Maximum Hemoglobin Accepted By Red Cross?

armada · Apr 12, 2019

I remember a few years ago I donated blood through the red cross. They tested my hemoglobin before I donated like they always do, and they mentioned that I was close to the maximum hemoglobin level that they allowed to donate.

I don't remember what the max hemoglobin level was. Does anyone know what the max hemoglobin level they allow is?

I want to say it was 18 maybe?

I'm scheduled to donate on Saturday, but I think there is a decent chance I will actually be above that...

Stewie · Apr 12, 2019

20 is their cutoff. Try to hydrate as much as possible without overdoing it. I'd try to go in later in the day rather than first thing in the morning.

armada · Apr 13, 2019

Stewie said:
20 is their cutoff. Try to hydrate as much as possible without overdoing it. I'd try to go in later in the day rather than first thing in the morning.

19.3 at the Red Cross today prior to donating. Only 1 week into a cycle...may need to make some modifications to it...

Thanks.

maldorf · Apr 13, 2019

armada said:
19.3 at the Red Cross today prior to donating. Only 1 week into a cycle...may need to make some modifications to it...

Thanks.

Wow, that is really high for just starting a cycle and higher than you should let it get by the end of the cycle. Just one donation wont be enough.

If I were you I would stop the cycle now and go on no more than 150 mg/wk test until you can get that number down to at least 17. Multiple phlebotomies are needed now.

vizman · Apr 13, 2019

maldorf said:
Wow, that is really high for just starting a cycle and higher than you should let it get by the end of the cycle. Just one donation wont be enough.

If I were you I would stop the cycle now and go on no more than 150 mg/wk test until you can get that number down to at least 17. Multiple phlebotomies are needed now.

Damn, I’m always in the high ranges myself. Been turned down a couple of times. Going to donate tomorrow. Any idea how much will one donation lower hemoglobin?

Stewie · Apr 13, 2019

armada said:
19.3 at the Red Cross today prior to donating. Only 1 week into a cycle...may need to make some modifications to it...

Thanks.

Out of curiosity, do you wake up quite frequently to use the bathroom?

maldorf · Apr 13, 2019

vizman said:
Damn, I’m always in the high ranges myself. Been turned down a couple of times. Going to donate tomorrow. Any idea how much will one donation lower hemoglobin?

It honestly doesn't seem to lower it much. Id say maybe 1 point to 2. If you are still using while you do that then it will continue to go up the whole time and it will be a constant battle to keep it down to a safe level.

Even on just HRT, 100 mg/wk, Im having to get phlebotomies done now once every 2 to 3 months.

Stewie · Apr 13, 2019

vizman said:
Damn, I’m always in the high ranges myself. Been turned down a couple of times. Going to donate tomorrow. Any idea how much will one donation lower hemoglobin?

Generally, if you're sufficiently hydrated, dumping 500ml (one pint) of blood will lower your hemoglobin by 2-3 points.

armada · Apr 14, 2019

Stewie said:
Out of curiosity, do you wake up quite frequently to use the bathroom?

No, I rarely wake up during the night.

maldorf · Apr 14, 2019

Stewie said:
Generally, if you're sufficiently hydrated, dumping 500ml (one pint) of blood will lower your hemoglobin by 2-3 points.

Mine never dropped near that, wish it would. I suppose people with higher blood volumes are going to have less of an affect. Not sure how much blood volume can vary from one person to another. Maybe I just have a lot of blood!

Stewie · Apr 14, 2019

armada said:
No, I rarely wake up during the night.

Well that's a good.

This is more of an FYI in the event someone suspects they 'may' have sleep apnea. Generally speaking, if one's waking up multiple times per night to use the bathroom and urinating quite a bit of volume as a whole rather than a small volume, this is a good indication one may have undiagnosed sleep apnea.

Basically trying to piece together if there's a secondary cause to your erythrocytosis.

Stewie · Apr 14, 2019

maldorf said:
Mine never dropped near that, wish it would. I suppose people with higher blood volumes are going to have less of an affect. Not sure how much blood volume can vary from one person to another. Maybe I just have a lot of blood!

Definitely individualized. Generally I'll drop 2-3 points.

rookx750 · Apr 14, 2019

Just drink a ridiculous amount of water for a day or two before going. Thief test instruments are terrible, you can drop it by a couple of points if you hydrate the shit out of your blood.

armada · Apr 14, 2019

Stewie said:
Well that's a good.

This is more of an FYI in the event someone suspects they 'may' have sleep apnea. Generally speaking, if one's waking up multiple times per night to use the bathroom and urinating quite a bit of volume as a whole rather than a small volume, this is a good indication one may have undiagnosed sleep apnea.

Basically trying to piece together if there's a secondary cause to your erythrocytosis.

Your help is much appreciated.

I suspect what happened is that my hematocrit was elevated pre blast. I was blasting 500 test 200 deca, then had to take a break and cruise unexpectedly. That was maybe a month-5 weeks ago, then I cruised for about 4 weeks and am now back on:

500 test
200 deca
50 var on training days

Debating how to proceed. I will definitely introduce cardio and cut the drugs down. I saw you posted a study on grapefruit a while back, but I'm unsure if it will interfere with anything I take (eg telmisartan - I found a Canadian study showing an interaction with losartan, but none ofthe other ARBs). I know the right thing to do is to drop to TRT, but I'm debating dropping to maybe 400 test and cutting out the deca and var entirely...

maldorf · Apr 14, 2019

armada said:
Your help is much appreciated.

I suspect what happened is that my hematocrit was elevated pre blast. I was blasting 500 test 200 deca, then had to take a break and cruise unexpectedly. That was maybe a month-5 weeks ago, then I cruised for about 4 weeks and am now back on:

500 test
200 deca
50 var on training days

Debating how to proceed. I will definitely introduce cardio and cut the drugs down. I saw you posted a study on grapefruit a while back, but I'm unsure if it will interfere with anything I take (eg telmisartan - I found a Canadian study showing an interaction with losartan, but none ofthe other ARBs). I know the right thing to do is to drop to TRT, but I'm debating dropping to maybe 400 test and cutting out the deca and var entirely...

What was your cruise at? Try lowering your cruise dose of test next time. I do hope your cruise was test only. Try to get down to 200 to150 mg/wk at the most on a cruise.

TheOne24 · Apr 14, 2019

20 is the cut off point.

I went a while ago with 19.7, that’s when they informed me that 20 was the cut off point.

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NEMSZ · Apr 14, 2019

Jesus @ some of you guys lol

I’d be freaked out with some of those numbers..

Does anyone know if there’s any truth to the whole phlebotomy rebound thing? That when someone donates to get those numbers down too often the body rebounds and bounces back right away and it’s harder to control or something like that? I’m not totally on point with it but remember reading something about it...

Stewie · Apr 14, 2019

NEMSZ said:
Jesus @ some of you guys lol

I’d be freaked out with some of those numbers..

Does anyone know if there’s any truth to the whole phlebotomy rebound thing? That when someone donates to get those numbers down too often the body rebounds and bounces back right away and it’s harder to control or something like that? I’m not totally on point with it but remember reading something about it...

Yes I've spoken out on this.

j-radical22 · Apr 14, 2019

GOT

For any of the nerds out there they are giving away limited edition Game of Thrones posters to those that donate now and a chance to win an actual thrown. Doesn't help with the convo just thought it was funny and genius marketing.