I’ve been donating fairly regularly in hopes of lowering hematocrit when it gets too high. However, they only allow you to donate every 6 to 8 weeks or so.
They do allow “platelet donation” more often. My question is, will simply donating platelets, as opposed to the normal “whole blood” donation, will this also have the positive effect of reducing hematocrit?
Becareful have you tested your iron and ferritin?
Ferritin is a protein that stores iron. Red blood cells need iron to form normally and carry oxygen around your body. Other parts of your body, such as your liver, bone marrow, and muscles, also need iron. Low levels of ferritin lead to iron-deficiency anemia.
[Study of iron stores in regular plateletpheresis donors - PubMed study]
You crash your ferritin and the thyroid levels go wacky then your TRT stops working.
Hematocrit (Hct) is a measure of red blood cells in the blood. Removing platelets would have no affect on red blood cell count since the apheresis process of obtaining the platelets returns the red blood cells to the donor along with saline to make up the missing volume in the blood stream. You could however do a DRBC (double red blood cell) donation but again you cant do these as often as platelets,
Iron levels are checked before any donation. If there isn’t a sufficient level you are turned away.
Iron is checked, but not ferritin.
Most people have too much ferritin anyways, but if you are giving blood regularly you should know yours so you don’t go too low.
Thanks all. Very helpful. Like someone else said, they test iron with a finger stick before every donation. They always comment how mine is very high. I always suspected this was correlated to high Hgb & hematocrit, but I really don’t know. My iron has never been over the threshold, but always high.
I’d have to check my last full blood work to see if my ferritin levels were checked and ok. I don’t recall them being off but I’ll be conscious of it now.
I hear the platelets donation is very helpful to cancer patients, so I may do it anyway just to help. But that’s a bummer hearing it won’t lower hematocrit. Guess I’ll have to stick with whole blood donation or try the power red / double donation sometime.
My hematocrit was up near 52, so I backed off my TrT for a few weeks, donated a pint, got retested and it was 50. That’s normal, but high end of normal. I’ve also just restarted TrT (.5 cc once a week). I don’t know this, but I feel I should maybe donate again to be safe, but can’t for another month now.
You can go to a doctor and request a phlebotomy but I’m sure you’ll get some judgmental looks.
The finger prick is Hemoglobin range 13-17.7 g/dL
Hemoglobin- is the protein molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body’s tissues and returns carbon dioxide from the tissues back to the lungs.
That is not ferritin and too many donations will crash your ferritin.
with Low ferritin levels your doctor may order a ferritin test if you have some of the following symptoms associated with low ferritin levels:
unexplained fatigue
dizziness
chronic headaches
unexplained weakness
ringing in your ears
irritability
leg pains
shortness of breath
Low ferittin will make you weak at the gym you will think your TRT is no longer working.
I could have sworn the lady said “wow, your iron is high” after the finger stick. But she did say the number 18, which would make more sense for high Hgb. I may have mis heard or maybe she misspoke.
I’ve been random reading some topics here and realize I am very new and have a ton to learn. I keep seeing ppl suggesting other new guys “read the stickies” on certain topics (thyroid/oral temps, need to know more about you, things that effect your hormones)…I’ve gone searching for these on my phone (iOS, safari browser) and can’t seem to find them. I’m sure I can find them on a desktop computer, but if anyone can tell me where to tap on a phone browser to find these stickies I would appreciate it. Sorry in advance. I feel dumb not finding these.