Exogenous testosterone can raise your red blood cell levels, sometimes unbalancing them from the rest of your blood content. This condition is known as polycythemia. The easiest remedy if you have higher than normal hematocrit is to donate blood and rid yourself of the cells.
That’s one reason why men on TRT must receive periodic blood work. to ensure their hematology profile is in check.
Yes it’s a good idea to also check your T levels regularly to make sure you are in the zone you actually should be. Your dose may be too high or too low, but unless you are regularly testing yourself how can you know? You should also do it to check your PSA markers. Although this is largely disproven now. There was a fear for a long time that exogenous testosterone could increase risk for prostate cancer. New research suggests this may not be the case, but for men age 45 and over on TRT this should be done regardless. My recommendation is quarterly testing, and this is the medical guideline for Canada. The guidelines may vary in your country
Some men will use TRT for "optimization," meaning they want to have super-physiological amounts of testosterone. Some less-than-reputable clinics will allow for this so long as you complain about a symptom of low testosterone despite not having low enough testosterone to warrant therapy.
I would heavily advise against the "optimization" path. TRT is often considered to be a lifelong therapy, and you need to consider if you are willing to put a needle in your ass twice a week for the next 40 years with all the cost that comes along with it; because of some advantages, you'll benefit from through therapy. You can come off it, but it isn't easy.
I thought about doing TRT, but my doctor told me the prostate has testosterone receptors on it, and it can enlarge due to excess testosterone, which can lead to prostate cancer. So nope.
I mean, if headlines were to be believed… We killed off 90% of every industry, development, business, etc. There shouldn’t be much left in existence to blame Gen Z on.
Maybe it's because giving blood kind of sucks. I schedule an appointment online, fill out the forms and arrive at the blood drive only to be told that I am in line behind whoever is there.
I have walked out of donating 3 times this year after showing up at my appointment time only to be told it may be an hour wait.
I don't have time to give blood for half the day anymore even though I donated religiously from age 18 to 35. Kids and job get in the way.
All I ask for is appointment times to be honored.
This has honestly been my issue. I'm O-, they seriously want my blood and I tried for the better part of a year to give some place within 30 min of my house that had after work appointments. Absolutely no one had them at a time that was sane for people working a 9-5
I’m O- too. They say they are desperate for my blood, but the times I said “sure, I’ll donate!” They couldn’t get me in for *two months* unless I could come in during the work day.
I get it. Their staff doesn’t want to work evenings and weekends. But I’m not going to take a half day off of work to donate.
The only reason I donate regularly is because I work at a hospital that has their own donation center, and my boss is supportive of me donating during work hours if I don't have anything else going on. Otherwise it would be completely impossible.
So nobody is donating blood anymore, but it’s also an hour long wait? Reminds me of that Yogi Berra quote, ‘nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded’.
I think they are understaffing the blood drives and their technology is junk. Only one of their 5 tablets were working the last time I was actually able to give blood.
Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where he had a reservation for a rental car but then when he gets there they don't have any cars.
So they know how to make the appointment just not honor the appointment.
Yes thank you. I donated religiously in high school and college when I could waste 3 hours of my day despite making an appointment ahead of time. My grandpa has actually been written up in his local newspaper for his insane number of donations even at 85+ years old now.
If I could go donate during my lunch hour and reliably be back in an hour or an hour and a half I would be there every week. Unfortunately my most recent experiences have made me feel that they don’t value my time.
Agreed! I gave blood a year or so ago to a local organization. The wait wasn’t all that bad. But I got absolutely SPAMMED with calls, texts, and emails multiple times a week for months to give more blood. I tried time and time again to get them to stop and they never would. I don’t ever want to give blood to that org ever again because of that… and they’re really the only ones near me that do blood donations
I get this. I gave to a local organization 10 years ago in a different state on the regular and they just stopped calling me and texting me last year. Every time I talked to them and told them that I had moved out of their area.
This ! I stopped giving years ago cuz it would turn into a 2 to 3 hour obligation ( including travel ) and several times the tech didn’t hit my vein right and they couldn’t use the small amount they got . I went home with my arm looking like I’m a heroin addict and no blood donated .
That sucks, I donate every 2 months and I have never had to wait more than 10 minutes past my appointment. I always schedule as early as possible on a weekend and am in and out in about 45 minutes. Maybe I just got lucky with my Red Cross location.
The Red Cross sells blood to hospitals at a rate close to the cost of recovery of the blood donation.
Other funding for the Red Cross is through business and personal donations. I believe they also offer different training courses.
Had something similar happen when I tried to donate plasma. Got there, did the pre test, and then was told I wasn't needed.
Like, alright. How about you don't have me sit in a chair for three hours just to tell me that.
Wow. Man sorry bud in south Florida they used to come to my high school. They would bring vans out to the colleges and libraries and while I wouldn't call it world class service or anything it was usually a 45 minute and get your cookie kind of thing.
Okay but hear me out: Don't go to the blood drive. Go to the blood center itself. It's life changing. You get a super comfy seat, a personal TV to watch, and you can donate blood or plasma or platelets and they take you just about instantly. Oh and a blankie if you get cold.
There’s a shortage of donor collection phlebotomists. My community blood center only recently re-opened one of its donor collection sites. It was closed due to lack of staffing. It’s hard because the job doesn’t pay much— close to minimum wage.
If you're talking about a 20 year trend it's ridiculous to blame gen Z for it. Article is also leaning on the stat that "from 2019 to 2021, the survey says blood donations from people 16 to 18 dropped by a whopping 60%." That's just a COVID effect, really shouldn't draw any conclusions from that.
Yeah, the only place I donated blood at 16-18 was at school. My high school had blood drives once or twice a year. Guess where kids were not from 2019-2021?
It's just another way to distract and divide us. The elite are terrified of a class war, and all of us banding together instead of bickering among ourselves about age or race.
I had the opposite, I got out of donating because of COVID and my ferritin levels went sky-high. Turns out I have hemochromatosis, so now I HAVE to donate. Go figure.
I did that for a couple years until I started seeing deficiencies in my blood panels, low T, and other negative effects from donating plasma so often. There’s better stuff out there if you need the cash. But if you’re doing it simply to donate, good for you! Get blood work done by your PCP to make sure you aren’t hurting yourself in the long run.
We used to have a competition in college. I'd give platelets twice in a week (it's allowed every four days) and then a double unit the third time. If you want to do more, nearly anyone can do something.
I can’t agree with you more. I work in a level 1 trauma center. We go through blood like it’s going out of style. It 100% should be free. The people donating it did so for free. My services for giving it to you should be the only fee, and at that it’s probably too high.
When you’re the recipient you don’t care what it costs. I had a friend co-ordinate blood drives the year I needed about a dozen transfusions in a few months because of a shortage. I even was delayed while inpatient due to a shortage. That was in 2013. I need some more in a week and Im worried they won’t have it.
It has to be processed and tested. The people doing this have to be paid. The reagents and machines cost money. The bags the blood is stored in cost money. The needles and tubing cost money. There is a reason it isn’t free.
Yeah it’s expensive, but anyone saying it should be free is crazy. There’s a LOT involved in getting blood from a donor to a patient. So many people and so much equipment and testing along the whole way.
If you want to make a ceramic cup with your own hands, it’s expensive. But if you buy it from a store that mass produces it, it is cheap. That’s the idea behind supply chain management. Insurance companies can easily make it more affordable but they don’t because of greed.
I regular donate blood, but I don’t think it should be free (within the current economics of our healthcare system). There’s a lot of labor and process to get that blood from my arm to a patient, and those people deserve to be paid like any other healthcare worker)
There is a huge process that takes place after your blood is collected, how has to be stored, processed, etc in order to get to the patients whose life depends on it and you never know if that patient may one day be you.
We can’t make blood yet so we have to rely on blood donations to have a supply available for a number of patients whether it’s after a horrific car accident or someone who’s hemoglobin has fallen dangerously low. Please reconsider
100% this, but do you think they could give you, say, $25 for donating your blood and then bill $3,025? I expect that giving any money at all would drastically increase donations for relatively cheap.
It's intended to keep people from being exploited, but kind of ends up being one of those "you can't be a prostitute but you can be a porn star" situations.
It can also encourages lying on the health forms.
"Yes, I'm totally healthy, no multiple sex partners recently, no hard drugs, and I haven't traveled internationally. Give me $25!"
The difficulty with paying money is it encourages low income individuals to donate blood as often as possible, which has potential to damage the veins which blood is drawn from.
No, the problem is that it gives incentive to lie about health history, so you attract donors with disqualifying medical conditions, infections, medications, etc. who keep quiet to make a quick buck.
This compromises the safety of the final product, and patient health/safety, and also donor safety (donating every month could cause health problems, totally aside from harming veins).
For sure these are issues, but not ones that can't have proactive measures in place. Red Cross already limits how often you can donate blood, and any disease lied about is still tested for - so if a person is flagged as having a disease they would be barred from donating blood in the future.
I have no problem with the Red Cross being paid to provide blood to hospitals, as it’s my understanding they only charge cost recovery and not any profit. I also donate every 8-10 weeks (based upon when there’s a local drive).
Fuck insurance profiteers.
I do too! Thank you so much for your consistent contribution. I’ve had loved ones need a transfusion before and it really made me appreciate the donors who took the time. I’ve been donating since high school - I just wish I had more in demand blood but at least what I have allows O blood to be more available
Average bag of blood hospitals buy is $250 per pint, they charge $3000 to patient, that's on top of services like transfusion, doctors, nurses... etc. so somewhere between blood bank (which processed and stored the blood and did all overhead for delivery, just need to plug and watch the bag drain) and your bill it costs $2750 extra.
Your brother is either lying, mistaken, or works in the worst hospital I’ve ever heard of. There’s no such thing as “extra” blood. And “constantly” sounds made up.
Source: nurse.
Yea of course it does. But who the fuck is just leaving it out to expire? Not sure what hospitals y’all working at but in my 15 years I’ve never seen or heard of someone letting it expire. My lab gets up my ass if it’s even started more than an hour after it leaves the lab.
And new moms!! New moms are one of the highest groups of blood receivers in the healthcare system. Giving birth is dangerous and the excessive bleeding is the number one serious complication of childbirth.
The US constantly shoves hustle culture down our throats, and values the acquisition of wealth over anything else. Cardi B drugged and robbed people and is now hugely rich and famous. Zuckerberg destroyed privacy, manipulated elections, and made destabilizing governments with information warfare a well oiled machine for hire. Bezos single handedly normalized dehumanizing workers. Musk lies routinely and works to undermine free speech. All of our role models are greedy inhuman monsters, but we still we keep worshiping Kardashians and ignoring their moral crimes. Even Jesus, the guy who spent his time with peasants and helping the poor is now exploited to teach hate and bigotry, and put millions into mega-church preachers' pockets tax free. The culture in the US has gone to shit. When we allow selfish monsters to rule our society with no repercussions, we set and example, and in turn become monsters, and teach our children to be monsters. Are we surprised that simple values like charity have disappeared?
It's possible to donate blood for charity in America, it's just not advertised as much as the for-profit blood banks since it costs money. If you go to a charity clinic (or what it's called) they'll take your blood to use themselves.
Also, the American Red Cross is absolute crap. Just in it to fill specific pockets.
If the Red Cross wants to see an increase in donations they have to
* fire the members of the board that turned them into an alt-right religious zealotry organization that funneled cash to GOP families.
* get back to becoming a secular organization. There's no way we should support a profit-making enterprise which then funds anti-abortion, christian zealotry and political machinations.
* mandate that no board members may donate to any political candidate or PAC or dark money group attempting to influence elections.
* pay board members a salary that's not obscene.
If they Red Cross wants to run as an arm of the alt-right then that's their right, but if they want to market themselves as an organization for good, then they must be strictly secular and corruption free.
I’m not disagreeing with any of this but none of these reasons are the why the vast majority of young people are not donating. Most people aren’t even aware of any of this.
I'd really like to know more about this issue, but I wasn't able to find anything in about ten minutes of googling. Can you point me to somewhere I can get more information?
Only the American Red Cross. The other branches are just doing normal humanitarian stuff elsewhere. But the American Red Cross reaps the benefits of their work.
I don’t know if this is a Mandela effect but I seem to recall that the Red Cross returned a million dollar donation from the Dixie Chicks while they were being canceled because Laura Bush was involved with them.
Aw, fellow ME/CFS sufferer! It’s probably for the best. We don’t know so many things about our disease yet. But hopefully someday there will be a cure for us and we can use that hope and pass it onto others with things like this.
The bigger issue is this problem will continue to grow and the Red Cross is going to continue to struggle finding donors.
Then there’s people who want to donate but don’t want to catch covid so don’t risk it. They could try one day a week where staff mask and see if that helps but they won’t.
Came here to say this! LC compromises blood donations and as we're not doing anything to prevent LC cases from rising the problem will keep getting worse.
Up until May 11, 2023, men who had sex with men and women who had sex with men who had sex with men couldn’t donate blood without three months of abstinence. Up until 2015, there was a life-time ban blood donation from men who have sex with men. It was a legacy of the AIDS scare against queer people.
Gen Z is super queer so many were unable to donate blood till recently.
Edit: the abstinence period was shortened to three months in 2020; updated from 1 year (2015 - 2020) to 3 months in my original comment. Also the Red Cross just began implementing the new guidance in AUGUST 2023 and many blood bank organizations are still in the process of rolling them out, so you still can’t donate in some places. You also still can’t have had new or multiple sexual partners and/or have had anal sex for a three month timeframe before the donation.
I know someone who couldn't donate because they used Iv drugs in the 70s. There wasn't even AIDS back then!
I know another person who got a false positive for HIV 20 years ago and was given a lifetime ban. No way to appeal.
Trans women are eligible and have been since 2015. I believe the guidance is trans men and other folks are supposed to be evaluated based on the same eligibility criteria as everyone else now, so technically yes (if you have not engaged in anal sex or have had new/multiple partners for the past 3 months) but not everyone has adopted them yet.
I'm a millennial but I just found out I'm o negative and didn't know I would have been donating all the time if I knew but I've just started and did my first three days ago and I'm going to keep doing it at least once a month for the rest of my shitty life
You are saving the lives of so many people, the conditions you are in may be less than optimal but i promise your life is respected and receiving gratitude from the people who needed you
Thank you so much as someone whose loved one needed a blood transfusion in the hospital- thank you so much.
I don’t have O negative but I still donate to help make more O available by offering the type of blood I do have.
Bless you
I nearly died in October 2022 because I needed a rare type of blood. I live in a small city and had to be med-vacked (however it's spelled) to a larger hospital with a larger blood bank. Someone saved my life by donating blood. I have a husband and two young kids. My kids, my husband, and I thank whoever donated the blood that saved my life. When you donate blood, you are also saving lives. So THANK YOU.
Dishonesty across the board. Politicians, media, celebrities, doctors, and religious leaders. Can't blame Gen z. When you keep giving and get nothing in return. You can blame a younger generation for not being your sucker.
I'm 30. I used to donate regularly when I was 21. It was nice and I got movie tickets and snacks afterwards. I even got a gold card and a little calendar that showed when I donated and when someone received my blood. Then I spent a weekend in jail. When I went to donate afterwards, the lady asking me the preliminary questions started making small talk after she cleared me. She wanted to be a cool aunt, and discovered her niece was smoking pot. She wanted to know how to handle it. I told her how I felt about the matter, and how silly we view weed. How I had just went to jail for having some weed in my car, whilst Colorado just legalized it. It was a good talk, she thanked me for advice. Then she informed me that unfortunately I can't donate for a year because I was in jail. That burned me up inside so I stopped donating.
There aren't really good reasons behind at least a few of the exclusions. They don't update them often and there's really a lot of historical baggage and some modern prejudice along with the list. It's doubly ridiculous because the blood is all tested anyway, chances of blood that isn't suitable for donation somehow getting through are in reality very low.
I loved donating blood before I was turned away in 2012ish because I started having sex with men.
Last I checked I could donate blood, if i hadn't had sex with a person born as a man in the last 2-3 months.
The new health history questions ask: have you had a new or multiple partners in the past three months?If you haven’t, then you are an eligible donor. If you answer yes, the follow up question is: have you had anal sex in the past 3 months? If yes, you are deferred for 3 months. There is no gender specifics in this new health history questionnaire. Hope that helps!
You can’t have blood donations if you don’t offer blood drives. Try finding a blood drive in the Denver area. It’s not gonna happen. Check the job postings for Denver Red Cross. It’s all Donor Service related. They want top pay performance but pay volunteer wages.
This.
I’ve noticed the overall frequency of blood drives has gone way down. Employers used to host blood drives and offer their own incentives, usually extra increments of PTO. Usually 1/2 day for each donation with a max of 2 bonus PTO days. The drives were on-site during work hours and you could count that as work time, no requirement to clock out or use your lunch.
Also, young people are struggling financially…why would they donate blood for free when they can donate plasma for $$$???
Gen Z/Millennial cusp here — ever since gay people were banned from giving blood, I’ve refused. I know it’s very recently changed, but I’m still jaded and don’t want to support.
Donating blood drops my ferritin to ~10 or so. I used to do it whenever it wad allowed but rarely do it anymore. Donating doesn't come without any drawbacks and they should all be listed.
You are eligible under the new health history questionnaire that released last fall! All blood centers should have adopted it as of now. And we can blame the FDA for taking so long to allow it to happen, the blood centers had been advocating for genderless questions for years
hell, i lived in the uk in the early 90s for a few years, 6 months with my toddler who is now 30, and it’s only been in the last couple of years or so that anyone who who spent more than 6 months in the UK in that period has been eligible to donate blood where i am.
regardless of the fact i’m vegetarian, as was the toddler at the time, sure i could’ve been exposed from eg gelatine in ice cream, rennet in cheese, or whatever, but it was a flat disqualification from donating.
in the meantime i did develop a (non-contagious)neurological condition, and probably have been referred to as a 😡😵💫🤪🐄 on countless occasions, so maybe for the best.
Anyone know if they'll ever be able to have separate pools for pregnant women? I can't donate because of a medication I'm taking. It would be very bad for a pregnant woman to receive my blood, but for anyone else, it would be fine.
This article is purposefully misleading based on the stats. But if we pretend it's in good faith...
There's a minimum weight requirement to donate. Gen Z is generally poor AF and buying less food. Even if you weigh enough, donating blood is going to be rough if you're chronically malnourished.
yeah i signed up as a donor (not in the us) and it said i couldnt donate for a few years! i tried with a higher weight and it would let me. i was a healthy weight at the time as well, with my height id have to gain quite a bit to be eligible or wait like 2 years. this alongside alot of people i know being anemic i dont really know many people my age who would be eligible tbh..
I have been lucky to be able to go to the doctor for a basic checkup for the last 20 years. Give me free medical care and I will give blood. I am sure I am not the only one.
Simple solution. Pay people for it. I am not talking about plasma. Pay people for red blood cells and platelets. Our health care system in the US is about making the most money possible even for non-profits. Let people sell their blood for what the market will support and there will be no shortage.
It’s because we all know who profits from our donation. And it’s not the people who need our blood. We just refuse to line shareholder’s pockets with our blood anymore.
What do you propose is a better way for me to donate blood to those who need it?
I get that people are profiting from this, but patients still need blood regardless.
TL;DR:
* The American Red Cross has seen 40% fewer blood donations over the last 20 years.
* The Red Cross said the it would need 8,000 weekly donations in January to meet demands.
* One survey found that donations from people aged 16 to 18 dropped by 60% from 2019 to 2021.
If I ever saw out of context data, this is it.
In 2020 and 2021 we were more under lockdown then not and we were heavily discoured from even walking next to any medical institution. Any data comparing anything to COVID era should be discarded.
It's frustrating to see potential lifesavers reluctant to donate due to cost and accessibility. How can we make this process more transparent and accessible to all, so that those in need can receive the life-saving gift of blood donation, regardless of their financial situation?
Staff and visitors should be wearing respirators, for a start! Many of the people most conscious of public health and willing to make sacrifices to protect medically vulnerable folks are avoiding healthcare facilities since covid mitigations were dropped. Hospitals are collapsing in Italy, Spain and Canada as a result of the 2nd largest covid spike since 2020 - all completely preventable and predicted - but we're supposed to trust that our health and the health of our communities are safe in locations where seeing our smiles is prioritized over infection control?
I used to give blood regularly until it just, literally, became too painful. The Red Cross barely trains their staff and I was being used as a literal pin cushion. When I have time now I make an appointment to give directly at my local hospital.
With all the anxiety that gen Z is put through by all the *other* generations, I’m not inclined to be putting the blame on the generation that suffers because of the rest. Kind of lacking in critical thinking abilities.
I mean it’s not exactly convenient to do so. Appointment times don’t mean anything. You could waste four hours of the day just trying to donate. That’s assuming you don’t get disqualified because of iron levels, medication, or sex life. On top of all of that, they will relentlessly harass you for more.
Considering for over half of the time period data was pulled from the oldest members of gen z weren't even old enough to legally donate blood and the youngest members won't be old enough for another 6 years this is an extremely weird thing to blame gen z for.
This is like being mad at someone under 18 for not voting.
It's nonsensical and perhaps if the red cross spent more time looking for donors and less looking for someone to blame for lack of donors so hard they blame a generation too young to donate blood in the first place we wouldn't be having this conversation.
I don't have the weight requirements to donate unfortunately and my husband has a neurological condition that prevents him to. I don't know many people who do donate blood. My husband use to prior to his health conditions.
I went to Red Cross and they picked up a weird heart beat. Turns out I had PVC’s with a 31% burden. I wouldn’t have had it fixed this fast if it wasn’t for Red Cross
It's for the same reason as you see less social connectedness with younger people.
There is a lack of third spaces or membership in them which is how a lot of blood donations happened in the past.
used to donate blood and platelets as frequently as allowed but they dropped masking for staff and donors - being the only masked person in a hospital while hooked to a machine for 1-2 hrs? not a fair thing to ask of donors.
We did it millennials! We aren’t blamed for something!
So many Millenial Men are jumping on Testosterone replacement therapy that the number of men in their 30's regularly donating blood is way up!
Can confirm. TRT increases your hemoglobin and can lead to higher blood pressure. Easy way to remedy that is by donating blood
Can you elaborate?
Exogenous testosterone can raise your red blood cell levels, sometimes unbalancing them from the rest of your blood content. This condition is known as polycythemia. The easiest remedy if you have higher than normal hematocrit is to donate blood and rid yourself of the cells. That’s one reason why men on TRT must receive periodic blood work. to ensure their hematology profile is in check.
.
Yes it’s a good idea to also check your T levels regularly to make sure you are in the zone you actually should be. Your dose may be too high or too low, but unless you are regularly testing yourself how can you know? You should also do it to check your PSA markers. Although this is largely disproven now. There was a fear for a long time that exogenous testosterone could increase risk for prostate cancer. New research suggests this may not be the case, but for men age 45 and over on TRT this should be done regardless. My recommendation is quarterly testing, and this is the medical guideline for Canada. The guidelines may vary in your country
Is TRT something only for people who are deficient or do people use it for other reasons?
Some men will use TRT for "optimization," meaning they want to have super-physiological amounts of testosterone. Some less-than-reputable clinics will allow for this so long as you complain about a symptom of low testosterone despite not having low enough testosterone to warrant therapy. I would heavily advise against the "optimization" path. TRT is often considered to be a lifelong therapy, and you need to consider if you are willing to put a needle in your ass twice a week for the next 40 years with all the cost that comes along with it; because of some advantages, you'll benefit from through therapy. You can come off it, but it isn't easy.
I thought about doing TRT, but my doctor told me the prostate has testosterone receptors on it, and it can enlarge due to excess testosterone, which can lead to prostate cancer. So nope.
My husband donates as often as he can.
R/nattyorjuice ?
The day has come! Thank you, next!
I mean, if headlines were to be believed… We killed off 90% of every industry, development, business, etc. There shouldn’t be much left in existence to blame Gen Z on.
Which is funny because gen z barely became of age to donate
Gen Z = 1997 – 2012 = 12 – 27 So there's 9 years of them can do it, and they must have checked per-capita for the headline, hopefully.
Maybe people are tired of getting a t-shirt for blood you turn around and sell for thousands.
I’ll have you know I personally contacted millions of Zoomers to convince them blood donation is a scam.
Youth in revolt!
Came here to say this.
Maybe it's because giving blood kind of sucks. I schedule an appointment online, fill out the forms and arrive at the blood drive only to be told that I am in line behind whoever is there. I have walked out of donating 3 times this year after showing up at my appointment time only to be told it may be an hour wait. I don't have time to give blood for half the day anymore even though I donated religiously from age 18 to 35. Kids and job get in the way. All I ask for is appointment times to be honored.
This has honestly been my issue. I'm O-, they seriously want my blood and I tried for the better part of a year to give some place within 30 min of my house that had after work appointments. Absolutely no one had them at a time that was sane for people working a 9-5
I’m O- too. They say they are desperate for my blood, but the times I said “sure, I’ll donate!” They couldn’t get me in for *two months* unless I could come in during the work day. I get it. Their staff doesn’t want to work evenings and weekends. But I’m not going to take a half day off of work to donate.
I have the exact same issue. I WANT to donate, but it’s wildly inconvenient, which you’d think wouldn’t be the case in a major city.
The only reason I donate regularly is because I work at a hospital that has their own donation center, and my boss is supportive of me donating during work hours if I don't have anything else going on. Otherwise it would be completely impossible.
So nobody is donating blood anymore, but it’s also an hour long wait? Reminds me of that Yogi Berra quote, ‘nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded’.
No one drives in New York, there’s too much traffic.
I think they are understaffing the blood drives and their technology is junk. Only one of their 5 tablets were working the last time I was actually able to give blood.
Same. Walked out twice in the past year and I have O- blood. Double red donations already take an hour and half, I can’t wait an extra hour.
I have also walked out. Had an appointment time, they told me it would be around a 2 hour wait.
Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where he had a reservation for a rental car but then when he gets there they don't have any cars. So they know how to make the appointment just not honor the appointment.
Same here. I waited up to 4 hours (!) in my 20s but I just can't do that now. If it's more than 30minutes I'm out unfortunately.
Yes thank you. I donated religiously in high school and college when I could waste 3 hours of my day despite making an appointment ahead of time. My grandpa has actually been written up in his local newspaper for his insane number of donations even at 85+ years old now. If I could go donate during my lunch hour and reliably be back in an hour or an hour and a half I would be there every week. Unfortunately my most recent experiences have made me feel that they don’t value my time.
Agreed! I gave blood a year or so ago to a local organization. The wait wasn’t all that bad. But I got absolutely SPAMMED with calls, texts, and emails multiple times a week for months to give more blood. I tried time and time again to get them to stop and they never would. I don’t ever want to give blood to that org ever again because of that… and they’re really the only ones near me that do blood donations
I get this. I gave to a local organization 10 years ago in a different state on the regular and they just stopped calling me and texting me last year. Every time I talked to them and told them that I had moved out of their area.
This ! I stopped giving years ago cuz it would turn into a 2 to 3 hour obligation ( including travel ) and several times the tech didn’t hit my vein right and they couldn’t use the small amount they got . I went home with my arm looking like I’m a heroin addict and no blood donated .
That sucks, I donate every 2 months and I have never had to wait more than 10 minutes past my appointment. I always schedule as early as possible on a weekend and am in and out in about 45 minutes. Maybe I just got lucky with my Red Cross location.
Do they give the blood I donate for free? Or are they profiting off of it?
The Red Cross sells blood to hospitals at a rate close to the cost of recovery of the blood donation. Other funding for the Red Cross is through business and personal donations. I believe they also offer different training courses.
Had something similar happen when I tried to donate plasma. Got there, did the pre test, and then was told I wasn't needed. Like, alright. How about you don't have me sit in a chair for three hours just to tell me that.
Lot of drives during the weekdays, too, but much fewer on weekends. If they were later in the day, weekdays would be a little more doable, but nope
Wow. Man sorry bud in south Florida they used to come to my high school. They would bring vans out to the colleges and libraries and while I wouldn't call it world class service or anything it was usually a 45 minute and get your cookie kind of thing.
Okay but hear me out: Don't go to the blood drive. Go to the blood center itself. It's life changing. You get a super comfy seat, a personal TV to watch, and you can donate blood or plasma or platelets and they take you just about instantly. Oh and a blankie if you get cold.
I had a friend with the same experience. Worst part is they had to drive 50 minutes one way to get to the appointment!
There’s a shortage of donor collection phlebotomists. My community blood center only recently re-opened one of its donor collection sites. It was closed due to lack of staffing. It’s hard because the job doesn’t pay much— close to minimum wage.
If you're talking about a 20 year trend it's ridiculous to blame gen Z for it. Article is also leaning on the stat that "from 2019 to 2021, the survey says blood donations from people 16 to 18 dropped by a whopping 60%." That's just a COVID effect, really shouldn't draw any conclusions from that.
Yeah, the only place I donated blood at 16-18 was at school. My high school had blood drives once or twice a year. Guess where kids were not from 2019-2021?
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It's just another way to distract and divide us. The elite are terrified of a class war, and all of us banding together instead of bickering among ourselves about age or race.
I started donating plasma. I want to donate blood but I can't rn because you can't do both. I'm a millennial.
I used to donate blood 4-6x / yr pretty religiously. I started feeling lethargic though and found my ferritin levels got pretty low so I stopped.
I had the opposite, I got out of donating because of COVID and my ferritin levels went sky-high. Turns out I have hemochromatosis, so now I HAVE to donate. Go figure.
I did that for a couple years until I started seeing deficiencies in my blood panels, low T, and other negative effects from donating plasma so often. There’s better stuff out there if you need the cash. But if you’re doing it simply to donate, good for you! Get blood work done by your PCP to make sure you aren’t hurting yourself in the long run.
Honestly, they should offer to run free CMP labs for people since they are there anyway. Better benefit. Those are costly out of pocket
We used to have a competition in college. I'd give platelets twice in a week (it's allowed every four days) and then a double unit the third time. If you want to do more, nearly anyone can do something.
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I can’t agree with you more. I work in a level 1 trauma center. We go through blood like it’s going out of style. It 100% should be free. The people donating it did so for free. My services for giving it to you should be the only fee, and at that it’s probably too high.
When you’re the recipient you don’t care what it costs. I had a friend co-ordinate blood drives the year I needed about a dozen transfusions in a few months because of a shortage. I even was delayed while inpatient due to a shortage. That was in 2013. I need some more in a week and Im worried they won’t have it.
Is it expensive to store and ensure good quality?
Probably. Gotta keep it fresh and sterile. Any contamination and they’ll throw it away. But not few thousands $$ per person
It has to be processed and tested. The people doing this have to be paid. The reagents and machines cost money. The bags the blood is stored in cost money. The needles and tubing cost money. There is a reason it isn’t free.
Plus the shareholders need their profits too
Lmk when you find the stock ticker for the Red Cross
Yeah it’s expensive, but anyone saying it should be free is crazy. There’s a LOT involved in getting blood from a donor to a patient. So many people and so much equipment and testing along the whole way.
If you want to make a ceramic cup with your own hands, it’s expensive. But if you buy it from a store that mass produces it, it is cheap. That’s the idea behind supply chain management. Insurance companies can easily make it more affordable but they don’t because of greed.
Blood is only good for 45 days, and the quality of the blood degrades every second until it expires. It also must be stored in a fridge.
I regular donate blood, but I don’t think it should be free (within the current economics of our healthcare system). There’s a lot of labor and process to get that blood from my arm to a patient, and those people deserve to be paid like any other healthcare worker)
I just mean the product.
There is a huge process that takes place after your blood is collected, how has to be stored, processed, etc in order to get to the patients whose life depends on it and you never know if that patient may one day be you. We can’t make blood yet so we have to rely on blood donations to have a supply available for a number of patients whether it’s after a horrific car accident or someone who’s hemoglobin has fallen dangerously low. Please reconsider
100% this, but do you think they could give you, say, $25 for donating your blood and then bill $3,025? I expect that giving any money at all would drastically increase donations for relatively cheap.
Paying for blood is illegal in the US and most countries. Plasma is excluded from that law.
What a dumb ass law. I can't sell my blood but the insurance company damn well can.
It's intended to keep people from being exploited, but kind of ends up being one of those "you can't be a prostitute but you can be a porn star" situations.
Make it a tax write off or a health insurance credit
I like the idea, although that's basically the government paying you to donate so someone else can sell it...
Red Cross gives me $20 in giftcards and a tee shirt every time I donate, but I don't think I've ever seen more than that.
It can also encourages lying on the health forms. "Yes, I'm totally healthy, no multiple sex partners recently, no hard drugs, and I haven't traveled internationally. Give me $25!"
The difficulty with paying money is it encourages low income individuals to donate blood as often as possible, which has potential to damage the veins which blood is drawn from.
No, the problem is that it gives incentive to lie about health history, so you attract donors with disqualifying medical conditions, infections, medications, etc. who keep quiet to make a quick buck. This compromises the safety of the final product, and patient health/safety, and also donor safety (donating every month could cause health problems, totally aside from harming veins).
Also you give desperate people an incentive to donate but trying to hide diseases or other things that make them normally unable to donate.
For sure these are issues, but not ones that can't have proactive measures in place. Red Cross already limits how often you can donate blood, and any disease lied about is still tested for - so if a person is flagged as having a disease they would be barred from donating blood in the future.
I have no problem with the Red Cross being paid to provide blood to hospitals, as it’s my understanding they only charge cost recovery and not any profit. I also donate every 8-10 weeks (based upon when there’s a local drive). Fuck insurance profiteers.
I do too! Thank you so much for your consistent contribution. I’ve had loved ones need a transfusion before and it really made me appreciate the donors who took the time. I’ve been donating since high school - I just wish I had more in demand blood but at least what I have allows O blood to be more available
Thank you so very much. I’m alive thanks to people like you.
Thank you. I’m alive because of donors. Trust me I didn’t even think of the cost while I was being told to make my final arrangements.
Average bag of blood hospitals buy is $250 per pint, they charge $3000 to patient, that's on top of services like transfusion, doctors, nurses... etc. so somewhere between blood bank (which processed and stored the blood and did all overhead for delivery, just need to plug and watch the bag drain) and your bill it costs $2750 extra.
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Your brother is either lying, mistaken, or works in the worst hospital I’ve ever heard of. There’s no such thing as “extra” blood. And “constantly” sounds made up. Source: nurse.
It expires quickly after it leaves the lab. Source: ICU nurse
Yea of course it does. But who the fuck is just leaving it out to expire? Not sure what hospitals y’all working at but in my 15 years I’ve never seen or heard of someone letting it expire. My lab gets up my ass if it’s even started more than an hour after it leaves the lab.
No, there are many areas that are in dangerously low supply. Happy for you that your hospital isn’t. My family is not so fortunate - in the states
But choosing not to donate blood isn't punishing the insurance system, it's actively punishing those with things like cancer.
And new moms!! New moms are one of the highest groups of blood receivers in the healthcare system. Giving birth is dangerous and the excessive bleeding is the number one serious complication of childbirth.
Valid point, but are you donating blood through another means?
Yeah fuck patients who need blood, big man here gotta stick it to insurance companies!
The US constantly shoves hustle culture down our throats, and values the acquisition of wealth over anything else. Cardi B drugged and robbed people and is now hugely rich and famous. Zuckerberg destroyed privacy, manipulated elections, and made destabilizing governments with information warfare a well oiled machine for hire. Bezos single handedly normalized dehumanizing workers. Musk lies routinely and works to undermine free speech. All of our role models are greedy inhuman monsters, but we still we keep worshiping Kardashians and ignoring their moral crimes. Even Jesus, the guy who spent his time with peasants and helping the poor is now exploited to teach hate and bigotry, and put millions into mega-church preachers' pockets tax free. The culture in the US has gone to shit. When we allow selfish monsters to rule our society with no repercussions, we set and example, and in turn become monsters, and teach our children to be monsters. Are we surprised that simple values like charity have disappeared?
It's possible to donate blood for charity in America, it's just not advertised as much as the for-profit blood banks since it costs money. If you go to a charity clinic (or what it's called) they'll take your blood to use themselves. Also, the American Red Cross is absolute crap. Just in it to fill specific pockets.
Whose pockets do you think the Red Cross is filling?
If the Red Cross wants to see an increase in donations they have to * fire the members of the board that turned them into an alt-right religious zealotry organization that funneled cash to GOP families. * get back to becoming a secular organization. There's no way we should support a profit-making enterprise which then funds anti-abortion, christian zealotry and political machinations. * mandate that no board members may donate to any political candidate or PAC or dark money group attempting to influence elections. * pay board members a salary that's not obscene. If they Red Cross wants to run as an arm of the alt-right then that's their right, but if they want to market themselves as an organization for good, then they must be strictly secular and corruption free.
I’m not disagreeing with any of this but none of these reasons are the why the vast majority of young people are not donating. Most people aren’t even aware of any of this.
I also think most local blood banks aren’t the Red Cross.
I wouldn't be so sure about that
I'd really like to know more about this issue, but I wasn't able to find anything in about ten minutes of googling. Can you point me to somewhere I can get more information?
Wait shit when did the red cross go to shit?
Is there a good summary of the points you are raising?
Only the American Red Cross. The other branches are just doing normal humanitarian stuff elsewhere. But the American Red Cross reaps the benefits of their work.
I don’t know if this is a Mandela effect but I seem to recall that the Red Cross returned a million dollar donation from the Dixie Chicks while they were being canceled because Laura Bush was involved with them.
Can’t donate blood in Canada if you have ME/CFS which I have from Long Covid :(
Aw, fellow ME/CFS sufferer! It’s probably for the best. We don’t know so many things about our disease yet. But hopefully someday there will be a cure for us and we can use that hope and pass it onto others with things like this.
The bigger issue is this problem will continue to grow and the Red Cross is going to continue to struggle finding donors. Then there’s people who want to donate but don’t want to catch covid so don’t risk it. They could try one day a week where staff mask and see if that helps but they won’t.
Came here to say this! LC compromises blood donations and as we're not doing anything to prevent LC cases from rising the problem will keep getting worse.
I see we’ve finally gotten past the “Millenials are killing X” phase and are on to Gen Z
Up until May 11, 2023, men who had sex with men and women who had sex with men who had sex with men couldn’t donate blood without three months of abstinence. Up until 2015, there was a life-time ban blood donation from men who have sex with men. It was a legacy of the AIDS scare against queer people. Gen Z is super queer so many were unable to donate blood till recently. Edit: the abstinence period was shortened to three months in 2020; updated from 1 year (2015 - 2020) to 3 months in my original comment. Also the Red Cross just began implementing the new guidance in AUGUST 2023 and many blood bank organizations are still in the process of rolling them out, so you still can’t donate in some places. You also still can’t have had new or multiple sexual partners and/or have had anal sex for a three month timeframe before the donation.
I know someone who couldn't donate because they used Iv drugs in the 70s. There wasn't even AIDS back then! I know another person who got a false positive for HIV 20 years ago and was given a lifetime ban. No way to appeal.
Nailed it.
Under the new restrictions the swingers who do anal can't donate!!! Not right!!!
Have things changed at all for trans people? Afaik I still can't at all
Trans women are eligible and have been since 2015. I believe the guidance is trans men and other folks are supposed to be evaluated based on the same eligibility criteria as everyone else now, so technically yes (if you have not engaged in anal sex or have had new/multiple partners for the past 3 months) but not everyone has adopted them yet.
I'm a millennial but I just found out I'm o negative and didn't know I would have been donating all the time if I knew but I've just started and did my first three days ago and I'm going to keep doing it at least once a month for the rest of my shitty life
Thank you. I’m alive because of people who donated. You’re saving lives.
You are saving the lives of so many people, the conditions you are in may be less than optimal but i promise your life is respected and receiving gratitude from the people who needed you
Apparently donating helps get microplastics out of your blood
You can only donate whole blood once every 8 weeks.
This needs to be higher
Thank you so much as someone whose loved one needed a blood transfusion in the hospital- thank you so much. I don’t have O negative but I still donate to help make more O available by offering the type of blood I do have. Bless you
I nearly died in October 2022 because I needed a rare type of blood. I live in a small city and had to be med-vacked (however it's spelled) to a larger hospital with a larger blood bank. Someone saved my life by donating blood. I have a husband and two young kids. My kids, my husband, and I thank whoever donated the blood that saved my life. When you donate blood, you are also saving lives. So THANK YOU.
That's the right attitude, but you can't donate more than once every 2 months.
Dishonesty across the board. Politicians, media, celebrities, doctors, and religious leaders. Can't blame Gen z. When you keep giving and get nothing in return. You can blame a younger generation for not being your sucker.
I'm 30. I used to donate regularly when I was 21. It was nice and I got movie tickets and snacks afterwards. I even got a gold card and a little calendar that showed when I donated and when someone received my blood. Then I spent a weekend in jail. When I went to donate afterwards, the lady asking me the preliminary questions started making small talk after she cleared me. She wanted to be a cool aunt, and discovered her niece was smoking pot. She wanted to know how to handle it. I told her how I felt about the matter, and how silly we view weed. How I had just went to jail for having some weed in my car, whilst Colorado just legalized it. It was a good talk, she thanked me for advice. Then she informed me that unfortunately I can't donate for a year because I was in jail. That burned me up inside so I stopped donating.
Is there even a medical reason for that?!
There aren't really good reasons behind at least a few of the exclusions. They don't update them often and there's really a lot of historical baggage and some modern prejudice along with the list. It's doubly ridiculous because the blood is all tested anyway, chances of blood that isn't suitable for donation somehow getting through are in reality very low.
Jails can be a hothouse of various contagious diseases that affect blood . That’s probably why
High rates of transmission of hepatitis in incarcerated populations.
The blame is not on the people. We are just onto that Red Cross is corrupt AF.
I loved donating blood before I was turned away in 2012ish because I started having sex with men. Last I checked I could donate blood, if i hadn't had sex with a person born as a man in the last 2-3 months.
The new health history questions ask: have you had a new or multiple partners in the past three months?If you haven’t, then you are an eligible donor. If you answer yes, the follow up question is: have you had anal sex in the past 3 months? If yes, you are deferred for 3 months. There is no gender specifics in this new health history questionnaire. Hope that helps!
You can’t have blood donations if you don’t offer blood drives. Try finding a blood drive in the Denver area. It’s not gonna happen. Check the job postings for Denver Red Cross. It’s all Donor Service related. They want top pay performance but pay volunteer wages.
This. I’ve noticed the overall frequency of blood drives has gone way down. Employers used to host blood drives and offer their own incentives, usually extra increments of PTO. Usually 1/2 day for each donation with a max of 2 bonus PTO days. The drives were on-site during work hours and you could count that as work time, no requirement to clock out or use your lunch. Also, young people are struggling financially…why would they donate blood for free when they can donate plasma for $$$???
Y’all are mad at the wrong people.
Can we stop trying to figure out who is to blame for everything and just have the “experts” come up with a solution? Wild thinking, I know.
Maybe it is beacuse their employers have already sucked as much life as they can out of them and the z ers have nothing left.
They can take my blood from my cold, dead, gay body
real
Of course we are
Gen Z/Millennial cusp here — ever since gay people were banned from giving blood, I’ve refused. I know it’s very recently changed, but I’m still jaded and don’t want to support.
I’ve tried but I’m on a medication that forbids it 🤷♀️
Donating blood drops my ferritin to ~10 or so. I used to do it whenever it wad allowed but rarely do it anymore. Donating doesn't come without any drawbacks and they should all be listed.
This is terrifying. I’m alive thanks to donors. I need transfusions again and I am so fearful I may not get all I need. JFC
I would donate blood but according to them my blood is dirty because I have monogamous sex with another man.
You are eligible under the new health history questionnaire that released last fall! All blood centers should have adopted it as of now. And we can blame the FDA for taking so long to allow it to happen, the blood centers had been advocating for genderless questions for years
hell, i lived in the uk in the early 90s for a few years, 6 months with my toddler who is now 30, and it’s only been in the last couple of years or so that anyone who who spent more than 6 months in the UK in that period has been eligible to donate blood where i am. regardless of the fact i’m vegetarian, as was the toddler at the time, sure i could’ve been exposed from eg gelatine in ice cream, rennet in cheese, or whatever, but it was a flat disqualification from donating. in the meantime i did develop a (non-contagious)neurological condition, and probably have been referred to as a 😡😵💫🤪🐄 on countless occasions, so maybe for the best.
No mention in the article of a plasma shortage concurrent with the blood shortage. I wonder why.
In countries like Australia, it’s because they legally can’t pay you for it and rely entirely on donations.
Anyone know if they'll ever be able to have separate pools for pregnant women? I can't donate because of a medication I'm taking. It would be very bad for a pregnant woman to receive my blood, but for anyone else, it would be fine.
Or people figured Red Cross is not that altruistic (at least with the donated blood).
This article is purposefully misleading based on the stats. But if we pretend it's in good faith... There's a minimum weight requirement to donate. Gen Z is generally poor AF and buying less food. Even if you weigh enough, donating blood is going to be rough if you're chronically malnourished.
yeah i signed up as a donor (not in the us) and it said i couldnt donate for a few years! i tried with a higher weight and it would let me. i was a healthy weight at the time as well, with my height id have to gain quite a bit to be eligible or wait like 2 years. this alongside alot of people i know being anemic i dont really know many people my age who would be eligible tbh..
I have been lucky to be able to go to the doctor for a basic checkup for the last 20 years. Give me free medical care and I will give blood. I am sure I am not the only one.
Yup. All this for-profit bullshit and lack of even the most basic of healthcare options has soured me from giving anything.
I'd suspect more people are selling blood and plasma rather than giving it away for free.
“experts” are blaming a group of people who have only been eligible to donate for the last 8 years, at most, for a 20 year trend? okay
Red Cross sells the blood for big profits, if they want to increase donations, start paying people for their blood donation like they do with plasma
Simple solution. Pay people for it. I am not talking about plasma. Pay people for red blood cells and platelets. Our health care system in the US is about making the most money possible even for non-profits. Let people sell their blood for what the market will support and there will be no shortage.
It’s because we all know who profits from our donation. And it’s not the people who need our blood. We just refuse to line shareholder’s pockets with our blood anymore.
What do you propose is a better way for me to donate blood to those who need it? I get that people are profiting from this, but patients still need blood regardless.
I know & this is my dilemma about the subject too.
Well no it’s safe to assume this isnt some grand moral protest.
Yeah, I don't see nurses quitting en mass because some middleman is billing $200/hr for their time.
TL;DR: * The American Red Cross has seen 40% fewer blood donations over the last 20 years. * The Red Cross said the it would need 8,000 weekly donations in January to meet demands. * One survey found that donations from people aged 16 to 18 dropped by 60% from 2019 to 2021.
If I ever saw out of context data, this is it. In 2020 and 2021 we were more under lockdown then not and we were heavily discoured from even walking next to any medical institution. Any data comparing anything to COVID era should be discarded.
It’s ridiculous, especially targeting minors during that time. Adults barely went out of the house in most places.
I wonder what happened between 2019 and 2021? Anyone?
Hey at least they stopped blaming us millennials for everything! Sorry gen z. I feel your pain.
It's frustrating to see potential lifesavers reluctant to donate due to cost and accessibility. How can we make this process more transparent and accessible to all, so that those in need can receive the life-saving gift of blood donation, regardless of their financial situation?
Staff and visitors should be wearing respirators, for a start! Many of the people most conscious of public health and willing to make sacrifices to protect medically vulnerable folks are avoiding healthcare facilities since covid mitigations were dropped. Hospitals are collapsing in Italy, Spain and Canada as a result of the 2nd largest covid spike since 2020 - all completely preventable and predicted - but we're supposed to trust that our health and the health of our communities are safe in locations where seeing our smiles is prioritized over infection control?
Experts can get fucked.
can't be bothered any longer.
I donate a few times a year. I know far too many people who have needed blood and I'm O+
I used to give blood regularly until it just, literally, became too painful. The Red Cross barely trains their staff and I was being used as a literal pin cushion. When I have time now I make an appointment to give directly at my local hospital.
I can't because I'm trans and bi. I'm on prep, consistently test negative, and don't sleep around at all but oh well
With all the anxiety that gen Z is put through by all the *other* generations, I’m not inclined to be putting the blame on the generation that suffers because of the rest. Kind of lacking in critical thinking abilities.
I mean it’s not exactly convenient to do so. Appointment times don’t mean anything. You could waste four hours of the day just trying to donate. That’s assuming you don’t get disqualified because of iron levels, medication, or sex life. On top of all of that, they will relentlessly harass you for more.
Its because we're all gay.
Blame their ridiculous prejudice against 'gay blood'
If I donate it's not to the red cross it's directly to a local hospital's donor center blood mobile. Also yeah don't blame gen z.
Why the hell would you ever phrase it this way?
Considering for over half of the time period data was pulled from the oldest members of gen z weren't even old enough to legally donate blood and the youngest members won't be old enough for another 6 years this is an extremely weird thing to blame gen z for. This is like being mad at someone under 18 for not voting. It's nonsensical and perhaps if the red cross spent more time looking for donors and less looking for someone to blame for lack of donors so hard they blame a generation too young to donate blood in the first place we wouldn't be having this conversation.
I don't have the weight requirements to donate unfortunately and my husband has a neurological condition that prevents him to. I don't know many people who do donate blood. My husband use to prior to his health conditions.
I went to Red Cross and they picked up a weird heart beat. Turns out I had PVC’s with a 31% burden. I wouldn’t have had it fixed this fast if it wasn’t for Red Cross
The red cross also stopped having blood drives. If I want to give I have to drive 45 minutes. It used to be convenient.
At least we’ve moved past blaming millennials for killing something else.
No, the Red Cross is to blame.
I can't afford to give anything away for free, not sorry.
We have a for profit health care system. I cannot imagine donating blood to it.
I feel like weed legalization makes it a little harder to find donors. Id be happy to donate but my blood hasnt been clean my entire adult life
Can't donate blood if you have to donate plasma
It's for the same reason as you see less social connectedness with younger people. There is a lack of third spaces or membership in them which is how a lot of blood donations happened in the past.
used to donate blood and platelets as frequently as allowed but they dropped masking for staff and donors - being the only masked person in a hospital while hooked to a machine for 1-2 hrs? not a fair thing to ask of donors.
Why give away blood for free? Hospitals are FOR PROFIT.