To think that more women may be happy to give blood if the NHS treated any resulting anaemia properly?

[Herriet]

I realise this may just be me, and if it is then I am definitely unreasonable!

I gave blood every three months for years and during those years I slowly became more and more anaemic. I was in my twenties, healthy and eating well, and my periods were not heavy.

We know that heavy periods (over 80ml per month) can cause anaemia. This equates to 240ml every three months. But for some reason the NHS doesn't mention that giving away 470ml in a donation might cause anaemia too.

I've since had babies and ended up with an iron infusion. These are expensive. But now I have a lovely iron store, likely to last me years and years. I see the NHS is desperate for donors (link below) - should I restart donating and give it all away again? If I get anaemic again they will say 'take iron pills', but I've tried a variety of these before and they do not agree with me. So I can choose to give blood and eventually need iron pills and be permanently constipated, or I can choose not to, and be happy and healthy. I would donate if they would give me an iron infusion at a reasonable 'ideal' level of ferritin, rather than only doing it once ferritin is 5 or whatever and I can barely function.

I'm O negative. The NHS really really wants my blood, according to the article below. But not enough to offer me another iron infusion in future if I become anaemic again due to donating.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98p0pj7dypo

They always measure the iron in your blood and the limit for women is higher than men to prevent any anemia problems so it’s clearly thought about

Are you sure it wasn't every 4 months? That's the usual interval for women.

The blood donation service is always stonkingly careful to measure donors iron levels and to turn donors away if they don't have a healthy margin above and beyond what is necessary for good health.

They certainly shouldn't be telling donors that their donations can cause anaemia -- because their protocols are designed to ensure that it doesn't.

What makes you think that your donations are responsible for your anaemia?

Yes they do, and they stop you donating once it gets too low. But by then your ferritin is depleted and you have no way to build it back up again (except getting constipated with iron pills). It's too late by then effectively.

I can't believe that isn't an over-simplification.

But they don't measure ferritin do they. So you can have barely sufficient free iron / haemoglobin and they accept you, but they don't know that your stores have slowly been depleted over time. Then you get pregnant and you need your stores, and lo and behold you don't have any!

Sorry, it was quite a few years ago, I'm sure you're right.

@PlasticAcrobatdo they measure ferritin levels as part of this?

I can't know for sure that it was the cause. But what else would cause a healthy meat eater with light periods to become anaemic? I started out with good iron and ferritin because I had this tested when I was about 20 and it was fine then (can't remember exact number).

I couldn’t agree more OP.

Add in heavy periods and there is just no time or opportunity to replenish stores every 3-4 months.

I give blood every 6 months, I take a multivitamin with iron tablets in between. I know I am still horribly iron deficient.

The little blood dropper test they do prior to donation checks haemoglobin it does not check iron levels. You can be very iron deficient with a haemoglobin limping along at the low end of normal, with all the awful awful symptoms of iron deficiency.

It is very important to me to be able to donate blood, therefore I will do what I can to maintain good levels.
Im not sure what the blood transfusion service can do about this other than the small paragraph of advice in the bumf they offer.

I've been turned away from donating twice, as my iron levels were too low.

Maybe donate, but less regularly? Once a year is better than nothing and wouldn't result in anaemia

What really needs to happen is getting more men to donate.

I donate Plasma instead of blood now so perhaps consider that instead, but of course need to live near one of only 3 donation centres in England.

Details about plasma donation are on the same website site.

PlasticAcrobat
That just is not true. They do not check iron levels at all in any shape or form, they check Haemoglobin, this is not the same thing at all.

I eong give blood for this reason. Several years ago it was found my Ferrari was extremely low and I’m always tired - NHS eong give me anything but iron tablets whoch haven't helped.

I used to be a regular donor (every 16 weeks). I stopped when TTC and haven't started again because mum life is chaos and also I've continued breastfeeding so although I know that's not a restriction for donating I personally feel like it's too much going on with my body all at once. I do have heavy periods and I don't eat meat and I get iron issues because of those things so I take daily iron supplements. I find eating onion helps if I get constipated and also after a couple of weeks taking iron the constipation normally resolves itself anyway. I would say if you've tried various iron supplements and diet changes and they aren't working for you then you've got your answer, you shouldn't be donating. One thing I did was let the blood service know that I wasn't ready to donate again and that I would be in contact with them when the time was right for me. I got my number and address taken off their reminder lists, so I don't get calls or letters any more. Would that help you?

Much more clearly put than my post!

They could resolve it by offering iron infusions as a 'replacement deal' to any regular blood donors once their ferritin level goes below X (something functional, not the bare minimum). I would happily have a ferritin blood test say every six donations or whatever is reasonable.

I think the same thing happened to me.

I am trying to get t my ferritin measured before donating again. I have donated a lot over the years, but I am wary now as my store dropped so low.

I used to give blood occasionally, but I was often borderline on the haemoglobin test and sometimes turned away. If I did manage to give blood, I felt shit for days afterwards. For a while there was a protocol that you could ask to give a smaller donation but then the NHS stopped allowing this (why??) so I stopped giving blood altogether.

Tbh I think that menstruating women should be monitored more carefully by the blood donation service. And campaigns should be targeted at men, who have a higher body mass on average and can therefore manage better with the removal of a fixed volume of blood.

I hope to donate again post menopause. My ferritin levels range from dire to just about ok and it’s a struggle to keep them up.

I’ve also not found the NHS to be very good when it comes to iron. I had some symptoms and the GP ran a blood test. She called to say my iron was low, but just above the level where they’d prescribe iron tablets, so she recommended I take an over the counter supplement. I said that actually I already did, and she said ok great, and hung up the phone.

You can’t even get an infusion here if you’re half dead and need surgery. I can’t see them being keen to widen the criteria.

I’ve been putting off donating since my last was refused (failed their test) a year ago. Haven’t had my ferritin levels checked but what you say makes me more cautious about donating again.

I suppose it depends what they want more. They could probably get 20+ units of O- blood from me in return for a single iron infusion, or maybe even more. I have no idea which is worth more to them though!

That sounds reasonable to me. I used to donate in my 20s but became really anaemic, never really recovered ferritin in my 30s eventually had a blood transfusion (meaning I can never donate) in my 40s before iron transfusion as pills don’t work for me.

I wish more was known about iron / ferritin. I genuinely didn’t realise that it was making me feel so awful for years.