# Are any home health testing kits worthwhile?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-home-health-testing-kits-worthwhile/498820>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 5, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-home-health-testing-kits-worthwhile/498820 "2009-06-05T14:25:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-home-health-testing-kits-worthwhile/498820/1 "2009-06-05T14:25:35Z")

</div>

Apart from the usual glucose testing kits that diabetics use, I mean. I’ve seen tests online for things like liver function, for example, with some very mixed reviews. I was wondering if anyone here had any firsthand experience with any of these testing kits and what their impression was…?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-home-health-testing-kits-worthwhile/498820/2 "2009-06-05T14:39:46Z")

</div>

The home HIV kits are very accurate. The issues I’ve read about them come not from their accuracy but three fold.

1. People will test to early to get a true result
2. People will not abstain from sex while getting multiple results over a period of time
3. People who test positive are often not prepared psychologically. Though I will say the kits do provide an 800# for counseling and the directions say that one should be prepared with “friends, associates, etc” to help them should the test read positive.