A blood supply shortage in the US has reached a “crisis” level, according to the American Red Cross, which says it is the second time in its 150-year history that levels have been this low.
Factors including wildfires and extreme heat have combined to create the current situation, Dr Courtney Lawrence, who works with the American Red Cross, told the BBC.
Supply levels dropped by a quarter just last month. The crisis has struck during summer, when the amount of blood needed by hospitals typically increases.
That is because of an increased number of car accidents and more people spending time outdoors, resulting in more injuries that require blood transfusions, Lawrence said.
We donated blood (O+) at every possible interval to help the community and then when we were gay one of the doctors had to inform me that we marked down that we had sexual contact with another man not thinking about it. Even though we explained it was with a condom and we didn’t have any std, we asked what if we had sex with a woman? He said it wouldn’t have been an issue. Sheet that we were denied. Then we eventually came out trans and was sure that now we could probably get around it but alas that was also not allowed.
Never had an std, blood borne illness/disease, were fit as a fiddle blood/body wise (our disabilities do not affect that) and our bi yearly donation hasn’t been done in 8 or so years.
Hopefully now in EU they’ll let us donate blood again, we do care about people and the good we can do, even if it’s a little.
Edit: we can donate blood in Spain! Yippeeee!!!
In the US they’ve changed those questions.
Have they? What it saying now?
I used to donate platelets every two weeks, but I haven’t gone in a few years. The last time I went was beginning of 2024; at that time they still asked all the same questions.
If it’s still asking the same questions by then, then we wouldn’t have had the chance to see the new rules before moving.
Phlebotomist here! Our organisation does ask these questions, but it works more like a flow chart; essentially what we’re trying to rule out is if you’ve had anal sex with a new partner in the last 3 months, just because of the inherent risks there.
Condom use, while ideal on a personal level, is kind of a moot point where donating is concerned just because there’s no way for us to know that it was worn correctly, that nothing went away with it, etc.
Honestly having any sex with a new partner within 3 months and is given to everyone as a blanket question would be totally fine in my eyes, idk why anal itself has to be specified. Either way, better than what we were looking at before so it is progress :3
Sorry, didn’t mean to be unclear! The question is in fact posited to every applicant regardless of sex/gender/orientation, our entire questionnaire is universal. Anal sex is brought up with anybody that’s had a recent new partner(again regardless of any of those metrics) just because of the enhanced risk due to delicate tissues etc. involved.
Like you say, at least it’s progress!
Ah oki, thank you so much! Makes it more clear :3