Draining or donating blood

[PHunter]

I have seen a few people mention draining blood or donating blood to get some out of your system when on a cycle. What is the purpose of this? I did a lot of cycles 10-25 years ago and never heard of this but now a few people mention it.

[teejey]

I have seen a few people mention draining blood or donating blood to get some out of your system when on a cycle. What is the purpose of this? I did a lot of cycles 10-25 years ago and never heard of this but now a few people mention it.

It's to keep hemotacrit under control. Your hemotacrit can increase to a point that it's too much volume of red blood cells in your system putting stress on your heart. I go every 56 days. And stay in range. Some people say they crash feritin with donating too often, it's on an individual basis like everything with aas.

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[GearHeaded]

donating blood is for pussies that can't handle their gear usage and shouldn't be using gear in the first place .. increasing your hematocrit and your blood volume is what gear use is supposed to do in the first place. donating blood all the time is defeating the purpose .. you might as well just go be natty and stop wasting your time

[GearHeaded]

^ thats not a dig at you personally Teejey . I'm just talking in general and think guys are way over doing the blood donation thing.

if your hematocrit is high, but your blood platelet count is normal then your fine . stop draining your blood unless your blood platelet count is elevated along with elevating hemo

[< <Samson> >]

I donate & will stay donating - People need it, I have an access < seems like a no brainer


Yet - - - - I don't belive it to be a must. . . But, in the long run IMO it will help our ass stay intact longer from the toxic waste we pump into our own system

[GearHeaded]

donating can be a good thing for sure .. my only point was basically , why take AAS in the first place that increase your hematocrit and rbc just to go have to donate blood after the fact. its defeating the purpose.
its like why take 1500mg of test per week then have to take a shit ton of AI's to not convert to estrogen. how about just don't take that much test in the first place if your estrogen sensitive.

I mean heck . endurance athletes like cyclists will take things like EPO to directly raise their hemo levels up near 60.. they will drain their blood and store it, and then weeks later inject it back into their body just for the purpose of increasing their blood volume .

yet here you steroid users are donating your blood every 8 weeks .. lol . how about just not take the steroids then in the first place. or man up and let them do their job . you do know that thats what most steoroids purpose and design is to do in the first place, right. to increase blood volume.

[teejey]

If I didn't feel like shit from having elevated htc I wouldn't do it.

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[GearHeaded]

If I didn't feel like shit from having elevated htc I wouldn't do it.

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its not the elevated hemo that has you feeling like shit . and yes the blood donation helps you feel better.. but its not cause of lowering RBCs . its simply because of losing total blood volumization and fluid retention.

world class endurance athletes get their hematocrit way way higher then you. and they feel amazing and they perform at world class records. they don't feel like shit because high hematocrit doesn't make you feel like shit .. otherwise they wouldn't purposely elevate their hematocrit

your issue is simply too much fluid retention in the blood and cells.. thats why you end up not being able to breath and getting out of breath easily and feel lethargic all the time .
if it was simply hematocrit being high, then world class athletes wouldn't purposely increase their hematocrit to get an athletic edge

[JaneDoe]

most important is your blood work. Steroids wreak havoc on your blood levels. Therefore, you need to have the panels ordered before, during and after your cycle. This will identify many things for you to succeed and maintain good health.


Blood test required (minimum):


1. Total testosterone
2. Free testosterone
3. Sensitive E2 assay (non-basic estradiol, this is for women)
4. CBC (complete blood count)
5.CMP (comprehensive metabolic panel)
6. Lipid profile (post-cycle is good)
7. LH and FSH (pre-cycle and post-PCT)


These panels need to be made pre-cycle to ensure that your interns are ready for this tour. In the middle of the cycle, check that the dose of the estrogen blocker is working, that the blood is not too thick, that the liver is still safe and that your equipment is legitimate and not fake or underdosed. Post-cycle so you can verify that you have completed your cycle safely and that no problem needs attention.


Here's the time of your blood work:


Pre-cycle of blood work: 2 weeks before the cycle. Complete blood count
mid-cycle: 7 to 8 weeks in a 12-week cycle. Or 5 weeks in an 8 weeks.
Post-blood cycle: 6 weeks after PCT.


Blood thickening is very dangerous and steroids thicken the blood. Increased red blood cell production will result in higher levels of hematocrit. That number comes back with your CBC panel. It is best to keep this close to 50%. When it reaches 55% or more, you are at risk for blood clot, extreme fatigue, high blood pressure, headaches and a host of other concerns. To solve this problem, you will need to donate blood. This will lower your hematocrit levels. Be very cautious, because if your level reaches 55%, most donation centers will reject / refuse a donation from you. Then you will need to obtain a prescription from a doctor for a therapeutic phlebotomy. That's why blood work in the middle of the cycle is important.

[JaneDoe]

The above text is from Austinite, it's not mine!
I only shared it because I found this information useful !

[GearHeaded]

Blood thickening is very dangerous and steroids thicken the blood. Increased red blood cell production will result in higher levels of hematocrit. That number comes back with your CBC panel. It is best to keep this close to 50%. When it reaches 55% or more, you are at risk for blood clot, extreme fatigue, high blood pressure, headaches and a host of other concerns. To solve this problem, you will need to donate blood. This will lower your hematocrit levels. .

this is not completely accurate . its elevated blood platelet count along with high hematocrit that is concerning. high hematocrit by itself due to elevated DHT levels or AAS usage is not all that concerning.. in fact its going to increase your performance and enhance your physique.
high hematocrit levels for someone that does NOT use AAS may be concerning and indicate an underlaying condition. where as high hematocrit for an AAS user is to be expected and totally normal

[almostgone]

I will add that there are a few AAS users that have compromised cardiac systems and they absolutely will get in deep water with elevated Hct levels. My platelet count can be in range but Hct at the mid to upper 50 percentile and it will put me in a bad place.

That's not your typical AAS users but there are those out that still enjoy blasting/cruising and for those guys it's a necessity.

[GearHeaded]

I will add that there are a few AAS users that have compromised cardiac systems and they absolutely will get in deep water with elevated Hct levels. My platelet count can be in range but Hct at the mid to upper 50 percentile and it will put me in a bad place.

That's not your typical AAS users but there are those out that still enjoy blasting/cruising and for those guys it's a necessity.

is this from a pre existing condition ? or from AAS use itself ?

[almostgone]

is this from a pre existing condition ? or from AAS use itself ?

I'm on break but I'll give you a quick rundown of about a 6-7 year period.

Torn right spinal erector while already having bronchitis, developed pneumonia, a virus called Coxsackie B (rather gay sounding name) got into my system. By the time the damage was done I had viral myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, left bundle branch, congestive heart failure, mitral valve disorder, atrial fibrillation ( related to the left bundle branch block), and was throwing clots like a female on a menstrual cycle. My left ejection fraction got down to sub-12% and I was eligible to be worked up for a transplant, but that wasn't for me. Discussed it with the Mrs. and there's lots of kids that could get more usage from a new heart, plus on immunosuppressants, you have a really good chance of being perpetually sick from viruses, etc.

Was down for 5 months but had to get back to work to keep job, insurance, and all that good happy stuff. Could have gotten disability, but who wants that? They review most cases annually and if you're improved, your off disability, besides I needed insurance for the wife as well. Dug deep for a few years and managed to do nothing but work, sleep, and slowly go my ejection fraction back up to just above 30%. I had another bad spell and my cardiologist didn't submit my FMLA papers in the federally mandated guidelines, so I fired his ass and found me a female cardiologist that was well connected to Medical University of SC. Was seeing an actual study team from MUSC and they proposed a change in beta blocker along with a biventricular pacemaker. Things rolled along great for about 7 months or so and I was sick again. Running crazy high fevers that would break and drop to almost normal whenever I was around the Dr office. Total fvckdom. Finally my employer said I was too sick to work and sent me to the company Dr. He referred back to my cardiologist. Told her about all the fevers and weakness and they hooked me up and discovered I had coughed a lead loose which would bump my heart and throw it totally out of rhythm, and I would pass out. Was sent to the ER to be worked up for a lead revision and finally they saw I had a temp of 103.8. ( Lost an assload of muscle by the way). Ended up I had bacteremia, was on and out of consciousness for days on end. Wasn't really expected to pull through, temp topped out around 104.3. After a few weeks I was at home with a IV pump on my side and a PICC line running over to my heart dripping in antibiotics 24/7 for 12 weeks. Also, during one of my passing out spells I ruptured my bursa, so I had 6 weeks of PT while wearing that dang pump.

Got stubborn, worked my cardio as much as possible and here I am.

That's most of the details. Sorry for any typos, got to get back to work.

Oh, all the blood clots come from a genetic clotting disorder called Leiden Factor V. My blood clots before they could check the PT/INR. Anticoagulants don't work on me except for Heparin and that isn't an ideal long term therapy, especially for larger people ( osteoporosis and a number of undesirable issues).
They wanted to put another pacemaker in and an IVC for the clots, but after having seen what happens when you have hardware in your body and you get bacteremia.....fvck that.

Last check, my stress echo had my ejection fraction at around 40%, which most cardiologists will work with.

[Cuz]

I just donated actually a few days ago and i feel better my arms dont go numb near as much and i feel i breath a tad better , also feel like my erections may be a tad harder as well. My iron was so high they had to do two readings. The second reading they accepted it and let me donate. I did notice my vascularity wasn’t as pronounced as it was a few weeks ago but i also dropped the tren .
I will donate about 3 times a year and i cruise on gear alot on something almost all the time and i think 3 times is enough for me. I feel less toxic and overall better plus i help people and that’s good enough for me

I think weve beat this horse to death i think we need to donate as AAS users just not as frequently as the medical field tells us too bc if that were the case id be donating every other month and thats not necessary

[almostgone]

I just donated actually a few days ago and i feel better my arms dont go numb near as much and i feel i breath a tad better , also feel like my erections may be a tad harder as well. My iron was so high they had to do two readings. The second reading they accepted it and let me donate. I did notice my vascularity wasn’t as pronounced as it was a few weeks ago but i also dropped the tren .
I will donate about 3 times a year and i cruise on gear alot on something almost all the time and i think 3 times is enough for me. I feel less toxic and overall better plus i help people and that’s good enough for me

I think weve beat this horse to death i think we need to donate as AAS users just not as frequently as the medical field tells us too bc if that were the case id be donating every other month and thats not necessary

Absolutely right. Tank your ferritin and it will take ALL the wind out of your sails. However, donating whole blood 3-4 times/year or so doesn't seem to hurt me any or a couple of double reds doesn't zap me. Plus it helps out other people.

Now, when you have guys running around to multiple centers at every opportunity, yeah, they'll probably tank and lose the benefit of increased Hct.

I usually pull a total iron panel annually just to see where I'm at; more frequently if I think I may have leaned out the iron too much. It's kind of a balancing act for me, but I try to be sensible about it.

[Arcânn]

Although I've heard about donating blood being good for hct, I always thought it made more sense to do it for blood pressure, or volume as GH indicated. Since I seem to be hypersensitive to the BP effects of test even at low doses, I decided to donate a few days ago. It had an immediate effect of BP which I liked, but 3 days later, it seems to be going back up pretty rapidly. Maybe all the rbc got replaced by water?? Idfk. But oddly enough....and I wasn't expecting this at all....I feel better overall. The next day I worked out and had a hard time catching my breath, but I was fine. Next day, same issue, but my intensity was up quite a bit! One of the best workouts I've had in a good while!

That being said, I also took my first shot of masteron the day after my donation, and lowered the test to 100. I'm HOPING lower test will have some positive effect on BP but we'll see. That might explain the good feelings I've had since then and the really good workouts....but it's enanthate so I don't see how it possibly could've kicked in so fast. Unless it's propionate and mislabeled. Because I've been in the best mood of my life with outrageous boners since that one shot. I'm afraid to stand up at work sometimes!

But anyway!! I'm super undereducated about this compared to most here, but to me it seems like as long as you're not iron deficient or have low BP (lucky bastard), donation shouldn't be a problem and probably helps more than it hurts. But if you're iron deficient, I'd leave that shit alone.

[Super User 4]

I have some friends that donate blood or drain blood during cycle but most of the times they do that is cause they went to high with their gear or something and wanna bring things down a little

[JaneDoe]

this is not completely accurate . its elevated blood platelet count along with high hematocrit that is concerning. high hematocrit by itself due to elevated DHT levels or AAS usage is not all that concerning.. in fact its going to increase your performance and enhance your physique.
high hematocrit levels for someone that does NOT use AAS may be concerning and indicate an underlaying condition. where as high hematocrit for an AAS user is to be expected and totally normal

Is it true that an increase in hematocrit can also happen mainly due to the decrease in the amount of water in the blood, with an apparent increase in the amount of red blood cells and hemoglobin, and this situation is a consequence of dehydration? In addition, the hematocrit may be increased in lung diseases, congenital heart disease, when there is low oxygen levels in the blood or in cases of polycythemia, in which there is an increase in production and, consequently, excess of red blood cells????

[Kyle1337]

I was donating blood for 3 years consistently every 8 weeks and sometimes more (self blood letting). I always did 1 pint of whole blood. It typically made me "feel better". When GH educated me a little more on this matter, I realized it was primarily due to fluid retention. I noticed this when my hemo was about 56% and I took a 2 week carb cut. I lost about 15 pounds of water and I never felt better. I didn't even bother donating again, for 16 more weeks.

I tried so hard to keep my hemo around 50%, with not much success since every 8 weeks I was about 54%. (I do full panel bloods every 10 weeks).

After I reduced my fluid retention issues, I now wait to about 60% hemo to donate. It only drops me a few points and I still feel way better than I was when I was 50% and pumped full of water.

[C27H40O3]

The girl giving me my first injection at my HRT place first explained the Donating / bloodletting issue to me as being necessary occasionally since continually packing all that oil into your blood thickens it after awhile. The heart works harder to pump it through the body and you feel sluggish. When you remove some blood from your system, you feel better.

I am no science guy, but I could see issues with this explanation.

Say you start off with 12 pints of blood (5700 ml) in your body. If you inject 1ml of grape seed oil in your muscle to reach your bloodstream, you will wind up with a concentration of 1/5700 oil in your blood (.0175%). After I donate half a liter (500ml) of blood, my next 1ml Test injection will leave me with a grape seed oil concentration of 1/5200 (.0192%) in my blood. The blood would seemingly be thicker.

That was my general thought when she told me about donating. But I’m sure that there are many factors involved here that I am not aware of, or don’t understand, so I may be wrong.


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[< <Samson> >]

The girl giving me my first injection at my HRT place first explained the Donating / bloodletting issue to me as being necessary occasionally since continually packing all that oil into your blood thickens it after awhile. The heart works harder to pump it through the body and you feel sluggish. When you remove some blood from your system, you feel better.

I am no science guy, but I could see issues with this explanation.

Say you start off with 12 pints of blood (5700 ml) in your body. If you inject 1ml of grape seed oil in your muscle to reach your bloodstream, you will wind up with a concentration of 1/5700 oil in your blood (.0175%). After I donate half a liter (500ml) of blood, my next 1ml Test injection will leave me with a grape seed oil concentration of 1/5200 (.0192%) in my blood. The blood would seemingly be thicker.

That was my general thought when she told me about donating. But I’m sure that there are many factors involved here that I am not aware of, or don’t understand, so I may be wrong.


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Packing oil < oh wtf


This is an actual medical facility

[almostgone]

Packing oil < oh wtf


This is an actual medical facility

Mainlining AAS....

[Quester]

donating blood is for pussies that can't handle their gear usage and shouldn't be using gear in the first place .. increasing your hematocrit and your blood volume is what gear use is supposed to do in the first place. donating blood all the time is defeating the purpose .. you might as well just go be natty and stop wasting your time

Or, it makes good sense for some.

[Fluidic Kimbo]

Say you start off with 12 pints of blood (5700 ml) in your body. If you inject 1ml of grape seed oil in your muscle to reach your bloodstream, you will wind up with a concentration of 1/5700 oil in your blood (.0175%). After I donate half a liter (500ml) of blood, my next 1ml Test injection will leave me with a grape seed oil concentration of 1/5200 (.0192%) in my blood. The blood would seemingly be thicker.

This is true.

[Quester]

This is true.

Seemingly, yet fluid dynamics are a little too complex to measure by using a part-to-whole approach as a mathematical model. There are a few fluid dynmaics youtube video online but you need a minor in math and physics to follow.