A result slightly outside the reference range is extremely common and frequently means nothing at all.
The reference range is defined so that 95% of healthy people fall inside it — which means 1 in 20 healthy people falls outside it on any given test. Run a panel of twenty markers on a completely well person and the odds are something will be flagged. That is arithmetic, not illness.
What actually matters:
- How far outside — marginal and markedly abnormal are different things
- The pattern — several related markers moving together means more than one in isolation
- The trend — a stable result over years is reassuring in a way a single snapshot is not
- Your symptoms, which the number exists to explain
Every result we arrange is reviewed by a GMC-registered GP and explained to you — what it means, whether it needs repeating, and what happens next. A number in an app with no interpretation is not a service, and it is where a lot of private testing leaves people.
Some results need urgent action, and where that is the case we will contact you and arrange it the same day.