Blood draw at home, without a referral

A BIG-registered nurse comes to your home, draws blood from the arm, and an accredited laboratory runs the analysis. You do not need a GP referral and you do not have to travel anywhere.

At-home blood draws already exist in the Netherlands, but almost always in one form: a hospital or thrombosis service visiting people who can no longer leave the house, on a doctor's request. If you simply want to know your values, you fall outside that arrangement.

Mario Test works the other way around. You decide what gets measured, the draw comes to you, and no doctor has to sign off on it. It is an ordinary venipuncture from the arm, so the same tubes and the same assays as at a collection point.

What a home draw actually solves

You do not travel across town while fasting

Many assays require fasting blood. At a collection point that means getting up, not eating, travelling, waiting, and only then having blood drawn. At home you get out of bed and sit down at your own table five minutes later. That removes discomfort, and it removes stress, which is itself a factor in values like cortisol and glucose.

Morning values only work if you draw in the morning

Testosterone and cortisol peak in the early morning and decline after that. The reference ranges your lab compares you against are built on draws taken before 10:00. Draw at 14:00 and you are comparing an afternoon value against a morning reference. Mario visits in the morning, so that problem does not arise.

A venipuncture is not a finger prick

With a mail-order finger-prick kit you lance yourself, sometimes several times, and have to squeeze enough drops into a tube. If that does not quite work, too little material arrives or the sample is damaged. A venipuncture takes enough blood for the whole panel in one go.

How an appointment goes

1. You message or call. We briefly discuss what you want to know and which markers fit. You hear the price immediately.
2. We book a slot. Usually within a few days. Hormones and cortisol are scheduled before 10:00.
3. The draw takes about ten minutes, at your own kitchen table.
4. The lab runs the analysis. Tubes go to the laboratory the same day.
5. You get your results with an explanation, within 1 to 5 working days. Specialist assays can take up to 14 working days.

How to prepare

• Fast where required. At least 8 hours without food for glucose, insulin and triglycerides. Water is fine and helps the draw.
• Drink enough. A well-filled vein is easier to draw from.
• No hard training the day before. It affects creatine kinase, hs-CRP and liver values.
• Take your medication as usual, unless we agreed otherwise.
• A chair and a table is all you need. Everything else comes along.

What it costs

Outside Amsterdam a per-kilometre charge applies. That is a trade-off in the model: driving takes time and that time shows up on the bill. Living further away, ask for the exact amount in advance. More on reimbursement and your deductible on the costs page.

Where we come

Based in Amsterdam, covering the whole of the Netherlands. Within 13 kilometres of Amsterdam there is no travel charge. Beyond that a per-kilometre rate applies. The draw can also take place at your office or gym rather than your home address.

Popular panels for a home draw

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