This is the Guardian. Post COVID, we all want to take control of our health.

I'm about to do a blood test and I'm not in the doctor's office I'm sat in my bathroom because I've ordered

a private blood test to do at home so I'm going to get it out.

You might have seen adverts for these kinds of blood tests.

Now anyone who knows me knows that I will not find this a pleasant experience

because I don't mind blood but I don't like needles and even the

thought of doing one of these small ones at home does not fill me with a lot of joy.

They can check all kinds of bodily markers, from your hormones, vitamin D levels to cholesterol, just using a small tube full of blood. I can't tell you how much blood is just on my floor.

It's a good job I didn't do this in the studio.

The idea is you can optimize your health from the convenience of your home.

Right, I think I'm there.

Now all I need to do is package this up and send it off.

So wish me and my blood good luck.

But how much can these tests really tell us about our health?

Could they be making a whole lot of us anxious for no reason?

And adding pressure to an already stretched health service.

From the Guardian, I'm Madeline Finley, and this is Science Weekly.

Emma Wilkinson, you're a freelance journalist and you've done an investigation for the British Medical

Journal, the BMJ, about over-the-counter blood tests. When did they first appear on your radar?

I had always been aware that you could buy kind of private tests online, but I'd really noticed a big growth in how

they were being marketed.

So it just felt like these tests were kind of becoming more widely available I guess.

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