April 16, 2020

how accurate is the sneakpeek blood test?

Golf Course Exploding Golf Ball Gender Reveal

If you are thinking about taking the SneakPeek Gender Test, it’s probably because you are SO excited and impatient to find out your baby’s gender. In fact, you’re SO excited, you are willing to poke your own finger with a needle and then squeeze out lots of your own blood into a test tube. If you’re going to put yourself through this, you probably want to know “how accurate is the SneakPeek blood test?”

In this blog post I am sharing my experience with the SneakPeek At-Home Gender Test.

The Sneak Peek test is testing for the presence of male DNA. For this reason, it’s important you scrub under your nails (they provide you with a nail brush) as well as clean any areas where you’ll be placing the kit and then collecting your sample. The instructions say not to get any blood under your nails, which can be hard considering how much blood you need to collect. The test says it is 99.1% accurate. There are two versions of the test. One is performed at a lab with a blood draw from a vein – it is called the SneakPeek Clinical Test. This method is typically more accurate since it is done in a sterile lab vs. in your home. The second method is the “at-home” test. This is the method I did and the method I’ll be talking about here.

When can you take the test?

SneakPeek says you can take the test after 8 weeks. I FINALLY convinced my husband we should do it at 14 weeks.

With our first we waited until the gender scan at our OBGYN’s office. Our OBGYN’s office will not do those before 20 weeks. It was SO hard. With our second, we went around 15 weeks for an ultrasound in Chicago, since we don’t have any elective ultrasound offices near us. With our third, knowing it would be our last baby, I talked my husband into doing the SneakPeek test at 14 weeks. We didn’t have any labs near us that would do the blood draw and send it in to SneakPeek. So we opted for the at home test.

Was the test hard?

Let me say, the test was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I was SO excited for the kit to arrive. I read the instructions. Scrubbed everything. I was so ready to do it and get my sample to the post office so I would get my results ASAP. I followed the instructions to the T.

The Sneak Peek test is testing for the presence of male DNA. For this reason, it’s important you scrub under your nails (they provide you with a brush) as well as clean any areas where you’ll be placing the kit and then collecting your sample. The instructions say not to get any blood under your nails, which can be hard considering how much blood you need to collect.

I couldn’t poke my own finger. I don’t like needles or blood, but have come so far during my pregnancies and all of the blood draws that came with my miscarriage last year. I was so, so eager to know our last baby’s gender that I knew I’d have no problem with a single finger poke. Okay, well I was wrong. You need A LOT of blood for the test. I wasn’t even able to poke my own finger because I was so freaked out. A nurse friend came over and did it for me and it was just gross. There was so much blood.

When I’ve had a finger poke before it’s just been a tiny sample of blood. For this blood test, you have to wrap a rubber tourniquet around your arm like they do when they’re doing a blood draw. Without going into gross detail, just know you might have to really work to get enough blood for the sample or you may have the opposite problem and your blood might flow quickly and easily.

How long did it take to get your results?

I rushed my results. I mailed my sample Friday afternoon and had the results from SneakPeek Monday night. I had my friend’s email address put down to receive the results. They did get us the results as quickly as they promised.

We set up a gender reveal photo shoot, for the first time, since this was our last baby! Our friend got the email, her husband chose the correct golf ball for my husband to hit and then we had our reactions captured as we found out we were having a BOY! A few days later we celebrated Easter at our home with both of our families. We had a cake that was blue inside to share the news with everyone.

Fast forward 6 weeks to our 20 week anatomy scan… the ultrasound tech put “GIRL” up on the screen. I was too shocked to speak. Our daughter danced around the room singing “now I get a sister!” We had a few other ultrasounds after that all confirmed we were indeed having a girl. She’s here. They were right. She’s a happy, healthy baby girl.

So… how accurate is the SneakPeek Blood Test?

For me, not accurate. For many people who have reached out to me, also not accurate.

I decided to write this post because I have had a lot of people reach out to me who have also received incorrect results from their blood test with the in-home SneakPeek blood test. Both my husband and were mentally okay finding out we were having a girl. We already had both a son and a daughter. We also hadn’t been prepping a nursery yet. We hadn’t gotten rid of any of our daughter’s clothes, etc.

Most of the people I hear from reach out because they are having a very rough time accepting the news that their baby is of the opposite gender. They have typically “known” their baby’s gender for two months. Even if you tell yourself you’re happy with either gender, I do think it can take you by surprise how shocking, and even hard, this can be. So if it’s happened to you and you had a rough time with it, please know you’re not alone.

Would you take the SneakPeek test again?

I would do the clinical option, yes. The at-home test? No. It was gross, too much work and then inaccurate. I would much rather travel two hours to a lab to have a more accurate option done. I know there are blood panels offered at my OBGYN’s office. These blood test weren’t really an option for us because it wasn’t covered at all by our insurance. We would’ve paid over $1,000 for it. So traveling a few hours and paying $150 (for the Fast Track!) for an accurate result would definitely be my preference. I am impatient, so knowing I could get the results three months earlier would be more than worth it for me.

Do I recommend anyone else do the SneakPeek Blood test?

Same answer as above! The at-home? No! The clinical test? Yes! I think it’s definitely a reasonable price and since the blood draw is done in a sterile environment, I would be much more confident in those results.