Sometimes you might come across a blood test or investigation that sounds like it could offer helpful insights—and you may wonder why it hasn’t been recommended as part of your care.

Here’s why testing needs to be approached carefully:

Blood tests and other investigations are important tools, but they have limitations.

To be useful, tests need to be ordered in the right clinical context and interpreted by a practitioner with appropriate training.

When testing is ordered without a clear clinical reason, there’s a higher risk of:

• False negatives — which can falsely reassure you that everything is fine when it’s not
• False positives — which can appear abnormal even when there’s no real problem, sometimes leading to unnecessary, stressful, or even invasive follow-up investigations

Because of this, requesting a test outside of proper clinical guidance can sometimes create more confusion than clarity.

What to do if you’re interested in a specific test:

If you would like a particular test to be considered, the best approach is to raise it during your appointment.

Your doctor can then review your situation, discuss whether the test would be helpful, and recommend the appropriate investigations based on your overall clinical picture.

The goal is always to make sure that any testing we do adds meaningful information to guide your health, rather than opening the door to avoidable worry or interventions.

In short:

Good testing isn’t just about ordering a blood test—it’s about asking the right question, in the right person, at the right time.