Therapeutic Phlebotomy
Due to high hematocrit levels from TRT I've been advised to begin therapeutic phlebotomy. Has anyone else had trouble finding someone that will actually do this?
Called the Red Cross. Was informed that they do not do it, even though their website indicates that they do:
"In addition, the Red Cross offers patients in most locations:
Therapeutic phlebotomy
Autologous collections
Directed donor collections"
There is only one other blood bank in my area. They told me I would have to go to a hospital.
I did find http://www.bloodassurance.org/ and if they are near you, you're golden. They will not only do therapeutic phlebotomy, they do it for free and also will use your blood so long as your reason is either TRT therapy or hereditary hemochromatisis and you have no other disqualifiers, so you have the additional chance to save a life. However, the nearest one to me is an hour and a half drive and I'd rather not do that.
Never thought this would be this much of a pain in the ass.
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Update us on this if you will, please!
Personally, I would simply "donate blood" as often as the Red Cross allows you, or as often is as needed. I donate three or four times per year now, and although I'm not a fan of the process itself, the altruistic reason for donating makes me "feel good." So for future reference, my suggestions is to simply say you're "donating blood" instead of doing it for therapeutic reasons.
With a little basic medical equipment, you can just… never mind.
Rofl. I gotcha.
Where I donate for trt cutoff is 18.9.
If higher than 18.9 you will need a script.
See if there is a life south in the area you reside.
Therapeutic phlebotomies typically require doctor authorization/observation in the states, its stupid and increases cost. How high is your hemoglobin? I think if it's over 18 they won't let you donate, but it could be different depending on the blood bank. Did your trt doctor say you needed therapeutic phlebotomies? I'm f so they should have prescribed it there I would imagine? If your hemoglobin is below rejection levels just donate blood and neglect to inform them of your trt. The plasma is separated from blood after collection and frozen so your extra hormones will not affect anyone. You could save your life and someone else's, high hemoglobin can be a killer and increase blood pressure.
Hemoglobin was 18.1, HCT 56.1 and RBC 5.99 at PRE-TRT bloodwork. I had to have my large intestine removed about eight years ago so my body doesn't do a great job with water absorption. If I don't force myself to continuously drink water I sometimes run a bit dehydrated which causes the levels to test high.
Over the past three years my T levels have been checked three times. The first time total T was below threshold and I got sent to an endo. He checked free test and it was barely within range so he said everything was fine. Next check total was barely in range. Of course, you know how it goes, a test level of 350 is perfectly fine to a lot of doctors because it's "in range". Finally found a men's clinic down in Florida (I'm in TN) that works remotely with local clinics across the country for physicals, blood work, etc. They also treat the symptoms and shoot for around 900 test level. Was also pleasantly surprised to find that they include an anti estrogen and HCG in the treatment plan, which seems to not be the norm from what friends that are on TRT have told me.
Test was 193 in the PreTRT blood work, but also had the high RBC, HCT, and Hemoglobin. Doctor started me on 200mg weekly of Test Cyp (that I am splitting and doing twice weekly) and told me to find a place to donate blood and keep donating as often as possible until my hemo was back down around 16. Problem is Red Cross will only let you donate something like every 52 days and not at all if hemo is above 20. He wanted me to do it two or three times before my next blood work in 12 weeks so it will have to be done via prescription for that many donations in that time frame. Doctor said every place had their own form for therapeutic phlebotomy and that once I picked a place to have them fax their form to his office and he would turn it around in 10 minutes.
I guess my plan now is to hydrate the hell out of myself and make a visit to Red Cross and try to just do a standard donation. Worst case scenario I can at least see if hemo is going up or down. Best case I can at least get the first point taken without having to spend half the day driving. But long term it looks like I'm going to end up having to make a three hour round trip to the Blood Assurance place whenever I need this done and I've already got the prescription in place with them so I can make that happen.
Never thought it would be such an ordeal to get someone to take a pint of blood.
Yeah, its basically just donating blood. Maybe try not mentioning therapeutic phlebotomy since it may raise a flag which could make them think your blood does not qualify for donating. I ran had a bad experience with one donating organization so something I can convince my girlfriend who's a nurse to just drain me and then discard it. It's ideal not to do this because hospitals need blood, gotta do what you gotta do though.
I'm not promoting doing it on your own though, you need a medical professional to do it.