Questions on changing your oil

[DeusMalo]

I know there is a thread on donating blood, but I have a some specific questions just to learn good practice.

How often do you donate to keep things in check?

There is a limitation usually imposed to only give blood 56-days... what if you donate more often? Is the limitation only around hemoglobin and hematocrit counts so if you are above the minimums you are ok or is there something else? If you want to go every 4 or 6-weeks instead of 8, is that cool?

What do you use to tell you that you should donate? Time since last donation? Something around vascularity? Are there symptoms to watch for?

 

[MoparMuscle]

Donation tracked via a program and the different blood banks all enter into the same system, shoot they place I went had records from a red cross donation from high school....

Once every 2-3 months should be plenty. They will test the RBC count and let you know where in the range you fall before they let you donate (if it's above or bellow normal range they won't let you donate). If it's high normal then donate more often, if it's normal or low normal then less often. I go once every three months and my RBC count never gets over 50 (high-normal).

 

[DeusMalo]

Interesting, when I've donated blood to different blood bank, they've not known about donations elsewhere. I wonder if this is an "it depends"or are they just playing dumb? good to know some do that though.

In researching this (and I've done a lot of searching) I can't seem to find any answers to these questions so was hoping we could get them here. I've seen many people imply they go more often (some 1x/month) and some say they know when to go because [fill in the blank] so was wondering why. It also looked like some folks notice "symptoms" so curious what those might be.

I tend to hang in high-normal w/out testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), which I understand testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) can raise it.

Perhaps I'm over complicating this...

 

[Solo_builder]

donation every 56 days is for normal healthy people
Donating blood is of therapeutic purpose in people with haemochromatosis and polycythaemia
If your HCT is more than 50% due to EPO or anyother drugs, you should consider donating some blood every now and then to keep it around 40%
keep your haemoglobin around 11- 13 gm/dl though
high HCT is a risk for thrombosis, which is BAD

 

[MoparMuscle]

My testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) didn't really raise mine but I'm also normally high-normal

There are many different parts to blood. Focus on the RBC count as that's what testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) can raise.