Double Red Cell Donation

For those of you donating to the Red Cross as a strategy to keep hemoglobin levels in check from TRT, have you heard about double red cell donations...or done one? I watched someone donating double red cells last Saturday. They use a machine to separate the red cells out of your blood taking twice the usual amount as a whole blood donation, then put back most of the associated plasma and add a bit of saline solution. The process take a bit longer than whole blood donation, but maybe on 10-15 minutes longer.

This should knock down hemoglobin levels pretty good...but the catch is, you can only donate this way once every 4 months. But, that could be a time saver if it works.

Not every bloodmobile donation site has this available in my area, but some do.

I may try it in 8 weeks if it is available.

I have done it before years ago. We had a blood drive at work, and I was just expecting to donate a pint of whole blood, next thing I know, I am getting hooked up to some machine. I just gave a pint of whole blood less than a week ago. Very good to do whether on TRT or not.

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Originally Posted by sirupate

For those of you donating to the Red Cross as a strategy to keep hemoglobin levels in check from TRT, have you heard about double red cell donations...or done one? I watched someone donating double red cells last Saturday. They use a machine to separate the red cells out of your blood taking twice the usual amount as a whole blood donation, then put back most of the associated plasma and add a bit of saline solution. The process take a bit longer than whole blood donation, but maybe on 10-15 minutes longer.

This should knock down hemoglobin levels pretty good...but the catch is, you can only donate this way once every 4 months. But, that could be a time saver if it works.

Not every bloodmobile donation site has this available in my area, but some do.

I may try it in 8 weeks if it is available.

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i did the rbc and platelets and was given back saline for the first time a month ago...they mentioned the double rbc as a possibility in the future but said see how i feel after this rbc/platelet....

....i thought i felt better after the regular whole blood donation that i did the time before and the rbc/platelet thing like you said also took twice as long