How much does giving blood drop blood levels?

[RLW]

I'm wondering how much giving blood will drop your Hematocrit? Also if anyone knows, I would be interested in finding out how much it drops Feritin?

 

[Vince Carter]

HCT appx 3 points, no idea on ferritin i havent heard that in a numbers sense ever discussed

 

[Saul]

I'm wondering how much giving blood will drop your Hematocrit? Also if anyone knows, I would be interested in finding out how much it drops Feritin?

Ferritin varies from 20 to 50. I am not an expert, but I was told that it is about 30 due to iron, but if you are on TRT and depending on your situation, it can drop more due to the TRT reducing inflamation, and ferritin also being affected by inflammation. That is what I experienced and was told by the Dr. Initially In was around 30 per donation but then when I upped TRT dose, ate better and cut out (mostly) the booze and dairy, it was dropping ~ 40 per donation with testing every couple 4 months. I should add that your body is always absorbing iron from the food you eat, so that will affect the drop (over the long term)and some people absorb more iron than others.

 

[madman]

I'm wondering how much giving blood will drop your Hematocrit? Also if anyone knows, I would be interested in finding out how much it drops Feritin?[/QUyourOTE]

If your ferritin/iron levels are not in a healthy range or you are not getting enough iron through diet/supplementation and you choose to donate frequently as in every 56 days be prepared to run into low ferritin/iron issues as you will loose roughly 225-250 mg iron/ 1 pint (500 ml) whole blood.

For males donating more than 3-4 times per year can make one more prone to having low ferritin/iron stores in the long run so daily intake of iron through diet especially heme iron ( liver/red meat/oysters) or supplementation with iron is a must and is critical to avoid low ferritin/iron issues from too frequent donations.

It is basically a catch 22 as in order for many to keep hematocrit/hemoglobin levels in a healthy range through donating blood, frequent donations are usually needed and many men/women do not understand that if ones ferritin/iron levels are already sub-par than frequent donations will make levels worse.

The main issue is once ferritin/iron get too low one can experience a host of negative effects as healthy levels are critical to overall health and most importantly when levels are very low it can take 3-4 months to get levels back up and in order to achieve this high dosages of iron supplementation are needed along the lines of what Vince Carter takes as basic iron supplementation in low doses as in 10-30 mg/day will not work.

If you run into low ferritin/iron issues than you are going to have to stop donating blood for 3-4 months to get your levels back up before donating again and by that time your hematocrit/hemoglobin has creeped back up to unhealthy levels.

Worse case scenario is once ferritin/iron is too low in some cases high dose supplementation will not work for some and than you may be looking at injection/intravenous iron.

It is a fine line to walk when donating frequently to keep hematocrit/hemoglobin in a healthy range along with good levels of ferritin/iron.

 

[RLW]

Before starting testosterone my hematocrit was 46. On my 3 month follow up labs it was 48. My next set of labs was for 6 months later. I made the mistake of giving blood a month before those labs were drawn. There was a blood drive at work and I assumed it was on the rise so I figured why not. Then my hematocrit came back at 45 so probably didn't need to donate.

Everything was good on my labs except for Feritin which was 16 and on the test I took the normal range is 30-400 which is why I was wondering how much it might drop from giving blood. I'm not sure how low 16 actually is but I have not been having any symptoms and feel pretty good.

I would really prefer to avoid going all out on supplementation and am hoping this could be resolved through diet and not giving blood again.

 

[madman]

Before starting testosterone my hematocrit was 46. On my 3 month follow up labs it was 48. My next set of labs was for 6 months later. I made the mistake of giving blood a month before those labs were drawn. There was a blood drive at work and I assumed it was on the rise so I figured why not. Then my hematocrit came back at 45 so probably didn't need to donate.

Everything was good on my labs except for Feritin which was 16 and on the test I took the normal range is 30-400 which is why I was wondering how much it might drop from giving blood. I'm not sure how low 16 actually is but I have not been having any symptoms and feel pretty good.

I would really prefer to avoid going all out on supplementation and am hoping this could be resolved through diet and not giving blood again.

Your ferritin is terribly low and needs to be brought up.

Crisler prefers 100-150 as an optimal range.

Highly doubtful diet alone will get your low levels up.

If anything high dose iron supplement for 3-4 months would be needed and donations avoided until it improves otherwise it will get worse.

You may not be experiencing symptoms now which is hard to believe but it will happen sooner or later if you do not get your levels up.

 

[RLW]

Your ferritin is terribly low and needs to be brought up.

Crisler prefers 100-150 as an optimal range.

Highly doubtful diet alone will get your low levels up.

If anything high dose iron supplement for 3-4 months would be needed and donations avoided until it improves otherwise it will get worse.

You may not be experiencing symptoms now which is hard to believe but it will happen sooner or later if you do not get your levels up.

I guess I'll be supplementing then. That was the first and last time I will be donating blood.

 

[madman]

I live in Canada and Feramax (non-ionic) is a great iron supplement as it has minimal negative gastrointestinal effects as oppose to the iron salts (ionic). 100 mg elemental iron/150 mg pill.

http://www.feramax.com/faq.php

 

[madman]

http://theironmaiden.ca/the-three-stages-of-iron-deficiency/

3 Stages of Iron Deficiency

 

[madman]

http://theironmaiden.ca/the-progression-of-iron-deficiency/The Progression of Iron Deficiency

 

[madman]

http://theironmaiden.ca/supplementation-options-for-adults/

 

[RLW]

Thanks for the info. I'll be working on it.

 

[Vince Carter]

You can get into a vicious cycle here like I'm in and I've got my Cyp dose but its like this, I have to donate every 56 days, which kills my Ferritin, so I supplement high dose of iron with Vit C and Lysine, and get my Ferritin to come up a bit, but by then I'm at 56 days and have to donate again which nukes my Ferritin. I/we have discussed how the iron supplementation can spur HGB/HCT production so you get trapped in this cycle. But as I said I've cut my Cyp dose to get my Free T down from being astronomically high. I'll be able to see if it's that that is driving my HCT/HGB rise.