REVEALED: The easy ways to find out your blood type - and knowing if you are O or A+ could help save your life in an emergency
- Donation services, do it yourself kits and private clinics can find your blood type
- Your blood type is found through doing a simple procedure called ABO typing
- More than 5,000 people give blood at Australian Red Cross Clinics every day
- Do it yourself blood group testing kits are available online for as little as $21
- Private clinics around Australia will do blood group tests with a doctor referral
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
There are a numerous ways to find out your blood type in Australia and the information could help save your life in an emergency.
More than 70 per cent of Australians have the O+ and A+ type though there are eight main varieties of blood.
Donated blood is used in 22 different medical treatments, with blood, plasma and platelets all helpful for donations.
Statistics from 23andMe found people with type O blood were up to 18 percent less likely to test positive for COVID-19.
Finding out someone's blood type is a done through a simple procedure called ABO typing that requires a blood sample to be analysed in a laboratory.
Donating blood is one way to find what blood type you are, though other options to find out are available from do it yourself kits to private practices.
There are a number of ways to find out your blood type in Australia, through donation services to do it yourself kits and private practices (stock image)
Blood, plasma and platelets are all helpful for donation services. Pictured: a man donates plasma at a Red Cross donor centre in Town Hall in Sydney
Donate through the Australian Red Cross
More than 5,000 Australians give blood everyday at Red Cross Lifeblood donor centres.
To donate blood you must be between 18 and 75 years old, weigh 50kg or more and be fit and healthy.
Clinicians at Lifeblood donor centres can identify your blood type for you after donating, with the process taking around 15 minutes.
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Donating blood is free, with donors able to give blood every twelve weeks, with one third of donations used to help people with cancer.
Not all blood types are cross-compatible, as someone with O+ blood cannot receive a transfusion with anything other than O-type blood, while O- people can only receive O- blood.
Blood types are important because people who receive transfusions, because of disease or serious injury, can only receive blood from certain types of donors, depending on each person's blood type
DIY testing kit
For people who don't want to donate blood, DIY testing kits are available online which can reveal someone's blood type.
One of the most common is the Eldon Blood Typing Kit, which is for sale for $21 on Ebay.
These tests work using a simple finger-prick method which was originally designed to be used on the spot by trained medics, such as in a battlefield hospital or in countries with poor healthcare services, but are easy enough to use at home.
The user should use a small lancet to prick their finger and then push blood out of it, before collecting a sample on a small swab.
The swab is then rubbed onto four separate patches of reagents - chemicals which aim to produce a reaction - which will then change colour and pattern according to the blood type, which can be interpreted with a card.
Do it yourself testing kits are available for purchase online, which use a finger prick method to take samples (stock image)
Private Clinics
Blood group tests are pathology tests and are conducted in private clinics throughout the country.
To have a blood test in a private clinic you must have a referral from a doctor or general practitioner.
Australian Clinical Labs are available for tests at all of their collection centres which service more than 90 private and public hospitals.
These tests are covered by Medicare, so citizens and permanent residents are tested free of charge.
For those who are not covered by Medicare, costs vary depending on the nature of the test.
Private clinics such as Australian Clinical Labs will conduct blood tests if the patient has a referral from a doctor
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