My endo had me visit a hematologist to have a consult on my high'ish hemoglobin levels. The hematologist told me that as long as the high levels were caused by T-therapy, the Red Cross is OK with my donations. Another cause of high hemoglobin is some hormone secreted by the kidneys that tells your bone marrow to make hemoglobin. If that hormone, or signal if you will, is too much, that the RC wouldn't consider me an acceptable donor. They can do a blood test to see if you kidneys are causing the "problem". I think they are testing for too much erythroepotein...something like that. I don't know the result of my test yet, but the RC hasn't contacted me to say I am an unacceptable donor either.

As to when to donate, or lowering your testosterone levels, I am not sure I would worry about it. Yeah...there is a small amount of testosterone circulated by your blood that will be lost in your donation, but I doubt it is significant over the 8 weeks minimum between donations. If you can schedule a blood donation a day before you pin, that could be ideal I guess. I intend to schedule my donations when the RC is collecting in a convenient location for me as opposed to when I pin next.