Ditto.
Valgard, your story is similar to mine. I was in Britain briefly in '83, '85 and '89, for a cumulative total of more than six months, so the Red Cross told me a few years ago (pretty curtly, too, given how long and how regularly I’d been donating blood) that my help was no longer required. Blew me off when I asked if a test for Mad Cow Disease antibodies was likely to be developed anytime soon, too. Fuck 'em.
I stopped giving when they started testing for Hep C. Bastards.
Sheds a whole new light on Cometothedarksidewehavecookies now doesn’t it?
I donated all the time in college. Now occasionally the blood mobile will come to my work on Saturdays when I work a 12 hour shift, using my arms and breaks being sporadic at best.
It was so easy to do back then. I wonder how much of their exclusions now are based on reality other than hype. For example, if you ADMIT to being an active homosexual male, they won’t take you, but if you don’t, they will. How effective is this method? I put it right up with “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Lots of people lie about the sexual history, so who knows. It also doesn’t matter if you’re active or not. They ask males if they have had sexual contact with another male even ONE TIME since 1977. If you have you are not eligible to give blood, unless they change that guideline. Scroll down to the part about HIV/AIDS for that guideline.
Chalk me up as another Mad Cow victim (so to speak): I lived in England from '83-'85, and I’m no longer welcome at blood drives. I used to volunteer with the Red Cross, so I get it, but it still pisses me off.
O+
My husband (O+) and I have been regular ‘every 8 week’ donors for 2 years now at Blood Bank of the Redwoods.
Last donation was December 4th, next is January 29th. (My calendar has scheduled donations marked for the next 2 years.)
Every chance I get I grab my oldest son (O+) and take him along to donate. He’s given up about 5 pints already. My next donation will be my 14th or 15th I think.
I always try to get more people to donate. It really is painless and takes about 30 minutes total out of your day, less than 5 for the actual donation.
I wish I could, I’m type AB- ,quite rare I’m told.
But, the priliminary screening test the Red Cross uses show that I have hepetitus.
After several days of thinking ‘how in the hell?’ my doctor informed me that I have a rare condition of my blood that shows a false-positive in the initial screening. but that actually I’m not infected at all. But, the Red Cross doesn’t go past the initial screening and throws it away anyway. 
I lied about my sexuality enough for one lifetime, I don’t do it any more. If they don’t want my blood, that’s their loss and the loss of the people whose lives I might have helped save.
I’m scheduled to donate again on February 14. My donations are pretty far apart, because I do double red cell donations.
Valgard and Misnomer, here’s a thread I started awhile ago on Mad Cow Disease. The outlook isn’t bright for us to be donating blood again anytime soon, I’m sorry to say: Any prospect for a Mad Cow Disease test for those exposed? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board
I can’t give blood, but I would if I could, as I’m one of those lucky people who aren’t terrified of needles.
Hey, I’ve been having sex with men for years, it never got me out of giving blood!
(Seriously, those standards are fucking ridiculous, benighted, and insulting.)
Anyway, despite the fact that I’m O+, which is pretty useful blood, and the fact that I finally psyched myself up to give even though I have a nasty vasovagal reaction, the Red Cross decided they don’t want my blood because my liver swelled up when I had mono. I’m both relieved and annoyed.
Maybe I’ll sign up to hand out cookies, if they need people for that.
It’s not that; I just have such wee little girlie veins they can’t get the big donation needles into them, stab and stab as they will.
I donate regularly and I did so most recently last week.
I give whenever my iron platelet level will let me. And I’m terrified of needles. I’m up around the four gallon mark, and have never once seen the needle in my arm.
I would if I could… tested positive for HTLV a number of years ago and so I’m on the naughty boy list.
Anyone know if there are other types of donations I can make? Apparently I can’t donate bone marrow, either. I’m an organ donor, but that won’t do anyone any good until I’m done with them (Monty Python jokes aside).
I went in for my regular donation today, and my 17-year-old volunteered (as in it was entirely her idea) to come with me! Which was fortunate, since my iron was a teensy bit too low and they refused me. If I can’t donate blood, at least I’ve produced another O+ person who can.
I’ve often wondered, as the restrictions on donors get tighter and tighter, what the hell they’re going to do when they’ve excluded enough of the potential donor population that it’s impossible for them to get enough units from those who are left. Where’s the sense in totally eliminating huge swaths of people based on a generality, regardless of their own personal histories?
I am underweight. By three stinkin’ pounds. Despite the fact that I am height/weight proportionate, they have declared me too dinky to donate.
Then I went and got some tattoos, and now I couldn’t donate even if I did manage to get my weight up. Illinois is an unregulated state as far as tattoo parlors go, and though the Red Cross guidelines say that you can donate 12 months after, I know several people who were turned away years after being tattooed.
Same here. I’ve had fewer STDs (zero) than a lot of straight people I’ve known. And nobody objects to them giving blood.