How to Use a Home HIV Testing Kit

If you prefer to protect your privacy completely, you can use a home HIV testing kit to screen yourself for the presence of the HIV virus in your body. However, you should not consider the results you get when you use a home testing kit to be absolutely accurate and definitive. For that, you will need to be tested by a health professional in a clinical environment.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Home HIV testing kit

Test for the HIV Virus Using a Home Testing Kit

1. Visit your local pharmacy and browse the various home testing kits available. Ask a store employee for assistance if you're having trouble finding home HIV testing kits. Also, seek help if you have any questions about their proper use.

2. Purchase a home HIV testing kit over the Internet if you'd prefer to guard your privacy more effectively. They are widely available through a considerable number of online merchants. Always guard your privacy when shopping online by erasing your browser's memory cache after completing a purchase.

3. Read all instructions closely. Call the manufacturer if you have additional questions. Contact information should be provided on the test's packaging materials.

4. Follow all directions for home testing to the letter. They vary slightly, depending on the specific brand of home testing kit you buy, but they always involve storing fluid samples (urine or blood) for a specified period of time before results will show. With most kits, you'll need to let your sample sit for about a week before you can check the results.

5. Follow up a positive reading by having a test performed by a health professional. Remember that there is no guarantee as to the effectiveness or accuracy of most tests. In fact, many of them have been shown to produce both false positives and false negatives.

6. Check the FDA website for specific, up-to-date information about HIV home-use test kits (see Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

• Use the Home Access Express HIV-1 Test System, if possible. While this is not a home testing kit in the truest sense of the term--it is only a home-collection kit--it is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The sample you take using the Home Access Express HIV-1 Test System is sent to a laboratory for analysis.
• The Food and Drug Administration has not approved the sale and use of many of the home HIV testing kits on the market. Be aware that the accuracy claims that appear on many of the test kits have not been clinically proven.

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Resources

• FDA website for info on HIV home test kits.