Wondering if it's possible to test your blood type without leaving home because the only thing you're willing to leave home for nowadays is taking a walk at night so you can see into your neighbour's houses? Well breathe a sigh of relief because, yep, it is possible thanks to a handy little blood type kit that you can order online.
Skip right to the tutorial on how to use the at home kit.
My whole life I haven't known my blood type and I've always kind of wondered about it. Was I a glamorous and rare AB-? A diverse and valuable O- ? Or just an O+, the most common blood type. The kind of blood type someone who eats toast for breakfast would have?
The reason my blood type was a mystery is because in high school when we were all testing our blood in Science class, my friend fainted, and I took her to the bathroom to recuperate. By the time we got back to class, the testing was done and I never learned if I was A, B, AB or O. I did however learn that when you faint it's possible you'll pee a little in your pants and your contact lenses might pop right out of your head and land in a puddle of fainting urine on the floor.
When (at the garden one day) a friend suggested he thought I was an O blood type based on my love of back breaking manual labour I started to become curious about both my blood type and his willingness to label me a type O based on how much I like to dig dirt.
Apparently, according the book Eat Right For Your Blood Type, people who have type O blood are workhorses. They love manual labour and their bodies thrive on it.
Was my insatiable desire to constantly be doing stuff bred into me by my blood?? I needed to read this book my friend was referring to. So I did. Thats a WHOLE other post though, so if you want to learn more about how your blood type dictates what kind of food you should eat, read that post here.
After the comment from my fellow gardener I REALLY wanted to know my blood type. This set me on a mission to figure out the easiest way to find out your blood type.
My first plan was to give blood because they must have to determine your blood type if you do that. I mean that'd be the professional thing to do, right? Well they do, but it turned out there wasn't a blood clinic happening near my house for another couple of months.
Plan 2. Go to the doctor and have her schedule an appointment to have my blood tested at a clinic. This seemed like a pain. It involved making an actual phone call like some sort of person from the 1980's and taking up her time on something that probably wasn't life threatening. At least at this point I didn't think continuing to eat wrong for my blood type was life threatening.
I ended up going with Plan 3. An at home blood type test
How can I find out my blood type?
It turns out there are kits you can buy online for testing your blood type at home. The kit includes everything you need like teeny tiny little sticks, an eyedropper, a finger poker, and the most important thing, the Eldoncard.
An Eldoncard is a piece of paper that has been manufactured to react in certain ways to your blood. You just drip your blood on it, swirl it around and voila. You know which of the blood groups you're in. Kind of.
The test kit costs a Canadian $25 on Amazon, but if you're in America, you of course, get it for about ⅓ the price. $6.
So you want to test your blood type at home because you're curious and a DIYer and you love poking yourself with sharp things. Perfect. You've come to the right post.
HOW TO USE A BLOOD TYPE TEST AT HOME
- Lay out all the components of the kit in front of you.Add a drop of water to each circle on the Eldoncard.
- Sterilize your finger with the alcohol wipe and then prick your finger with the lancet.
- Squeeze the tip of your finger to get a big drop of blood. Using one of the plastic tools included in the kit, transfer a drop of blood to one of the card circles.Do this for each circle.
- Swirl the blood and water droplet together in each circle using the same plastic stick you used for gathering the blood.Tilt the card in each direction for 10 seconds.
- Now compare your circles of blood to determine which blood type you have.
A note about the lancet. It doesn't hurt at all so don't sit there for 10 minutes putting it to your finger then taking it away, then putting it to your finger then taking it away. Then getting a drink of water. Then coming back and putting it to your finger then taking it away.
Don't worry. It hurts so little you might not even be sure if it worked.
Keep your hand down if you can. This helps the blood rush to your fingertip if you have trouble massaging enough blood out.
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
Anyone pass out yet? Are your contact lenses still in?
Remember to lay your plastic sticks with the same circle you used so you don't cross contaminate once you have to swirl the blood and water together.
If I'm being perfectly honest with you, which I try to at least appear to be at most times, I screwed up my first kit. I didn't swirl the mixture around enough and I didn't use enough blood. Not to be beaten by a stupid paper card with circles on it, I ordered another kit and did it again with much better results.
Here's a handy video of me making myself bleed so you can get a better idea of how to do this.
The only trouble is, after doing this at home blood type test ... twice ... I still wasn't really sure about what my blood type was. I thought it looked like a B-. Or it could be O. But probably a B-. Certain people have weak antigens or pathogens or anglicans or something, which would make my "Anti-B" circle hard to read. Actually I think the word is Agglutinate.
This is the card they give you for reading your results so you can determine which type you are and whether you're positive or negative.
Blood is tested most commonly for two groups. ABO blood type (whether you're A, B, or O type of blood) and the Rh factor (whether you're positive or negative, also known as Rh positive or Rh negative)
I was pretty sure I was a B- but the results are moderately ambiguous.
Are home blood type kits accurate?
Yes! At home blood type kids can be a bit tricky to interpret but are indeed accurate.
A selfless visit to a blood donor clinic a few weeks later CONFIRMED I am indeed a B- and the test kit was correct. I also almost messed my pants while giving blood literally. If you like to read about the unfortunate and embarrassing experiences of others (and who doesn't) you should read that post immediately.
I'm not sure I NEED to tell you this, but I will ... this is only to be used on human blood. Not dogs, cats or parakeets.
Wanna learn your blood type?
Click here if you're in America.
Click here if you're in Canada.
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Beverly
The current price for the blood type test kit as of April 15, 2020 - is $11.89 on Amazon. That is almost twice the price quoted in your article. Inflation is a terrible thing, as the value of the U.S. dollar continues to decline.
Paris
Science is cool - especially if you can do it at home! But if you want an excuse to get some reading done AND help people...Please donate blood to your local hospital (Red Cross & other similar donation centers charge hospitals - not for the blood but for operating expenses) - donate at the source. If you want to donate more frequently and help cancer patients (some people can help up to 3 people per donation) - Donate platelets through Apheresis. - you can donate every 7 DAYS! Up to 24 times a year.
Mary
Am I the only person who is clueless? How exactly did you determine from the results that you were B-? I love puzzles but for the life of me cannot figure this one out.
Karen
Hi Mary! If you look at the results test in the post, you can see that to read your own results you have to match what your card looks like with the results on their example card. So for mine, My blood dots across my card look "solid, kind of splattery, solid and solid". If you then look at their sample results card you can scroll down the list and see that solid, kind of splattered, solid, solid is in line with the B- results. Mine was more difficult to read because of my weak Agglutinate, which means the "splatter" result isn't as defined as it should be. I'm fairly certain I've just confused you more, lol. ~ karen!
Mary
Now of course it is plain as day and I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out. Thanks, Karen.
Darlene
Gosh I have no idea what blood type I have either. Went to give blood at a booth in a mall in Dartmouth 40 + years ago and once I answered yes to; Do you have psoriasis?, that was it, the gal said your blood in no good to donate. After that it all seem fruitless.
I can't read your test either Karen, other than, you have blood ! :-)) yippee.
P.S.
Love your emails.
Nancy K
I wondered about my blood type and didn’t think it had ever been typed. A number of years ago I got the little test kit you show. I finally used it, and was (sheepishly) going to confess that I might not have used enough blood or swirled properly. Since I wasn’t sure of my results, eventually, I bought another kit. It’s been sitting around for several years so I think it’s properly aged. I’m going to retested within a couple of days.
Bill Chaffee
I was told that I’m O- , however I would like to find out if I have the cytomegalovirus. I understand the blood type most in demand is both O- and CMV-. Do I have to donate in order to find out?
Debra
Thanks the video I found it very helpful. No ads. I am ordering the book and I clicked your link but I’m not sure it went through for your credit because I have the amazon app and it didn’t click through to that.
Karen
That's O.K. :) ~ karen!