I’ve been on TRT for nearly two years now. I had blood drawn last week and just got results back. My RBC and Hematocrit were high. Everything else is within range and normal for my semi-annual results. Unfortunately, the doctor I’ve been working with for last 18 months at Defy is no longer with them and I’m three weeks out for consultation. My RBC is 5.97 on a range of 4.20-5.80 and Hematocrit is 51.6 on range of 38.5 - 50. I gave blood about 4 weeks ago. I live in a fairly high elevation area at 4500’. When I had labs drawn, I was fasted and maybe slightly dehydrated as I hadn’t had water/energy drink yet for 8am blood draw. Cause for concern? Obviously, I’ll be talking to doctor in a few weeks, but being a bit out I’m wondering if donating blood again would be worthwhile.
Why Dehydration Leads to High Hematocrit
- Reduced Plasma Volume:
When your body is dehydrated, the overall volume of fluid in your blood decreases.
- Concentration of Red Blood Cells:
Your body still has the same number of red blood cells, but they make up a larger percentage of the now-thinner blood.
- Elevated Reading:
This higher concentration of red blood cells is what leads to a falsely elevated hematocrit reading.
no
outside of the saving lives part, I encourage you to search for donating blood and ferritin both here and on Google.
you may decide to not doante to manage your crit and rbc.
Appreciate that. I’ll do some reading on donating blood. I try to do it 2 times a year for saving lives, but had read it helps lower crit and RBC.
It doesn’t look like they include Ferritin in the lab work order. It’s fairly comprehensive with 20+ other items. Is this something you’d suggest I request in future?
I was only suggesting that frequent donation to control hematocrit can cause low ferritin.
Low ferritin is a common side effect of frequent whole blood donation, as donating blood removes iron from the body, depleting iron stores and potentially leading to iron deficiency. To address this, blood donation organizations recommend that frequent donors consult a healthcare provider, take iron supplements, or temporarily stop donating until their iron levels recover. Symptoms of low ferritin can include fatigue, reduced endurance, and difficulty concentrating
Donating Blood To Control Hematocrit
TIL about donating blood to control hematocrit from Kurt Havens.
The decision to give blood should only be based on four markers from your labs hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelets, and ferritin.
If hemoglobin and hematocrit are just slightly above the range but platelets are normal and ferritin is normal you don’t need to give blood.
If platelets are high yes you should give blood because that is what’s going to cause the clotting issue but you also probably need to see an infectious disease person to find out why your platelets are high.
If hemoglobin and hematocrit are high, platelets are normal and ferritin is high blood should be given as well because ferritin being iron will oxidize and can start to destroy your heart or kidneys, pancreas. Those are all rare situations.
If someone’s constantly giving blood then they’ll drive the ferritin low which will make you anemic. Anemia is actually deadly versus having a hematocrit and hemoglobin one or two points above the range is not deadly.
It’s much more of a risk just to arbitrarily give blood because of those two markers.
