical jargon (every time I get my blood pressure checked I have to ask if it's good or bad because I don't know what those fractions mean!!!) so it was nice to have the news of my test delivered personally by someone who knew what they were talking about and could put it into simple enough terms for me to understand.  

After the phone call though, all of my results were easy to access online in a dashboard that shows each item that was tested.  I appreciated the visual aids that once again showed the range of what would be considered "normal" for each item tested. If anything was confusing though, there always was an option to speak directly with a nurse again for further explanation. 

Good news for me? Everything checked out fine with my thyroid! All of my tests came back in the "normal" range and so it's nice to have peace of mind now that my thyroid is functioning properly.  My mom has had issues with her thyroid in the past which didn't show up for her until later in life, so it's definitely something I want to continue to monitor moving forward.  My life gets pretty busy though, so I'm grateful that I no longer have to wait around for hours on end to have access to blood testing.  

If you are looking for a more proactive approach for managing your health, LetsGetChecked is a great service to work around your own busy schedule to provide a more accessible route for testing.  Specifically, if you want to find out more about how to repair your thyroid, you can check out their blog here and if there is ever anything you want to get checked out at home, use my code "REBECCA15" for 15% off any testing service from LetsGetChecked!