Your doctor normally orders chloride and other electrolyte tests as part of a regular health check. Having the test will help your doctor understand any problems you are having. If your chloride test results are higher or lower than normal, your doctor may do more tests to find out exactly what’s wrong.

You may also need to do this test if you are taking medicines that may change your chloride levels. If you have hypertension, liver disease or kidney disease your doctor may use a chloride test to check how you’re doing.

It’s important to tell your doctor about any medicines that you’ve been taking. This is because some medicines can change the results of the test.

A chloride test is just a simple blood test. You will usually have this taken from a vein in your arm. If you don’t like needles tell the person who is taking the sample so that they can help you to relax. If you feel dizzy or lightheaded make sure you tell the person doing the test and they will get you to lie down until you feel better.

Some people feel a tiny scratch when the needle goes into their arm, but other people don’t feel a thing.

Your blood is put into a bottle and sent to a laboratory to check your chloride levels. Your doctor will talk to you about what your test shows when you next see him or her.

If you have any other questions, you can ask your doctor, or chat to other people about chloride tests in the Medikidz forums and virtual world, Mediland.