Poll: Donating blood

[mokes310]

I do generally, but I'm living in Asia now and when I return to the States, I believe I'll have to wait for three years before I can donate again (correct me if I'm wrong, please).

Depends on what part of Asia you are in. What blood centers are primarily looking for when they question travel/residence in other areas is malaria. If the area you are in has no risk of malaria, you will most likely be able to give. There are
other factors of course, but that is the big one.

Living in South Korea, in the very, VERY southern part of the country, which is technically considered a malaria zone. However, I have traveled to other countries which are, shall we say, malaria rampant.

Yeah, that alone will keep you from donating...sounds like you've stayed there
more than 2 weeks as well, which means that you probably won't be able to give
until you've been back for three years. Bummer.
I seem to recall some other problem with Korea, but it's something that came up
after my stint at the center, so I'm not really sure.

Yup. Been here a year and I plan on being here for at least another year. Shame too, since my blood type is O+, and the Red Cross always seems to be looking for mine.

 

[aba1]

I actually do give blood. I haven't been in a whiles though so I should go again. You really should have a poll option for if you already give.

 

[aba1]

There are places that won't let you donate because of your sexual orientation! O.O


Anyway, I would donate but I'm only 17 and I think you have to be 18. I would totally do it.

Wait what? where do you live hahahah.

 

[Strazdas]

I considered. but that ended there.
first of all the accessibility is terrible. it isn't 30 minutes, it is more like 4 hours here. most of that actually spent traveling to and from facility. not to mention i got to take a day off work to even make it at their working hours. and its not like they dont need it, my coutnry actually buys blood from the neighboars because we dont have enough.
secondly, while my blood according to all tests are fine, it does not like to close wounds quickly. i noticed that wounds that should get covered quickly sometimes last for days. technically, there is nothing wrong, practically, they missed something. i actually still got a scar from a needle in the veins from blood tests done over 9 months ago. there is still a red dot there and im afraid it wont be going away ever.
another factor to remember in giving blood is to NOT do it regularly. if you give blood when you loose blood your body works harder to restore the amount you normally have, thus temporary pigheadedness and hence they give you juice and sweet food as that helps increase the blood output. now as many donation veterans will tell you, you wont be getting that at 10th time and so on. because your body adjusts and starts making more blood all the time since you will be loosing a lot of it. now that is fine, until you stop. lets say you get ill or anything that prevents you from donating on regular basis, then suddenly you got a lot of excess blood produced, without letting it down. if this goes untreated it can literally burst veins.
so donating is good, but dont overdo it.
i dont remember which type i got but i got that "odd one out" that would cause problems if i needed some blood.

Edit: so i just looked at the donation forms, it seems that if "you had sex with a male" its automatic denial. and it does not matter if your male or female (females got a 12 month expiry, males dont).
apparently i wouldn't even be allowed because i fixed my teeth this month.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

I've tried in the past solely to find out my blood type (it isn't listed on my birth certificate and I have to pay to find out from the NHS which I refuse to do - think I should contact the NSA? They might know) but I was turned away because I apparently have non-compatible veins, even though I have done a 4-day clinical study where I gave blood several dozen times.

Taking blood samples like they do for studies is a whole different animal than taking a pint for transfusion.
I once took 16 samples from a tiny young woman who had reached 3rd stage evaluation for marrow donation, and I
*shudder* at the thought of trying to get the much larger needle used for a pint donation in to any of her veins.

All I know is I still don't know my blood type and it is vexing.

Yeah, that would definitely be pretty vexing...can you contact the office of your family physician from when you were a child? They might know & should be able to release the information to you.

Not for free. I don't like the idea of having to pay to know something about MY BLOOD.

 

[lechat]

good thread
donate plasma and platelets regularly (wish they would stop ringing me when i am 2 or 3 days late) and for free cause that's how we roll in australia also fuck'n hate needles so it's not like it's a pleasant experience.
also kinda creepy how they take your blood, spin it round a few times, take what they need and give you back the other stuff but... cookies!

 

[game-lover]

I wonder if I can manage it.

Over here, a lot of high schools and colleges have those vans that come up for volunteers.

At my high school, the rule was you had to be 17 so for me, I couldn't try until my senior year. And apparently, I was so nervous that my pulse was too high and they sent me away.

Since I've never given blood before, I don't imagine I'll cease being nervous so... I guess I can hope I'm not so majorly nervous the next time?

Though it's been years since then so who knows?

 

[Meg Galuardi]

I've tried close to five times, but I have low iron levels and when those are fine the nurse hasnt been able to find my veins and has poked me wrong and when that didnt happen the blood wasnt flowing fast enough and it clotted in the bag. So while I have tried and would love to donate blood, I've given up.

 

[Quaxar]

Every single drop of blood that blood banks get is prescreened for a wide variety of diseases before it's ever given to another human being, thus effectively (as far as I can see) eliminating any significant need to bar specific groups of people from trying to donate.
I'm perfectly happy to give blood, have plenty of times in the past, but any group that continues to promote the sigma that gay people are somehow "unfit" to give blood at all only helps perpetuate the stereotype that homosexuals are more promiscuous and more unsafe sexually than other people.

Male homosexuality is a risk group. Between 2006 and 2009 in the US gay men have accounted for 61% of new HIV infections while only being 2% of the population. The CDC estimates about 77% of all new infections can still be traced back to male on male action. Now there are several theories on why this is but that's not really important in this context, suffice to say there sadly still is a definitively increased infection risk.

Now yes, all blood donations get tested routinely but the thing is that these tests can't catch everything. The reason many countries won't allow donations from someone who spent too much time in the UK in the 80s and 90s is because these people carry an increased risk of BSE, which has been proven to be infectious over donor blood but can currently not be tested for in the context of a donor screening.
As with HIV that can and will indeed be testet for, but the thing is this is what we call an antibody test, or more specifically usually an immunoassay test. Here you add a macromolecule specifically targeted by HIV antibodies to a blood sample and if there are antibodies present it will bind and emit some kind of signal. This of course requires HIV antibodies to be present and the thing is these antibodies aren't produced instantly but over a certain time called the "window period". This window period for HIV is anywhere from 1 to 3 months, in about 3% of cases it can even take up to half a year between infection and possible detection, which means you could be infectious and still donate blood for months and all these tests would do is give false negatives.

There was a case of HIV infection caused by a bad blood transfusion just a few months ago in Austria and lots of people went crazy over it. Fortunately it was an 80 year old woman, which is of course tough luck for her but still better than a kid or something.
These things still can happen, but they don't very often because we make sure that all risks are eliminated. It's not a discrimination against homosexuality per se, it's the exclusion of a risk factor in exchange for additional safety of donor blood. Homosexual men should have every right to donate blood if they are willing to and as far as I know they are free to do here for medical experiments and such where it's not going to be used on other humans but if it's avoidable with enough regular donors it is really a question of perceived discrimination vs. real risk increase, not exactly the baseless homophobia you make it out to be.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

...perpetuate the stereotype that homosexuals are more promiscuous and more unsafe sexually than other people.

The average gay man has sex with 3 men per year, a gay man with a "primary partner" has sex with 2 other men per year. Gay men do have more sex, more often, and with more people and use condoms less than straight people.

http://www.mygenes.co.nz/MainPartners.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=4508672&page=1
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marten-weber/why-some-guys-dont-wear-condoms_b_2864814.html

 

[Callate]

The last time I tried to give blood (in a limited block of time I had set aside for that purpose) the staff told me that I had happened to come in during their (entirely unadvertised) lunch break.

I'm sure I'll try again some time in the future, but mostly I confess it's sort of down to the coincidental intersection of a blood drive nearby and the time to do it; events like the above somewhat sour me on going out of my way to donate.

 

[Coach Morrison]

I lived in Europe for more than a certain years, so I can't donate blood over here in the U.S.

My blood is apparently tainted.

 

[Zakarath]

Here in the states, they only let you donate if you're above 125 pounds, which disqualifies me.

Edit: No, wait; the req is only 110 pounds. perhaps I will sometime, then.

 

[Timmey]

I give blood regularly and urge all those which can to do so.

However i have to take issue with the poll option 'No I'm gay and backwards arseholes stop me'

It isn't 'Backwards arseholes' which are stopping gay people giving blood, it's the fact that you are more likely to be HIV positive which is stopping you. The exact same reason why you can't give blood if you have had sex with a prostitute in the last few years, because you fall into the HIV positive risk percentage group. Please stop perpetrating this myth that you can't give blood because of your sexuality, its because of your chance of being HIV positive.

 

[viranimus]

I would love to. However last time I tried to donate my blood sugar was 2100+ and for some reason they were not too keen on taking the strawberry syrup runnin through my veins.

 

[Quaxar]

I would love to. However last time I tried to donate my blood sugar was 2100+ and for some reason they were not too keen on taking the strawberry syrup runnin through my veins.

Either you slipped a zero in there or you've got to be some sort of glucose zombie or mutant. Are you sure you're not the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters?

 

[Souplex]

I wonder if I can manage it.

Over here, a lot of high schools and colleges have those vans that come up for volunteers.

At my high school, the rule was you had to be 17 so for me, I couldn't try until my senior year. And apparently, I was so nervous that my pulse was too high and they sent me away.

Since I've never given blood before, I don't imagine I'll cease being nervous so... I guess I can hope I'm not so majorly nervous the next time?

Though it's been years since then so who knows?

A quick google search brought up the following for "Texas Blood Donation requirements":
http://www.inyourhands.org/whocandonate.php
Generally speaking if you're a healthy person who weighs more than 115 pounds, and doesn't have STDs you're elligible.