why can’t people with anemia (not enough iron in blood) get blood transfers from donors who have hemochromatosis (too much iron in blood)?
In: Biology
I was diagnosed with hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) at the beginning of the year and have had 12 phlebotomies since then. I’m finding it to be one of the most confusing ailments I’ve come across.
The Red Cross fact is interesting and there must be some difference between them and the blood bank that does my phlebotomies. I was told by an experienced worker that they do them for free with the understanding that they get to use the blood of it meets their other criteria. That must mean there are enough situations where that happens to make it with while. It also must mean that having HH doesn’t automatically exclusive my blood. This is backed by the fact that the release I sign changes after they find out my hemoglobin is too low.
This leads me to the realization that iron in the blood isn’t the same as hemoglobin levels since mine have never been high enough to donate even though my ferritin levels started literally off the chart. How does this work? Apparently there’s something besides those iron levels that cause my hemoglobin to be low, even though my ferritin levels are high.
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