i just donated my 10th pint and got a delightful little pin badge for my trouble

me too,he told me it's for my nipple

cherries wrote:me too,he told me it's for my nipple

hehehehe ouch!

I'm O+, but have been unable to give blood for over 10 years.

In the UK I was banned because my girlfriend happened to be born in Africa, even though we were both doctors and clear of everything.

Now I'm in Australia and they are scared I'll give them all CJD from the mad bad cows of England

milimbar wrote:Now I'm in Australia and they are scared I'll give them all CJD from the mad bad cows of England

I've got the exact same problem in Canada, which is a shame as I was looking to do some serious plasma and platelet donations.

Trypanophobic.

AND gay. Which apparently means I can't give blood? Only found this out recently. What bullshit is that?

You can't give blood cause you're gay... seriously?... WTF?!

But, why?

But a man who's had anal sex with a woman?

How does this make sene on any level?

...What I can't work out is surely they must test all donations they get for things like HIV anyway? So, what's the issue? And more importantly why are they wrongly assuming only men who've had sex with men are at risk? I don't have sodding HIV and I'd never put myself at risk of it anymore than a straight person would.

Wish I could go and claim not to be gay to have a HA FUCK YOU moment but alas, too much stress involved.

So why prevent gays? Ridiculous.

The worst part is that it's doing nothing to aid the wrong assumptions the world has about homosexuality and aids.

Animavore wrote:I never asked. It's just one of the questions on the questionaire: (as a man) have you ever had anal or oral sex with another man?
I always just assumed it was an AIDS thing.

Still doesn't make a peep of fucking sense.

HAJiME wrote:...What I can't work out is surely they must test all donations they get for things like HIV anyway? So, what's the issue? And more importantly why are they wrongly assuming only men who've had sex with men are at risk? I don't have sodding HIV and I'd never put myself at risk of it anymore than a straight person would.

It makes no sense whatsoever and quite frankly it's rather insulting.

Animavore wrote:yes they do test them. One of the questions is: Are you doing this just so you can find out if you have AIDS? [paraphrasing]

Ya I remember that from my donation. Seems odd.

However not to go into too much detail, I know they're not too fusy on recreational drug usage.

but not if you're gay!

Apparently if you've smoke some weed/hashish (even in the last 24hours) the doctors pretty much don't care.

I have been asked about marijuana, maybe they stopped asking, but that was only about four years ago.