Donor Educational Material

Donor Educational material

Ask about health and travel
Ask about medicines you are taking or have taken
Ask about your risk for infections that can be transmitted by blood –e.g AIDS and viral hepatitis
Take your blood pressure, pulse and weight
Take a blood sample to be sure your hemoglobin level is acceptable

Clean your arm with an antiseptic. Tell us if you have any skin allergies
Collect your blood using a sterile, disposable needle that has not been used before

Frequent blood donation can lower the iron levels in your body. While this does not have an impact on the health of most individuals, it can affect some people, particularly young women and individuals who donate blood frequently (more that two times annually) without iron replacement, leading to a decrease in the body's stored iron.
Hemoglobin, a protein that transports oxygen to the body, contains iron, which gives red blood cells their characteristic red color. Therefore, the removal of red blood cells during blood donation also removes iron from your body. The impact of this iron loss on the health of donors varies.
To replenish the red blood cells lost during donation, the body requires iron. This iron can either come from the body's existing iron stores or from the food consumed. Some women may only have a limited amount of iron stored in their body, which is insufficient to replace the red blood cells lost even after a single donation. Men, on the other hand, tend to have higher iron stores than women. However, frequent male donors (three or more donations per year) may also experience depleted iron stores.