Ear Swab

Your sample needs to be taken while you have UTI symptoms, otherwise your results will only show your background microflora. For best results, samples should be taken as close to the peak of your symptoms as possible.

The extended urine testing that we offer is well recognised to detect more fastidious organisms missed by routine population-based testing methods. We do not use the traditional and rather outdated high threshold of more than 10,000 CFU per ml employed by the standard testing offered by most labs. In addition, we run a liquid broth extraction culture to reveal any background organisms to give a more comprehensive picture of the urine as a whole. Expert microbiology and clinical interpretation allows us to weed out the pathogens (bad bugs) from the more harmless commensal bacteria which make up the variety of organisms that we may see on culture results.

CFU stands for colony forming units. When your samples reach our lab, we use various methods to encourage the live microbes to grow into visible clumps called “colonies”. We then count the colonies and compare this to how much urine was tested, which tells us how concentrated each microbe was in your sample.

Yes, most antibiotics, some medicines and some natural remedies would affect the results of the test and need to be paused before samples are taken. Your order confirmation and test kit will include the full details of which are included and how long each would need to be stopped prior to your sample being taken.

For urine samples, yes, but it would be a good idea to pop a tampon into your vagina and tuck the string away before collecting your urine specimen. For vaginal swabs we recommend that you send at least 7 days after finishing your period.

We recommend that you take your sample when you are most symptomatic, therefore the test kits are valid for 3 months from the date that you received the sample kit. If it is after the 3 month period please contact us.

We do recommend collecting your sample in the morning between Monday and Thursday so that your sample arrives at the lab in good time.  If you are sending any samples on a Friday, we would recommend purchasing guaranteed next day delivery at the post office. This will then ensure your sample arrives at the laboratory on the Saturday.  Please note that we cannot accept responsibility for samples arriving at the lab too late for them to be processed, if this does happen, we will be in contact with you to discuss options and offer another test if necessary.