You can order your own blood test now. Interpreting the results is another story.

Lana McDonald, 34, a teacher in Massachusetts, got an Oura Ring two years ago to track her sleep. When she received an email from Oura offering a blood test set for $99, she was intrigued. Her doctor had never ordered any blood tests.

The app took her to the Quest Diagnostics website and she made an appointment within a week. I started seeing results within the same day.

Direct-to-consumer blood testing is a growing industry targeting health-conscious patients who want to order their own blood tests for the price of eating out.

This space is becoming increasingly crowded, both directly from commercial labs such as Quest and Labcorp OnDemand, and by companies partnering with them to provide testing. The recent rollout of blood tests was made by Oura, which sells about 5.5 million smart rings and is targeting that customer base, and wearables company Whoop.

Hims & Hers, a telemedicine platform with 2.5 million members, also released a product in late 2025. Meanwhile, Function Health, a healthcare technology company that provides testing to hundreds of thousands of members, was valued at $2.5 billion in a recent funding round.

This growing trend disrupts the long-standing paradigm of doctors telling people when they need a test, calling them with the results, and recommending a treatment plan. Instead, consumers like McDonald’s are left to take the initiative and order tests and interpret the results themselves.

“There’s this idea that more information is better, and that having access to information is empowering,” says Dr. Anna Wexler, assistant professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania. “That’s probably appealing to people who live a long life, biohackers, people who are interested in all kinds of metrics.”

However, patients are left considering stressful information that they don’t know what to make of, and can either receive disturbing results that may or may not require action, or a false sense of security that they are in good health.

What does the test mean?

In McDonald’s case, eight results were out of range, including high cholesterol and low hemoglobin. There was no explanation for the results. Confused, McDonald turned to Google to find out what to make of them and what follow-up tests were needed. She decided to order a ferritin test, a measurement of iron storage protein, directly from Quest. It was low.

McDonald’s next step was even trickier. She downloaded her results from the Quest website, directly messaged them through the portal to her doctor, who told her to make an appointment. She then waited two months to see a doctor.

As with McDonald’s, most patients never hear from the clinicians who contract with the testing companies that interpret their results. Without the context of an ongoing patient-provider relationship, it is difficult to put an abnormal test value into context and decide what to do next.

“Patients are being tested externally, brought to their appointment, and are asking us to interpret the test,” Dr. Jeffrey Linder, chair of general internal medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in an email.

Both Oura and Function Health use third-party clinician partners to interpret tests and contact patients with significant results.

“It is essential that people develop ongoing relationships with their healthcare providers,” Dr. Ricky Bloomfield, Oura’s chief medical officer, said in an email. Their blood testing products aim to “complement, not replace, that relationship.”

However, some view the use of physician partners as problematic.

“The company that actually orders the test may have a contract with a physician group, so they’ll say, ‘We’re just a platform that connects you with your doctor. We’re not responsible,'” Wexler says. “There are real issues of responsibility and accountability in this direct-to-consumer space.”

To help with lab descriptions and long-term health tracking, Function deployed an integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT Health. OpenAI’s press release emphasizes that ChatGPT health is not a replacement for healthcare.

Linder says the model could cause unnecessary anxiety, given the ambiguity in interpreting the results.

“There is an unrealistic expectation that there are only two possible outcomes: good health or a potentially deadly disease,” Linder says. “It’s very likely that you’ll find something uncertain that causes anxiety, and it doesn’t actually improve your health.”

Appeal to DIY patients

These tests provide patients with something that health systems struggle to provide: price transparency.

Function Health offers a membership that includes two blood tests per year for $365 and tests for more than 160 biomarkers each year. According to Function Health, 40% of Function members come from ZIP codes where the median household income is less than $95,000.

Hims & Hers offers bi-annual testing for $499 per year, now discounted to $349, which tests for more than 130 biomarkers each year. Another direct-to-consumer company called Superpower is advertising over 100 tests for $199.

“I think this is entirely a reaction to dissatisfaction with the current state of the health care system, including the lack of transparency in terms of costs and the difficulty in coordinating schedules with doctors,” Wexler said. “These tests offer convenience and provide cost transparency.”

Many of these companies also provide access to tests that are not commonly used in general clinical practice.

For example, Function Health offers additional add-on tests, including an extensive panel of brain health tests.

Dr. Mark Hyman, co-founder and chief medical officer of Function Health, said he believes this type of testing is valuable because it can catch early signs of disease.

“The earlier you understand your health trajectory, the more you can create predictive models of where you’re going. That’s the future of medicine. It’s very predictive: early diagnosis, continuous tracking to see where you are, and long-term data.” Hyman says.

Hyman is one of the most vocal proponents of functional medicine, an alternative approach to medicine that emphasizes lifestyle changes and supplements in addition to more mainstream treatments.

Oura offers a less extensive test.

“Our intention has been to start with small, evidence-based testing labs rather than large-scale, disseminated testing with little evidence of benefit to the general population,” Bloomfield said in an email.

Too many blood tests?

Northwestern University’s Linder is concerned that these companies’ ads could encourage patients to get regular and frequent blood tests. Some companies run tests twice a year as part of their membership offerings. While Oura did not recommend a specific testing schedule, Bloomfield said, “We anticipate that most members will test once a year to establish a baseline.”

Linder said testing annually or more frequently is not standard of care.

He says it’s best to discuss whether a blood test is needed with your doctor.

Linder cautions patients against making frequent blood tests a habit.

“Everyone comes in and says, ‘I want to get regular blood tests,’ but that’s not the case,” Linder said. He finds the “American idea” that annual blood tests are necessary to be puzzling.

He recommends significantly reducing the frequency of testing for healthy people, in line with recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, CDC, American Heart Association, and American College of Cardiology.

He typically follows the recommendation to test patients for cholesterol every five years and for HIV and hepatitis C once.

He notes that people with risk factors for type 2 diabetes may need further testing. The USPSTF recommends testing A1c starting at age 35 for people who are overweight or obese.

Asking for more information more frequently may also pose additional risks. One is what Linder calls a “medical mishap,” when an abnormal result is followed by further testing.

One example is the complete blood count (CBC), which is a component of many direct-to-consumer blood tests. CBC measures blood components such as red and white blood cells. Normal ranges for blood cell counts are based on a healthy population.

“As you get older, your body deviates from the normal range, but it’s not actually a sign of poor health,” Linder says. “You can imagine a sequence where this leads to a bone marrow biopsy, which is invasive and painful, but the chances of actually improving your health are slim.”

A study aimed at understanding the role of cascades in healthcare found that in 33% of cases, the initial test leading to the cascade was clinically inappropriate.

winding journey

In McDonald’s case, it took several months to follow up on the test she received through Oura. After she sent the results to her doctor, the doctor asked for the test to be repeated through his lab. This time it was free because it was covered by insurance. This test, also conducted in Quest’s lab, yielded very similar results.

Although McDonald had no symptoms, doctors diagnosed her with anemia and started her on iron supplements. She said he wasn’t concerned about her cholesterol levels but still suggested lifestyle interventions. They plan to repeat the test in two months.

McDonald said she had a good experience with Oura’s test, but would not recommend it to others.

“I thought I’d give it a try, but I don’t think it’s worth it when you can order the same test for free if you have health insurance.”

Kate Cunningham is an author and MD. Student at Columbia University.