What Excludes You From Donating Any Plasma?

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What Excludes You From Donating Any Plasma?

Donating plasma is a selfless act of kindness that could save a life. Thousands of new patients and casualties of life-threatening conditions and injuries await crucial plasma donations each day. Donating plasma is quick, easy, virtually painless, and effortless. This is all besides getting paid for your troubles.

But human-based therapies need to be done in a certain way to protect both the donor and the recipient. Olgam Life lifts the lid on all the reasons you might be excluded from donating plasma.

A List of Exclusions for Donating

Some of the main risks that plasma donation and use can present are infections and negative health impacts. Putting anyone at risk of a blood-borne infection would be highly unethical, but patients awaiting human-based therapies likely already have compromised immune systems, so they’re even more vulnerable than those who are completely healthy.

Plasma donation centers aren’t all the same, but almost all centers may exclude potential donors for the reasons listed below. Have you…

Been diagnosed or had treatment for HIV and/or Hepatitis B or C?
Been treated for gonorrhea of syphilis in the last three months?
Been in sexual contact with a person who has tested positive for HIV?
Been in sexual contact with someone who receives payment for sex (money, drugs, or otherwise) in the last three months?
Had sexual contact with someone who has used needles to inject steroids, drugs, or other substances not prescribed by a doctor in the last three months?
Have been exposed to or lived with someone with hepatitis in the last 12 months?
Had an organ transplant or received bone marrow, bone tissue, or skin from a donor?
Experienced issues to do with the heart, lungs, kidneys, or liver?
Been in a juvenile detention, prison, or jail cell for a consecutive 72 hours in the last 12 months?
Donated a double unit of red blood cells through apheresis in the last four months, had a blood transfusion, received blood, or come into contact with another person’s blood?
Got a history of anemia?
Been recently pregnant in the last six weeks or trying to conceive?
Are you younger than 18 and weigh less than 110 lb (50kg)?

See the entire FDA Requirements for Blood and Blood Components Intended for Transfusion or for Further Manufacturing Use.

We also recommend that plasma donors maintain a healthy lifestyle as this makes donation more comfortable and can help them to donate more frequently if they want to. For more tips, read our article What to Do and Not Do Before Donating Plasma?

There are hundreds of plasma donation centers all across the United States. Check the locations of all Olgam Life centers to find the nearest one to you now.

Who can donate plasma?

Donors need to meet specific criteria to donate plasma. Why? Because we want to protect not only the patients receiving donations but the donors themselves too. That’s why we have certain criteria that all donors must meet before getting hooked to one of our machines.

Olgam Life’s Plasma Donation Criteria

Donors must:

Be 18 years of age or older
Weigh at least 110 lb (50kg)
Pass our medical screening
Fill in our questionnaire
Pass tests for all viruses and conditions we screen for

If you meet these requirements, you could earn up to $70 in NYC and $100 in Florida for each donation. But donating your own plasma isn’t the only way to make a difference. If you want to make donations possible for even more valued donors, take a look at our career vacancies.

How do we determine whether you can donate plasma?

The process of donating plasma always starts with some thorough health and wellbeing checks. We ensure you’re in the right physical condition to donate by taking vital measurements like your weight, blood pressure, and heart rate.

We also ask our donors to complete a medical questionnaire to better understand their health and lifestyle. This is accompanied by some checks conducted during a medical screening. We will take some blood to test for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and other transmissible viruses. We also want to evaluate your protein and hematocrit levels (levels of red blood cells in your whole blood).

If all of our checks come back either negative for transmissible diseases or at safe levels for your vital signs, we can proceed with the next steps in the plasma donation process. Read our frequently asked questions to find out more about what to expect from plasma donation. If you can’t find the information you’re looking for, why not give us a call?