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

OP, if giving blood makes you ill don't do. But don't try and put other women off.

Many, many women (myself included) are able to regularly give blood without any issue.

How’s that going to work then? In the first instance, the cause of low iron / ferritin has to be investigated, simple treatments such as iron supplements and a change of diet implemented before more expensive treatments are given.

I am NOT trying to put people off. I am trying to get the care of donors improved.

Just for future reference, Floradix liquid iron or their capsules (not their tablets) are brilliant at quickly restoring iron without any side effect of constipation. They are plant-based. I think Boots cheaper version Ferroglobin liquid is similar, with no side effects. IME, the tablets do cause side effects but the other forms don't.

I used to get anaemic due to very heavy periods and remember trying the liquid iron for the first time after a miscarriage. It felt like some magic elixir travelling through my body, the impact was almost immediate.

This happened to me too. I am healthy and eat well, so it isn’t down to lifestyle factors. I haven’t donated blood in years now. It is a pity.

They set their levels very high for this reason.

I’m always very borderline. I’m usually the one looking at my blob of blood sitting firmly at the top of the copper sulphate solution. They then do another test with a machine, and I’m usually ok.

If I remember, I take an iron supplement for a week before I donate. This really seems to help.

Well a pp above said that there is another country which does regularly check levels of donors and offer treatment, although she doesn't say where. But presumably this means it is perfectly possible to implement.

I know people will disagree but for the donor service it is much easier to take blood from men - bigger and more obvious veins, more blood and less chance of them being anaemic as no periods or babies.
Some women have antibodies in the their blood after they have been pregnant which can cause problems in some people who need regular transfusions.
When my children were young I found the bigger problem was the timings of donor sessions which tended to be in the afternoon and early evening so fixing an appointment around school timings or after DH getting home was hard.

In Scotland you are not allowed to give blood if you have been advised by a doctor or nurse to take iron supplements.
Excess iron in blood transfusions is potentially hazardous- causes liver and brain damage. Saying people should get supplements so they can give blood is not a good idea. Some people receiving a transfusion will be getting a very high volume (trauma, complex surgery, major haemorrhage), others will have chronic conditions tending regular transfusions. Too much iron in a donation is a real concern.

Some people have genetic conditions where they have too much iron in their blood - haemochromatosis - if iron is too high they get blood regularly removed (more that you'd donate) and it's disposed of as unsafe to transfuse. Too much iron is hazardous.

Please tell the donation centre if you take prescription or over the counter iron. The rules will vary depending on country & dose & reason for iron use.

I doubt that it would be worth them accepting your donation in exchange for an iron infusion. I think it's great that you're so keen to donate blood but it's probably not for you.

I'm a huge advocate for the NHS but they are weirdly opposed to testing ferritin levels. I was like the living dead when pregnant with my daughter and a gynaecologist I worked with one day told me I needed my ferritin checked as I could hardly breathe or stand. Do you think they'd do it without me kicking up a huge fuss? Surprise surprise, my ferritin levels had halved in a few weeks from a lower starting point than in my last pregnancy, but would they treat it properly? No. Insisted on a test again a few weeks later after I almost collapsed in a supermarket. Halved again, now 20. Would they treat it? No. My haemoglobin levels were fine the whole time.

So yeah, I have to agree with the OP. The NHS really doesn't have the capacity to test and treat low ferritin levels and I personally wouldn't willingly do anything that made me that unwell again.

blood loss is only one cause of anemia and generally not the most common cause. Bone marrow suppression caused by infections causes anemia. So not the loss of blood but your body not making more blood is a cause of anemia. Iron infusions have risks, specifically insertion site complications. It wouldn’t make sense to offer everyone who donates blood an iron infusion.

I think the OP’s point is an important one to make, and one which donors don’t always realise. Yes, of course it’s great to give blood, and I’ve done it 40+ times over my lifetime, but it can take months for your body to make up the iron you lose each time.

You should only donate blood if you fully understand the impacts on your own health. It’s not all about a “fuzzy feeling” and a free biscuit.

YANBU.

The Blood service is short of donations at the moment but I am leaving it one year in between donations now. I have donated regularly every six months for a while and my last one was my 20th donation. Previously a few years ago I did three donations in one year but the iron was borderline for the third so I though to space it out to two a year.

But now I'm 49, menopausal, trying to lose weight so eating less, and for the last two donations, even before I started on the diet, my iron was too low. Not anaemic, but too low to give blood. Also I always take an iron supplement - Floradix, so I thought this was quite worrying. And if I got three strikes in a row then I wouldn't be allowed to donate again anyway.

For the last few months I've been taking Ferroglobin which has a high iron content so I'd hope my iron levels are a bit higher. Even so due to deaths in the family I'll not be donating until later this year when my next local session is on.

So, sorry, NBS, try someone else for now.

Ah OK (I admit I don't really understand it all).
I was packed off to the GP for a proper test. That came back fine but they still struck me off donating for a year.

I have lived my whole adult life borderline - it's obviously what's normal for me.

The problem for women is the service is designed around men donating, men can give a pint, and they can donate more often than women. If they would accept donations of smaller amounts then more women would be able to donate.

We should also be able to donate for our own use. I'm a fairly rare blood group, but have received a transfusion so can't donate to the main bank. There's no reason why my blood couldn't be stored for my own use, other than cost, but when I needed a donation I used up all the local stocks, they had to start contacting out of the area and it would have had to be sent by air ambulance or emergency courier.

I’m not sure they set ferritin levels at all for blood donating, do they? Just serum iron levels. It’s possible to be severely iron deficient without being anaemic. My ferritin was 7 and I could hardly move, was breathless, had weird food cravings (pica style) but I was never actually anaemic.

I can only assume you’ve never been iron deficient.

Yes my issue was nothing to do with donating blood. I can’t donate blood anyway because I don’t weigh enough.
I was just making a general point about the NHS and the attitude to low iron.

blood has a relatively short shelf life (about a month) so unless you're planning some major blood letting in a known time frame (eg. planned major surgery) it makes no sense at all for someone to donate for their own personal use. When blood loss is predicted though there are some options that may be appropriate for autologous transfusion.

I agree op. They may check donaters iron levels. But maybe they wouldn’t have to turn so many people away if anemia was treated properly. I have very low iron and all they will do is give me cheap iron tablets which don’t agree with me and don’t help

I used to donate in my 20's three times a year and was one of the few women that didn't seem to have any bad effects from it despite also having on the heavier side periods. Unfortunately they'll no longer take from me as despite being N. E. D and having only needed surgery for cancer I'm now barred for life. Shame really as O+ they were always happy to have me.

FFS, it is not low to make women aware of a risk of donating blood that the NHS doesn’t warn them about. You are in effect advocating for donors to not be fully informed of risks, shame on you!

You're missing the point of the thread and being very unfair to the OP who has given blood and wants to keep on doing so.

Once again this is a feminist issue:

The "safe" amount of blood to give is safe for men

Iron deficiency is the most common nutrient deficiency worldwide. A third of women of childbearing age are iron deficient - with symptoms as bad as those of full blown anemia. That's MILLIONS of women in the UK.

The NHS doesn't value women's health -both hemoglobin and ferritin lower limits are set low and even those are regularly ignored by GPs. Where run of the mill iron pills don't work or are poorly tolerated GPs aren't interested. The result is millions of us living half lives - we could be much more active, happier and productive with optimal iron levels.

This makes me angry

I've never had a problem, which is weird as I'm a very low BMI and vegetarian.
Tbh I don't like going as the service has been cut back so much since the Tories were in power. I suck it up and get on with it though. At least they still have stickers.

Do we know the proportion of men / women who give? It seems like a fairly balanced split between the sexes when I'm in there.