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Private HBA1C test

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Daktari

Newbie
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Hi, long story short. Diagnosed mid Aug this year reading was 18. Had a HBA1C this week and was disappointed at 9.3. My meter is regularly putting me in the 5-6 range. If the blood test is a three month average and i had the test at 2 months then surely the 9.3 would be influenced by the high start reading of 18. Is it possible to have a private test anywhere as i now have to wait until January for my next test and although i should be pleased with 9.3, I'm not and i also found out i have a cholesterol of 8.3 so overall i am feeling a bit deflated despite my best efforts.
 
I understand the anxiety to see that things are improving but wouldnt shell out on a private test, not sure if you can get them done anyway. There is a convertor on the main site here where you can see what average BM readings translate into in terms of HBA1c - it might help if you kept a diary of your home BMs for a few weeks and then average them out and input into the convertor to get an idea of what your HbA1c might be doing until get the lab results in Jan - it will also give you an idea of how accurate your meter readings are.
Hope that helps
 
You can use a home testing kit called A1CNow - it's not available in the UK and it's not cheap - about £120 for 10 tests, but I use one as a motivation tool between 6 monthly surgery tests.
 
I hate to be contradictory but you can buy the A1cNow by Bayer in the UK from Amazon. Unfortunately its the 10 test kit costing £136 and obviously not marketed at individuals but to private clinics (I presume). There has been a A1cNow 2 test kit on sale to our American cousins for the last 3 or so years. They only need to walk into their equivalent of Asda or Superdrug and buy it over the counter for $40 (£25). One day soon I'll get around to writing to my MEP about this, a European multinational denying one of their own products to European consumers.

To get back to your question, yes there are many options if you want a private HbA1c or any other blood test for that matter & I can fully understand why you would want one.

I think the cheapest HbA1c test is still through Myrios http://www.myrios.co.uk at £23.50
They also do a cholesterol test for the same price.

Another good lab, providing hundreds of blood tests, is bluehorizonmedicals http://www.bluehorizonmedicals.co.uk but unfortunately their HbA1c is a bit pricey compared to Myrios and the lipid tests are best taken as part of a comprehensive test for best value.
 
Sorry, what I meant was that you can't buy it "in the UK" - I imported mine via ebay but you can do the same via Amazon.
 
candyfloss, have you tried the myrios test yourself? If so, your thoughts on reliability and ease of use?
 
How consistent have your A1CNow tests been Swim? I've had a few "bad" results (4.5% to 6.2% when my hospital numbers were showing 5%) to the extent that I don't really trust them that much.
 
Snodger said:
candyfloss, have you tried the myrios test yourself? If so, your thoughts on reliability and ease of use?
Click to expand...

Hi Snodger,

no I havnt tried Myrios for any tests yet, maybe in the future and I'll report on my experiences if I do.
However, we did have one forum member try them recently and I have quoted their comment below.......



I had an A1cNow test pack available and used it the day before I was due to have one done by my GP a couple of weeks ago.
It came out at 5.8. The NHS result was 41 which I think equates to 5.9 in old money.
The difference is less than 2% (in this case) and I'm happy to continue supplementing the NHS HbA1c with an extra home test (or private lab test) once or twice a year as I now rarely test blood glucose on a daily basis. I have a very good idea what food and drink will and will not raise levels and daily testing is not going to work out much cheaper, if at all. I appreciate that average glucose results hides troughs and peaks but until continuous glucose monitors become widely available, easy to use and cheap (probably never) I'll continue with the same strategy.
 
borofergie said:
How consistent have your A1CNow tests been Swim? I've had a few "bad" results (4.5% to 6.2% when my hospital numbers were showing 5%) to the extent that I don't really trust them that much.
Click to expand...

I don't have enough readings to be sure, but I think that the A1CNow reads about .3 below the test at the surgery - but that's only based on 2 'same day' results

The readings, however, are very consistent with each other - so I don't think it's unreliable - I just don't know for sure whether it will match what the doctors finds.
 
I agree with the person who first posted this topic my blood sugars are very good. I never get a blood test higher than 6.5 mmol. So how come when I have my bloods done at the hospital my HBA1C comes back at 7.7. I've had my machine checked and its readings are correct.I've been a diabetic since 1977 and been on a portion diet since then. Why are they bringing out more confusing blood tests that is hard to understand how they reached these the results and put you on new diets which when making your lunch calculating what you can eat takes so long you loose your appetite.
 

I don't think the change in the numbering system for HBA1C is particularly confusing. I tend to still use the % system because my A1CNow meter gives a reading in percent, but there's an easy converter on this website and elsewhere.

I'm concerned that you are casting doubt on your hospital reading in comparison to your meter. An HBA1C of 7.7 suggests an average meter reading of 11 mmol which is pretty high. If you're never getting a home reading above 6.5 then something is wrong and it's in your interests to find out what.

One possibility is that the hospital hba1c is a bad reading - but I suspect that is rare. Another is that you're not detecting the spikes when they happen. Are you testing at +2 hrs after a meal always - if so, could you put in a week of intensive testing and throw in some +1 and +3 hr readings as well?
 
Just followed the link to Myrios and they don't appear to have a HBA1c test shown on there now.
 

Following your post I made some phone calls to check on this.
Neither Myrios nor Glucomen are continuing to provide HbA1c single test kits to the public. Its a pity for the people who wanted a supplemental and affordable test between surgery/clinic visits or who didnt want to involve their GP, for whatever reason. This test can still be obtained from private labs/on line of course although it wont be anywhere near as affordable as Myrios and Glucomen were.
 
Glenmoray do you test at various times of the day, ie sometimes on waking, before a meal, two hours after etc to get an overall picture?

Ali
 
MyCodefree meter's average blood glucose readings have so far proved a fairly good predictor of my Hba1C results
 
Daktari said:
Hi, long story short. Diagnosed mid Aug this year reading was 18. Had a HBA1C this week and was disappointed at 9.3. My meter is regularly putting me in the 5-6 range.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately you can't necessarily rely on your meter for an accurate prediction, as it can only do spot checks and may miss any higher levels. And your meter doesn't record the same type of results as an HbA1c, so it's a bit like trying to compare apples and oranges. Our main diabetes.co.uk site has various conversion tools which you might find useful as a rough guide for comparisons.

But regardless you should be well pleased with the reduction you've already achieved - Rome wasn't built in a day...

Robbity
 
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