Introducing SneakPeek Snap

SneakPeek Snap: Learn Your Baby’s Gender at 6 Weeks Without Fingersticks

Sometimes on your pregnancy journey, it can feel like you’re being poked and prodded left and right. From blood tests and the pressure on your bladder during an ultrasound to internal physical exams, there’s a list of slightly uncomfortable tasks along the way during your pregnancy.

You may be familiar with the SneakPeek Early Gender DNA Test, which lets you know the gender of your baby with clinically-proven over 99% accuracy¹ as early as 6 weeks into pregnancy. Until now, DNA collection had to be done with lancets, which require fingersticks. Fingers are sensitive with tons of nerve endings, so this can create anxiety and pain, which is not fun!

Introducing, SneakPeek Snap.

SneakPeek Snap is a breakthrough push-button device that uses tiny microneedles to collect blood through the arm rather than the fingers. It’s a pain-free alternative to the lancet, taking the discomfort and fear out of sample collection letting you focus on the excitement and anticipation of learning your child’s gender.

How the SneakPeek Early Gender DNA Test with Snap Works

1. Order your SneakPeek Early Gender DNA Test with SneakPeek Snap.
2. When the kit arrives, follow the directions in the packaging to collect your DNA sample using SneakPeek Snap.
3. Send your sample in the included prepaid package back to SneakPeek Labs.
4. SneakPeek Labs will take a peek into your sample to detect your child’s DNA and look for a male Y chromosome. If there are male chromosomes, you’re having a boy!
5. Within a day of SneakPeek Labs receiving your sample, you’ll receive an email with your gender analysis and result.

The DNA gender identification process is fascinating, but you might be wondering, “Do you have to use blood?”

Yes, we have to use blood. Gender tests only work with mom’s blood because you can’t find your baby’s DNA in urine (in fact, you can barely find your own DNA in urine). Blood is the only place you can find traces of a baby’s DNA for testing, and DNA is the only piece of information that provides gender. Hormones found in urine won’t tell you if you’re having a little boy or girl because they have no relation to fetal sex.

To summarize:

• You need a DNA sample (not hormones) to discover your child’s gender.
• Maternal blood samples have enough of your baby’s DNA for a gender test. Urine does not.
• You’re going to have to do a blood test sample.

So how does Snap fit into this equation? It makes blood collection (a.k.a. the getting poked part) easier and less painful.

What is SneakPeek Snap?

Scientifically speaking, SneakPeek Snap is a novel self-administered microneedle blood collection device for at-home sample collection.

Translation?

It’s a small device that collects your blood easily and painlessly using tiny needles. The mechanism is contained in a small plastic casing with an easy-to-push button on top.

How does SneakPeek Snap work?

SneakPeek Snap was designed to be a simple, effective, and virtually painless way to collect your blood sample. It’s as easy as peel, place, press, and remove.

1. Peel the adhesive from the bottom of the Snap device.
2. Place the device on the outer part of your upper arm, about midway between your elbow and your shoulder.
3. Press the button down to deploy the painless microneedles. Then, sit back, relax, and let your arms hang naturally (no squeezing stress balls necessary). Snap will collect the right amount of blood for the test (4-5 drops) in 1-4 minutes.
4. Remove Snap by simply lifting the device away from your arm: the needles will automatically retract. With Snap, you never see the needles as well as barely feel them.

What makes Snap so painless?

We know, we’ve used the word “needle” and “blood collection” enough times that it’s hard not to raise an eyebrow at our claim of painlessness. However, in a recent study, 90% of participants said that using SneakPeek Snap was a completely pain-free experience.

Why? Because tiny needles make a huge difference when it comes to easy blood collection.

Snap’s microneedles are so small, they’re nearly invisible to the naked eye. They’re the width of a human hair and the length of the side of a penny.

Since the microneedles are so small, they only reach the top layer of your skin, also known as the epidermis. The majority of your skin’s nerve endings—a.k.a. pain receptors—are located in the dermis, a deeper layer of skin. By going just deep enough to collect a blood sample but not so deep as to poke your ouch-sensors, Snap makes blood collection easy and practically painless.

What are lancet fingersticks?

Lancet fingersticks are a conventional way of collecting blood samples for all kinds of lab tests. They work by poking your finger with a blade and collecting blood through an attached straw-like vessel.

How do SneakPeek Snap and Lancet compare?

Benefits of Snap Over Lancet

• Painless – SneakPeek Snap doesn’t reach the nerve-dense level of the skin (the dermis), making it virtually painless. The lancet’s blade is applied to your finger, where there are 3,000 nerve receptors (no wonder paper cuts hurt so much!). Users agree. In a recent study, 90% of Snap users perceived the blood collection procedure as pain-free, whereas 22% of lancet users felt blood collection was painless.
• Easy – Snap streamlines the blood collection process into place-press-remove. In the lancet versus Snap study, 90% of study participants said that Snap was easy to use. Only 40% thought that using the lancet fingerstick was easy.
• Virtually no male DNA contamination – To get an accurate gender diagnosis, it’s vital to ensure only your DNA is present in the sample. Any male DNA (from a partner, child, or even pet!) can contaminate the results. Because Snap’s blood collection is self-contained and automated, it minimizes the risk of human error and contamination. In the Snap vs. Lancet study, 0 of 151 Snap users saw male DNA contamination. Lancets, on the other hand, have a higher risk for contamination.
• Proper sample collection – Laboratory testing for cell-free fetal DNA requires a certain amount of blood to be collected to give you the answer you’re looking for about your little one. When not enough is collected, the blood test can’t be properly conducted. SneakPeek Snap ensures you’re getting the right amount.

Make Gender Detection a Snap with SneakPeek

Your pregnancy journey will be all your own. Like most journeys, it’ll be full of new experiences from the joy of that first kick to perhaps the slightly less enjoyable bout of morning sickness. With a little help from SneakPeek, you won’t have to wait very long to reach one amazing part of the journey: finding out your little one’s gender.

The SneakPeek Early Gender DNA Test can help you discover your baby’s gender much sooner than an ultrasound (as early as 6 weeks) so you can start bonding with your baby and begin planning right away! Choose the SneakPeek Early Gender DNA Test with SneakPeek Snap and you can make discovering your child’s gender simple, quick, and as painless as possible. That’s one less poke and a lot more joy on this incredible journey.

Editorial Policy

At SneakPeek, our commitment is to provide accurate, up-to-date, and reliable information to empower our readers. Our content is thoroughly researched, reviewed by medical experts, and fact-checked to ensure its credibility. We prioritize the well-being and education of our readers, and our editorial policy adheres to the highest standards of integrity and accuracy in all our articles.

This post has been reviewed for accuracy by:

Haley Milot

Haley Milot, a highly skilled laboratory professional, currently serves as the Associate Director of Lab Operations at Gateway Genomics, the parent company of SneakPeek. Her extensive experience in laboratory management, spanning over seven years with Gateway Genomics, showcases her expertise in quality assurance, quality control, and the development of laboratory procedures. Haley's background includes pivotal roles in DNA extraction and purification, real-time qPCR, and specimen accessioning, underscoring her comprehensive understanding of laboratory operations and diagnostics. Her adeptness in managing complex laboratory functions and her deep knowledge of medical diagnostics make her a vital contributor to SneakPeek's innovative approach to prenatal testing.

Sources:

International Journal of Pregnancy & Child Birth. SneakPeek Snap: A Painless Microneedle-Based Push-Button Device for Early Fetal Sex Determination. https://medcraveonline.com/IPCB/IPCB-07-00232.pdf

Healthline. Does Urine Have DNA? https://www.healthline.com/health/does-urine-have-dna

John Hopkins University. The Handy Guide to Touch. https://pages.jh.edu/jhumag/495web/touch.html

Scientific American. Microneedles Could Enable Painless Injections and Blood Draws. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/microneedles-could-enable-painless-injections-and-blood-draws/