Enterolab

[Guest cassidy]

I had a negative blood test and negative biopsy, but very positive dietary reactions. I keep going back and forth on how important it is to get an official diagnosis. I'm sticking to my diet, but I would like some sort of confirmation.

Has anyone gone to Enterolab when they had symptoms and a negative blood test and gotten a negative result withe Enterolab? Was the testing covered by insurance? Did you feel it was a good use of money? Were you happy with their professionalism and the testing procedure?

[teankerbell]

My stool test from Enterolab came back positive, but blood results were negative. So conflicting results. My doctor says that test results are not always reliable and feels that if you feel better off gluten then you have your answer.

How long have you been gluten-free? If you happen to be gluten-free for over 8 months, the stool test could come out negative.

I did not use insurance to pay for the lab test, but our FSA (flex spend account). I feel it was worth it because I also found out I am casein intolerant.

[dlp252]

There have been a couple of people that I can remember on the boards who had a negative test from Enterolabs, but I'm not sure they're still posting here. If I can find the posts I'll post a link. The Enterolab website says you can be gluten-free for about a year and their test will still find the antibodies. I never went the traditional way of testing because I had been on a low carb diet for a couple of years, so figured the tests wouldn't catch anything anyway, so I went directly to Enterolabs. I didn't submit it to my insurance so don't know if they would have paid, I do, however, think it was worth it for me to know for sure (I tend to rationalize away the good common sense I should have about my diet, so to have something concrete keeps me on the right path).

Okay, here's the recent one I was thinking of:

Open Original Shared Link

[jnclelland]

  cassidy said:

Has anyone gone to Enterolab when they had symptoms and a negative blood test and gotten a negative result withe Enterolab? Was the testing covered by insurance? Did you feel it was a good use of money? Were you happy with their professionalism and the testing procedure?

(raises hand) That would be me! I finally decided to do Enterolab after about 8 months gluten-free, and everything came back negative - except for the gene test, which showed that I have one celiac gene and one gene for non-celiac gluten-sensitivity. Two of the tests were towards the high end of the negative range, and I *suspect* that they might have been positive if I had done the test sooner after going gluten-free - but of course I'll never know!

It wasn't covered by my insurance. I wish it weren't so expensive, and I'm a bit frustrated that it game back negative, because what I *really* wanted was some sort of diagnosis. But they were very professional, and one of the nurses sent me a nice email response to my questions about what the "high negative" really meant (basically, she said that it's entirely possible it would have been a low positive 8 months ago, but there's no way to know for sure). And I am glad to have the results of the genetic testing, because now I KNOW that my kids will each have a gene for gluten sensitivity of some sort, and it's something definite that I can tell their ped if I ever decide I want to get them tested. (I'm actually considering having my son tested, but he doesn't really have any severe symptoms, just a few little things that make me wonder. So I'm still on the fence about it...)

Jeanne

[slpinsd]

I had only a positive IgG with blood, and with Enterolab, I had a positive IgA. They test both Antigliadin IgA and Antigliadin Transglutaminase.

The gene testing was very helpful, showing 2 copies of the Celiac Gene. For that it was worth the money.