Why can’t you donate blood if you have had a transfusion in the past

80 replies

MiriamMay · 23/09/2024 12:36

Like the woman in this BBC article, I am not able to give blood because I had a blood transfusion after giving birth.

I don’t understand why this is though. There’s been quite a bit in the news lately about there being a shortage of blood donations. I really don’t understand why having received a transfusion in the past means you can’t donate blood in the future.

BBC News

Anna Edwards next to her baby Somer in hospital. She is unconscious and has a tube in her nose. The baby has some dark hair and is wrapped in a white blanket asleep.

Give blood plea from Whitley Bay mother saved by transfusion

The Newcastle Blood Donor Centre has 3,500 sessions available over the next two months.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czj9dv2vj3ko

OP posts:

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deplorabelle · 23/09/2024 21:24

You have a good point but there's more research to be done before such a decision could be taken.

ScruffGin · 23/09/2024 21:27

Ocean59 · 23/09/2024 13:11

You also can't donate if you've ever had cancer which must reduce the number of donors massively as 1 in 3 of us will have. (I appreciate the majority of those will be too old to donate by the time they get cancer, but it must still be a significant number.

Didn't realise this! I've not donated in a few years but was thinking I'd go back, but now I know they don't want my blood so saves me booking an appointment @😂

Runninghappy · 23/09/2024 21:35

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe · 23/09/2024 15:24

deplorabelle, thank you for that, really helpful.

Having to stop giving blood was something that hit me really hard post-diagnosis as I'd done it for years. I still feel sad about it when I see the 'blood out of a stone' adverts as I imagine that stocks are really low?

Anyway, I can't and that's the end of it. I feel like a fraud with my MS as it's very well controlled, I'm fit and active with very limited symptoms so hopefully, my organs will be in good nick by the time they're available.

Same as me. I run marathons and go to the gym every day but am off as I have ms.

i was told it was because they don’t know how Ms could be padded on - organs can be traced so the family can be asked if they would like to risk having an organ from an MS patient, whereas blood isn’t the same so the person receiving it can’t give consent to receiving blood from an MS donor.

ZZTopGuitarSolo · 23/09/2024 22:08

MrsPeterHarris · 23/09/2024 19:32

I was able to donate in the USA when I was a student there in 1998 but then when I tried again in 2005 (when I was back again living there for work) was told no due to simply having lived in the UK for a period of time! They consider the vCJD risk to be so high!

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This is no longer the case.

Randomsabreur · 23/09/2024 22:16

I know that in other species (dogs, horses) you can "get away" with less well cross matched blood on the first transfusion but you have to be more careful for subsequent transfusions so it's possible that blood where there is a past history of transfusions has more antibodies and is a more "complex" type than if you haven't. I think that even having carried a child to the point of placenta formation makes blood type slightly more complex.

We don't know everything about how the human body works so as we add complexity we add risk...

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