Dr Crisler Now Says No Blood Donation is Needed When Hematocrit is High

[Dr Justin Saya MD]

In Nelson's link notice how both curves (blood pressure and blood viscosity) become much more steep as you progress through HCT levels in the lower 50's...that is when risk truly begins to increase.

 

[captain]

2014 my labs and BP.
Testosterone 768 ng/dL 220 - 1000 ng/dL
Hemoglobin 17.7 g/dL 13.0 - 17.0 g/dL
Hematocrit 51.2 % 39.0 - 51.0 %
BP 122/82

2017
Testosterone 783 ng/dL 220 - 1000 ng/dL
hemoglobin 16.3 12.6-17.7 g/dL
hematocrit 48.4 37.5-51.0 %
BP 122/80


I have talked with Dr Crisler about this and I took it as you should keep an open mind about it. I didn't hear him saying not to donate or you shouldn't. I seen it as someone trying to have a conversation about it and then getting jumped all over for it.

 

[ratbag]

It really is confusing because if TRT users have low platelets then we cannot have polycemia. So when we say our hemotacrit is too high do we all assume we have polycemia? or do we not? If you live in high altitudes you supposedly have high hemotacrit but do not have polycemia and for those people MD's do not recommend phlebotomies. Just trying to understand what we are saying. I guess the real question is if we have high hemotacrit because of TRT and our platelets are low do we have a problem?

 

[Nelson Vergel]

ratbag

Someone living at high altitudes has hematocrit of 50 at most. That is the wrong argument to say that men on TRT do not have to monitor and control their hematocrit above 53.

If you have low platelets, something is wrong. You may have an infection, cirrhosis, or medication induced decrease in platelets.

 

[ratbag]

Thanks Nelson,

Sorry I should have stated what my platelets were(Plat=192, 150-400). This is my situation, if I cut myself shaving I have a heck of a time stopping the bleeding. I sense from reading what Dr. Crisler says (perhaps via Rouzier) is that platelets was their concern and they are differentiating between polycemia and ethrotosis. So regardless of polycemia or ethrotosis if our hemotacrit is high we should donate blood is what we are saying here? I did donate blood a few times because of this concern and before the donation (my HCT was 53 and my hemoglobin was above range as well) my heartbeat was 103 and after donation it was 80. My BP was a little high before donation and roughly the same afterwards. Since then I reduced my TRT from 55mg E3D to 45 E3D while keeping my HCG the same at 500iu E3D. This allowed me to reduce my AI a little. I'm going in next week for bloods to see how it's all worked out. Not sure why I bleed so easily or do not clot fast enough. I never had that problem before trt. However I do take low dose naltrexone 4.5mg daily, but from what I've read I'm not sure that contributes to this problem.