Meanwhile, my brothers-in-law have hemochromatosis so need to be bled regularly to reduce the iron in their blood, and they have to pay for the privilege. One put off getting the diagnosis as long as he could because as long as it wasn’t official, he could donate blood and achieve the same effect, but once diagnosed, he can’t donate blood anymore- not that there’s anything wrong with it, but to be classified a donation, the donor can’t benefit from it in any way. Such irony. America, fuck yeah.
Can’t he just not tell them that he has it? At least in Germany that was generally the solution for gay people to donate blood: The only person who could potentially be liable would be the physician if they knew for a fact that you were lying. Which was very unlikely, considering that those red cross people rarely included the local GPs. (The legal situation might be different in other countries though, so check!)
Coincidentally I am being tested for hemochromatosis and here in France you can donate blood: https://dondesang.efs.sante.fr/articles/le-don-saignee
It looks like I will be a regular donor! Yay?
That’s interesting, because I was diagnosed with hemochromatosis last year, and I go to the local blood donation center and bloodlet every 4 weeks. They don’t consider it a standard donation, but a therapeutic phlebotomy. But both my blood doctor and the donation center state that my blood is still used as if it were a donation, and I don’t pay anything.
I wonder why there’s a difference.
