Why? How often? How do you feel after?
I tried once. But they said they couldn’t take it in a bucket and wouldn’t stop asking where I got it from.
Bureaucracy ruins everything.
Bender: I’m very generous! What about that time I gave blood?
Fry: Whose blood?
Bender: Some guy’s.
The only thing I can tell you is that based on how much blood is in this bucket, you are in desperate need of blood.
I do. I donate as often as I’m allowed, which is about 4 times a year. The only effect I’ve felt is that exercise, especially cardio, is a bit harder. My time on a 5k run dropped noticeably.
Donated 60 times in total so far, which means there’s more of my blood in other people, than in me. By quite a lot.
Financial incentive plus I have a blood group that’s beneficial to patients
Once around every 2ish to 3 months - essentially however often I’m allowed to
Usually good. Don’t feel dizzy or sick afterwards since I eat and drink well before donating.
I do donate plasma quite regularly too - around once a week - but have not four a couple months now since I got a new tattoo in November. For similar reasons as with blood donations
Most of my life I’ve not been allowed to donate blood because I’m a man who has sex with men. I believe I can now, but after decades of ineligibility it still feels weird to think about.
You are now eligible, they recently removed the requirement. It’s a nice thing to do, and I always urge people to do it if they can, but don’t give them your contact info because depending on your blood type they can be real vampires. Source I have O- blood and was contacted daily to donate blood for over a year, even when ineligible to donate blood (because I donated yesterday)
I used to. “Why not?” would be the reason. I never felt anything at all afterwards. I would schedule my donations so I don’t have any hard exercise later the same day, but otherwise it wouldn’t impact my life at all.
I stopped after going to my GP for an entirely unrelated reason and being told that I had severely low iron levels. I don’t believe it was related to donating, but it does mean they couldn’t use my blood.
You lose quite a lot of iron when donating blood:
Each time you donate blood, you lose between 220-250 mg of iron. It may take up to 24-30 weeks for your body to replace the iron lost through a blood donation. That time may vary, depending on what your iron level was before donating and if you take iron supplements or multivitamins with iron.
AFAIK many people are fine (no symptoms) with having low iron levels.
I’m one of these people! The only downside I’ve ever noticed to being somewhat anemic is that I can’t always donate blood which irks me a little bit I guess it makes sense!
In the UK they’re unbelievably serious about it. If your iron levels are a fraction below their threshold you’re out and barred for 12 months (unless you get a blood test by your GP).
Ive donated about a dozen times, mostly when its convienent like when they call our local donation bus out to where ever im working.
For the feeling, almost no effect. I mostly spend my time there cracking jokes about how this is a good way to lose weight, or how im only really there because I want a juice box and a cookie. Its more of an excuse to not have to be 100% mentally there for the rest of the work day.
As for the why, Ill sign up and donate when I can, but I dont seek it out. I know its important, but it is a donation, which because of the US insurance and medical industries will be sold to the person who needs it most. (Someone who knows more about this please correct me on it if that assumption is wrong).
Yeah same here, just whenever work brings a bus out. I feel a little icky that they’re just gonna turn around and sell it into the system at exorbitant prices, but I at least feel better that someone who needs it will get it.
I’ve never experienced any side effects either, other than just taking the bandage off too soon and having a leaky arm.
In college we would donate then go get drunk off one beer at the campus pub then go to class
Hmm, you’ve gotta think whether the alcohol would be more potent since there’s less blood, no?
That’s the whole idea!
I would, but I can’t. I am medicated for my ADHD and depression. Both disqualify me in that regard
Huh, in the US, they allow donors with antidepressants and ADHD meds. Source, im a regular donor who has been on both.
It might depend on the specific medicines, but anti-depressant are an automatic disqualification here
Only your depression would because I too am on ADHD meds and donate regularly.
You cannot throw that as a blanket statement. Rules vary by country and medication. Judging by their profile the person you are responding to lives in Denmark, which actually seems to have fairly strict rules in this regard. Some of the ADHD medications I’ve been on in the past would have actually have disqualified me as a full blood donor there, had I still used them. Although the rules for plasma donation are less strict, so that might still be an option.
Valid point. I retract my statement.
O+ over here so I know I am able to help a lot of people. When I donate, I do a “power red” which gives more than a standard pull. Using the American red cross app makes it a bit more fun since I collect badges and can track all my visits. Also, since I read it can reduce plastic in your system, I see that as a double win.
As someone who has received a blood transfusion, thank you random stranger whose blood is now inside me!
I want to “give back” somehow, but I obviously can’t donate blood (yet?).
Unfortunately I was rejected as a donor, the nurse had too much trouble hitting a vein (mine are difficult to spot and tend to roll when sticking a needle in them) for drawing blood for the pre-donation bloodwork. So that meant an automatic rejection as they prefer not turning the donors into living pincushions. ☹️
I donated three times. The first was through a campaign at my workplace. Absolutely nothing worth noting happened. The second was through a campaign at my university. I fainted and my blood pressure went way down. The third time, a friend needed transfusion, so, the hospital asks for friends and family to replenish it. Since I fainted the second time, they took less blood. I was still a little dizzy but ok.
Just to add to the conversation I’m in school to be a med tech and transfusion is one of the proficiencies! Its pretty cool how it works, basically after the donation we spin it down into packed red cells and plasma. Plasma gets pooled and treated and can be fractionated out into specific coagulation products or used as a suspension for platelets. Packed red cells are filtered (leukocyte reduced), sometimes treated or irradiated and have SAGM added (saline, adenine, glucose, mannitol) to stabilize the cells for storage.
In the lab we test and crossmatch to make sure everything is compatible before giving the ok! Sometimes it is just ABO and Rh grouping but there are a bunch of other antigens on red cells that recipients can develop antibodies to with repeat transfusion so sometimes we need to identify if that antibody is present and match with units that don’t have it so it won’t react.
There are also a bunch of complications with testing like nonspecific antibodies, cold reacting antibodies, subgroups of antigens, Its really interesting!
Hello fellow med tech. The science is the best part of the job. Just wanted to pop in and wish you good luck with school.
Thanks! I graduate next year, hoping to land a job in a path core. Can’t wait to get working!
Fun fact. People from the UK who lived there while BSE was a thing cannot donate blood in the US, pretty much ever.
Ah yes, that’s also a thing here in the Netherlands. If you’ve lived in the UK for 6 months or longer between Jan 1980 and Dec 1996 you cannot donate.
It’s a question that comes up in the pre-donation examination at my facility too. Germany here
I tried and found a cheat code! It turns out that if you pass out during the draw and then pass out again while recovering they’ll call and pay for a cab to take you home! They did imply that I shouldn’t come back for a while though…
On a more serious note I had donated blood twice before that with less dramatic results. I like helping people and they give me free snacks afterward. I’d been going every three months because I was in university and had a lot of time for such things. I seem to feel quite tired for the rest of the day following a donation, which I found nice and relaxing. Needle anxiety (and my weak-ass hemoglobin level) aside, it was a positive experience and I’d recommend it!
