Just thought I'd see what the collective experience of this on STW is. I've recently started donating blood again – no excuses really, as I work within a 10 minute walk of a permanent donor centre.

One of my colleagues is a platelet donor and encouraged me to see if I can become one too. I've had the test and now need to wait to see if I am suitable. Does anyone have any idea what sort of (female) proportion of the population "qualifies"? I don't mind if I don't, as I'm more than happy to carry on giving blood. However, the nurse said that more "generously proportioned" women seem more likely to qualify, so I'm not sure if I'll be pleased or embarrassed to be deemed suitable now. Those of you who saw my diet thread will realise that I'm no skinny chick, but I'm not fat either, just a few more wobbles than necessary 😳

I donated yesterday but I could only see men on the machines. No woman.

They took two hours to harvest me and the needle was HUGGEEEE! Well, slightly thicker than normal blood donation needle. I almost scream when the nurse inserted it into my vein (think she might be new … a bit clumsy). Arm was bruised after the session where the needle went in. Not happy at all since I was a regular blood donor before and my last platelets donation did not bruise me. During the platelets extraction you might feel a bit of pressure from the machine as it needs to pump your blood back into your body.

Then at the end of my donation they explained that my platelets contained high fat count and fear that my cholesterol was too high … fat into blood stream etc. I was a bit surprised since there was no such issue during my last donation. Guess it could be the poach eggs, sausages, more fatty butter, full cream etc … so need to cut down before embarrassing myself the next time.

Anyway, as long as your diet does not contain high fat I guess you can donate.

All they got from me yesterday was lard from my blood stream, due to recent lard diet (my fault), and some platelets so they were not happy and I was a bit embarrass. Good fun though for being "told off" for addicting to lard. 😆

So watch out from some weird nurse …

Oh ya try not to consume fatty food 6 to 7 hrs prior to the donation or the will only extract fat from your blood stream.