A few weeks ago, I received a Genteel Lancing device in butterfly blue to test out. (Free product, no compensation, opinions are all mine.)

Genteel calls it the Gentle Lancing Device, which is primarily targeted to children with the goal of alleviating painful finger sticks. In the email that I received, the Genteel device was described as being “for those with diabetes who are reluctant to test because of the pain and fear.”

Regular blood sugar checks haven’t been things that I’ve dreaded for a few years now, but I’m all for making diabetes less painful.

It took some trial and error to find the right tip for my testing, but the basic explanation of Genteel’s pain-free testing is poking through the surface skin into the capillary layer, but not deep enough to hit the nerves. I’ve never done a product review like this before, so I figured I’d break it down into pros and cons according to me. 

Pros of Genteel:

• Colorful
• Suction reduces need for squeezing to get a test sample
• Simplifies alternate site testing
• Works with almost any lancets

Cons of Genteel:

• Large size
• Loud
• High price point ($129)
• Needs extra cleaing

The biggest benefit for me using the Genteel was alternate site testing. I have trouble with testing places other than my fingers, but I was able to successfully test from my palms and arms, mainly because the suction pulled the blood drop out for me. Sometimes the suction is a problem though because it pulls blood into the tip, so make sure if you use this you clean the tip of the device regularly.

I saw some comments online about the suction mark the sticks around after testing, but I didn’t have any trouble with that at all.

Genteel comes in blue, pink, black. silver and white, with different tips to control depth because we all need something a bit different. It also has stickers and a carrying case and comes with lancets.

You can learn more about Genteel and how it works at www.mygenteel.com. Mike over at DiabetesMine (full disclosure – I get paid to tweet for them) wrote about their prototype last year.