This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Can MS patients donate blood? Please inform

After 9/11, I tried to donate blood but was told I couldn't due to MS. Weird....... Cause it's not a blood disorder, but I couldn't donate.

Aw geez, my reply just disappeared! Anyway, this topic comes up regularly and it seems to depend on where you try to donate. The Red Cross eligibility criteria no longer list MS as an exclusion, although my local chapter said 'no' anyway the last time I called them. However, many at TiMS say their donations are always accepted.

Here is a link to the Red Cross blood donation eligibility criteria: http://www.redcrossblood.org/donating-b ... eria-topic

And I was told on my diagnosis 10 years ago that I could no longer be an organ donor so I took that off my driver's license. That may have changed as well, but as long as they truly do NOT know what the hell MS is in the first place, I hesitate to push toward acceptance. The interesting thing is that MS is (usually) so hard to diagnose that they've obviously been accepting our tainted blood unknowingly all along.

A blood donation is quite a stressful situation for the immune system (blood cells/bonemarrow)
PPwMS should - in their own interest - refrain from it

If you have been diagnosed with MS, you are probably also on a treatment, which would more than likely involve medication. If this is the case, they may not want that in their supply, and I would explicitly tell them what you are taking before donating. Most of our medications are immune modulators which blood recipients may be best not to have.

No, because of the medicine.

there was a bone marrow drive at my school so i inquired if i could donate and i was told i could not. :/

Restriction on donation of blood for those taking DMDs is understood. But what about those, like me, who never took any DMD????

Hi Taurus

When I tried to donate blood after 9/11, I had never been on any DMD. I was told 'no' and was never even asked about any medication I had been on.

All you can do is try.......