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

Oh no! I did not want to put anyone off 😔 I thought hard about posting this for this very reason.
But equally I think something needs changed about blood donations for women. Either effective and timely treatment for sub-optimal ferritin, or as a pp suggested, targeting the campaigns at men more heavily.

This

one of the main tenets of medicine is 'first do no harm'. If taking off a few hundred mls of blood every few months is enough to mean you need medical treatment then it is doing you harm and is not sustainable - it is the wrong thing for you personally and it is the wrong thing from an economic point of view.

Totally agree OP. My ((female) GP said her personal belief is that she herself would never donate blood as a women but would donate everything else. She had even signed up to donate her uterus. She explained that for women, iron levels were already so often low, it just wasn't healthy for very many women and knowing which ones could donate blood wasn't checked effectively.

Giving blood is an amazing thing to do, but I don't think anyone should feel pressured into doing so, especially women.

I don't think it's only the anaemia, OP. The list of exclusion is long. I was told I cannot be a donor, as I have regular acupuncture, every month to manage a physical issue for which I take no medication. It's the only think that works. And, because I had IVF in the past. I'm not saying they shouldn't consider these things, especially as a good friend was one of those that had infected blood from a transfusion in her 20's, but the number of exclusions, like recent tattoos, will also play a part in why fewer donors may be able to come forward.

if you fail the dropper test they often do a more accurate iron level check which gives an actual number.

But this is false information, it is not accurate so please do not listen to this.

It is still a haemoglobin test, but with a number rather than a floaty bit of blood. It is not iron levels at all.

But is this not haemoglobin still? I have never had this, but I assume it is not ferritin? It's hard enough getting a ferritin test from the GP!

That is your GP's decision about how to treat you. Iron infusions aren't without their problems.
The donor service isn't there to sort out your iron levels - it is there to get a high quality bag of blood which is safe to infused into patients.

Haemoglobin is NOT iron levels.

Completely agree. Problem is like a lot of women’s health problems then the NHS doesn’t especially get involved

And the cut off for donating is 125 for women and 135 for men which is much higher than the lower limit of normal (110 for women) for anaemia so even after giving a pint you would not normally be tipped into anaemia

The NHS is generally poor at treating iron problems and slow to act on them. It's regarded as a trivial problem and often nothing is done till the situation is urgent Since this affects a fair number of women, I agree with the above.

Yes that's true. But effectively I'm saying to them, you can have pints and pints more of my O- blood over my lifetime but only if you offer me iron infusions very very occasionally. It's up to them if they want to make this deal with me and other women who have found that regular donations deplete their ferritin.

I agree the service does exist solely to get blood, but it would be more effective if it retained established donors instead of chasing them away because it won't treat a side effect of donation.

It isn’t the same, but low Haemoglobin is a strong indication of low iron levels as you need iron to make haemoglobin.

I can't imagine why anyone would publicly criticise the NHS blood donation system and risk putting people off donating. This is pretty low, I hope you never need blood OP.

To anyone who doesn't donate, it's really simple, a lovely warm and friendly environment and very quick. The result is you can literally save someone's life, you get a warm and fuzzy feeling for doing something amazing and you get a free biscuit!

i was felt to be anaemic due to donating blood
a reminder to have a healthy iron rich diet

I can’t imagind why anyone (particularly women) would put themselves in a worse physical situation.

they would definitely be better prioritising men to donate - i am booked to donate today but have had to be careful after an episode of anaemia and i am not of childbearing age

I started giving blood as a student in England, and continued after moving back here to my home country.

Some things are done differently here.
Each time you give blood they give you a course of iron tablets and really encourage you to take them. They have different types of tablets, special ones for sensitive stomach etc.

I think they also check your iron levels occasionally (hemoglobin is checked every time of course). This makes it easier to avoid iron deficiency.

another thing which is much better is that they give you a bottle of soda to sip on while you donate. This means I have never been light headed. In England you couldn’t drink while donating, and I once got sick and threw up (20 years ago, so maybe this has changed).

My best advice would be to try to find a type of iron tablets that agree with you (but this should really be handed out by the blood donation service)

That is not fair. I am trying to raise awareness to a problem which is being ignored. I WANT to give blood. If this issue was tackled then donating would be safer for many women. It is absolutely vital that people donate to save other people's lives, but the health of the donor matters too.

I do. My ferratin is still shit. I’ve felt shit for 20 years. Still waiting for the NHS to give me better than tablets that I don’t respond to.

Completely agree @Herriet.

I have always struggled with anaemia and low ferritin. In my teens and twenties I was often prescribed iron pills. I suffered all the side effects you speak of. I didn’t really know too much about it so carried on. I did give blood multiple times in between DC 1 and 2. I have heavy periods to boot. On occasion I was turned away, but was usually just in the normal range for hb. Obviously ferritin isn’t tested.

This year I went to the GP as I felt like death. My ferritin was ‘a bit low’… it was 4. By NICE and WHO guidelines it was completely deficient. I was exhausted, dizzy, POTS, and my hair was falling out. I was told to take iron pills which ‘should’ bring it up in a few months… but once it gets to 11 you’re ‘fine’. Even the nhs website state below 15 is absolute deficiency and below 30 is considered low.

I felt I couldn’t cope like this for another 3 months. I went private for an iron infusion at over £1k. The consultant there said the guidelines are the minimum… and the minimum is not optimal. He likes to see patients get up to at least 50+ in order to feel well.

I would happily give blood if, like OP suggested, they’d top me up with an infusion on the NHS in a timely fashion, before my ferritin crashes through the floor. But otherwise I’m afraid not.