Your Not-So-Scary Guide To Donating Blood

Art by Madelyn Mulreaney

About once a week, a picture of bare medical shelves featuring the words “OUR SHELVES ARE NEARLY EMPTY” shows up on my Instagram feed. It’s a post from my local blood donation center explaining their dire need of donations because they currently don’t have enough blood to meet even one day’s worth of supply.

A lot of industries have taken a hit this year, and blood banks are no exception. Blood banks everywhere have been unable to keep up with their communities’ constant need for blood, which poses a concerning risk. When lockdown began last March, many donors cancelled their appointments and never rescheduled because they were staying home and socially distancing, and more would-be donors were lost because blood centers could no longer accept walk-in donations. A year into the pandemic, most blood centers are still struggling, and the blood supply is critically low internationally.

Donating blood is literally the difference between life or death. That sounds dramatic, but it’s true. Thankfully, giving blood is a relatively simple and easy process, and it barely takes 30 minutes: from your arrival at the donation center, to your departure.

Whole blood donations go towards helping treat accident victims, premature babies, sickle cell and cancer patients, and organ or bone marrow transplant patients. And when blood banks can’t supply enough blood, it’s the patients who suffer, which is why giving blood is so important.

For me, donating blood is personal: my older sisters were born 10 weeks premature and needed blood transfusions. Without someone donating blood for them, my sisters would not be alive. A lot of people would not be alive if it weren’t for someone choosing to give blood to help others. And, right now, we all need to be that someone.

With all this talk about giving blood, I’m sure most of you are probably thinking: but what if I’m scared of needles?

Here’s the big blood donor secret: most donors are afraid of needles—or were before they started donating. If I’m being honest, I still can’t look at the needle before it goes in my arm, and I get squeamish just thinking about my blood getting filtered out through a tube. On the bright side, the needle is only in your arm for about eight minutes, and you can decide to stop at any point before your time is up if you find it really unbearable. However, once you’ve had the initial stick, the needle doesn’t hurt, and you can barely feel it.

All this being said, it would be inappropriate for me to get on my soapbox and advocate for donating blood without addressing the complicated history between blood donation restrictions and the gay community.

Among eligibility requirements, the FDA requires donation centers to screen men* who have sex with men (MSM) (and women* who have sex with MSM). This requirement was put in place—and remains in place—because MSM continues to be the community most impacted by HIV/AIDS. Initially, this restriction barred MSM from donating for life, but over the years this restriction was relaxed to its current limit: MSM are eligible to donate three months after the most recent sexual contact with a man. While it’s still not a perfect rule, it’s exciting to see progress moving in the right direction, and hopefully one day this restriction can be lifted entirely.

It’s also important to note that MSM aren’t the only people who are restricted from donating blood. People who get tattoos and piercings also have to wait three months before giving blood, people who weigh under 110 pounds cannot donate (for safety reasons), people currently taking antibiotics or who are being treated for certain STIs have to wait until they finish treatment, and so on. If you want to know if you’re eligible to donate, you can check out the full list of eligibility requirements on the American Red Cross website.

I don’t say all of this to freak you out and make you think that donating blood is full of gatekeeping and judgment. I say it because I want to emphasize that there are communities who can’t donate blood, so it’s essential for the people who are eligible to step up and give blood when they can.

Donating blood can be scary if you’ve never done it before—and it might be even more daunting in the age of COVID—but I’m hoping that maybe this will offer you the courage you need to give it a try (I recommend the American Red Cross center on Tremont Street!).

*Note: The FDA uses binary language that refers to men as people with penises and women as people with vaginas.