When to Donate

[GreenMachineX]

I've been struggling to get my H/H stabilized for 2 years now. I'm using 100mg test cyp per week split into 2 injections. This keeps my trough around 550. I last donated blood when my hemoglobin was 17.6. 6 weeks after that, my hemoglobin was 17.2 and hematocrit was 50. 2 weeks after that (yesterday), my hemoglobin was 17.4 when I donated. Would you have donated then as well or waited? Obviously I don't want to end up iron deficient again, but if I bring my test dose down even more, pretty sure I won't be feeling well (just guessing honestly). Any suggestions? What would you do?

 

[Vince]

To be honest with you, when my HCT got to 50 I just donated. I didn't even care about my iron. I was more afraid of high HCT then low-iron.

 

[Vince Carter]

I would worry about where the Free T is at when you consider your dose, who cares about the Total T...it's bound up and really doesn't effect anything at all. Worry about your Free T.
But otherwise getting sucked in to the donation and low iron/ferritin vortex is a never ending cycle if you can't find a way out of it. I would prefer high HCT where there's some more controversial thought on treating that at all given some other treatments where people aren't being drained like this on TRT. I would prefer not to kill my iron personally.

 

[GreenMachineX]

Gotcha. I'll lower my dose to 80 mg per week and see how it goes.