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5 Tips for Understanding Your Bloodwork Results
January 08, 2025
“Your lab results are now available.”
It’s a notification that sparks equal parts curiosity and confusion. You click the link, ready to decode your bloodwork results, only to face a wall of medical jargon and numbers that feel more cryptic than clarifying.
Where do you start? And what should you keep in mind while you wait to hear from your provider?
1. Don’t worry if you’re not in the green.
Often, bloodwork results come back coded green, yellow or red. Green means you’re in the typical “normal” range. Yellow or red, not so much.
But remember this: Everyone’s got their own normal. So if you see yellow or red, stay calm.
“Do not jump straight to Google or worry!” says Raashi Khanna, DO, an internal medicine expert for Hartford HealthCare Medical Group Primary Care. “Even when values are out of ‘normal’ range on a blood test, they can still be considered normal based on each provider’s practice and purpose for ordering that particular test.”
A few other reasons not to worry about normal:
- Blood tests and ranges can vary from lab to lab.
- Your results could be impacted by other factors — like how long you fasted, whether you were dehydrated and any medications you’re on.
- What’s healthy for you may be different than most other people.
> Related: 5 Signs You Might Need a Cardiologist
2. Look for patterns over time.
All those greens and yellows sure are flashy, but they’re not the most interesting thing about your bloodwork.
To see what matters most, you’ll probably need to pull up old bloodwork results. Then compare and contrast to your latest. How have your numbers changed — or not — over the past months and years?
“That trend is what your provider will want to look at, especially for labs that result as abnormal,” says Dr. Khanna. “If there’s something of major concern, they’ll review it in more detail with you.”
> Related: 10 Heart Tests and Screenings Your Cardiologist Might Use
3. Expect a message or call from your provider within a few days.
To be clear, the clock starts when the lab has completed processing and sharing your results — not the moment you walk out of the blood draw clinic.
After your results come in, it’s reasonable to hear from your provider within five business days. Sometimes it’s a message via an online patient portal. Other times it’s a phone call from the office.
“If you don’t hear back within this timeframe, reach out to your provider’s office to be sure they received the labs,” suggests Dr. Khanna.
4. To understand your bloodwork results, think of your provider as your translator.
Medical jargon is a language unto itself, but luckily, your health team speaks it fluently.
Moreover, in the sea of numbers and words that make up your bloodwork results, they know which details matter most — and what they’re looking for.
“It’s important to review your results with the person who ordered your bloodwork, as they had a particular reason for ordering the labs in the first place,” says Dr. Khanna.
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5. You have a right to ask questions.
Here’s a law of the universe: Your provider calls to explain your bloodwork results. You follow along perfectly, thank them and hang up.
You immediately think of five more questions.
Call back!
“You have a right as a patient to review any of your concerns,” says Dr. Khanna. “Ask your provider for more help understanding the lab results, and what it means to your overall health.”
That’ll ease your mind today, and educate you for tomorrow — including whatever lab results may come your way.