FDA Requirements for Blood Donors

Donating blood can save lives, but there are many requirements and restrictions to donating blood or blood products. These include requirements for general health and restrictions based on sexual history and travels. Rather than be outright rejected, some people who have received tattoos or surgery may be deferred for a few days or an entire year. The FDA has created these restrictions in hopes of eliminating health risks to both the donor and recipient.

General Good Health

• In addition to simply feeling well, donors should be at least 17 years old and weigh at least 110 pounds. Their pulse, temperature and blood pressure must be within a healthy range and their skin should show no signs of track marks from intravenous drug use or frequent blood donation. No one with a blood-borne illness, emphysema, dementia, gout, brain matter transplant, sickle cell trait, babesiosis, filariasis, colostomy, colitis, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or recent seizure can donate. Persons with temporary illnesses such as bacterial or viral infections, parasites or surgery can donate after a period of deferment. The waiting period varies depending on the illness.

Sexual History

• Any man that has ever had sexual intercourse with another man cannot donate. You are also forbidden to donate if you have had sex with anyone from Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger or Nigeria since 1977. Donors can not have exchanged sex for drugs or money since 1977. Overall, if you have had intercourse with anyone who cannot donate you should not donate either.

Travel Restrictions

• Several countries have indefinite deferrals although some are based on the years visited. Anyone who has visited or lived in Western Europe since 1980 or visited or lived in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1999 are indefinitely deferred. Anyone who was born or ever lived in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger or Nigeria cannot donate. Countries with high rates of malaria such as Central or South America have a three-year deferment. If you have recently traveled it's important to contact your local blood bank to see if there is a deferment for the countries you have visited.

Miscellaneous Restrictions

• People who have received a tattoo or body piercing must wait one year from the date of body modification. Acupuncture, electrolysis, hepatitis exposure, rape and autologous blood transfusion also have a one-year deferral. Cocaine users must wait one year if they snorted the drug, but if they have ever shot up they are forbidden from donating. Alcohol consumption should have taken place a minimum of 12 hours prior to donation. Dental work varies with cleanings and fillings have a one-day deferral while root canals have a three-day deferral. Anyone that has been held in a correctional facility, whether it's prison, detention or jail, is no longer eligible to donate.

Medications

• Acetaminophen, allergy medication, birth control pills, blood pressure medication, depression medication, female hormone pills, diet pills, diuretics and thyroid medication by a stabilized donor have no restrictions. Other medications require waiting periods or are forbidden to donate. Anti-inflammatory drugs must wait 24 hours, aspirin products must wait 36 hours and Accutane has a four-week deferral. Anyone who has taken bovine insulin since 1980, tegison or a human pituitary-derived hormone has an indefinite deferral.