Made me think of this in the sperm/egg donation thread.
Quite different, but yeah.

Would/Do you give blood?

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<3Markeh

If I didn't hate needles so much, I'd love to.

Although if a family/ friend needed blood and I matched I'm sure I could bring myself to do it.

As soon as I'm old enough, If I'm able to obviously, I wanna give blood.
If I needed it, I hope it'd be there for me. So I 'd like to think I'd helped in it being there for other people.
Needles don't bother me either.

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<3Markeh

You can't give blood for a year if you get a tattoo piercing etc.

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<3Becky

Why?

Incase your blood gets infected during the tattoo/peircing.
Some diseases, like hepatitis, can be spread through tattooing/piercing needles and stuff, and the symptoms take a while to show, so it's just a precaution for that and other things. I assume.

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<3Markeh

it annoys me that gay men aren't allowed to give blood.. apparently they pose the same risk as prostitutes so it would seem..bollocks

i haven't give blood but i've been meaning to

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founder of


http://www.last.fm/user/er_rachael

You'd be pissed if you got HIV blood though

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<3Becky

why are gay men more likely to have HIV?

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founder of


http://www.last.fm/user/er_rachael

Because gay men notoriously are most prone to catching HIV through their sexual activities

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<3Becky

That's a generalisation started in the 80's when it was famously known as the 'gay disease'. There is the stupid assumption that they are a higher risk yet I assumed that gay men as well as heterosexuals had access to condoms and so could participate in safe sex.

I found some stats so you can see:


At the end of June 2007, 39,593 homosexuals contracted HIV

For straight people..
36,603 had been reported by the end of June 2007.

Whilst more gay men have contracted HIV than heterosexual couples you can see quite obviously that it is on the increase like RIGHT NOW amongst heterosexuals and the difference between those two stats are getting smaller and smaller.

If everyone's blood is tested then there really shouldn't be an issue.

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founder of


http://www.last.fm/user/er_rachael

I will give blood one day.
I'm not scared of needles as such, just don't like them.

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I would, but my veins are terrible and it takes about an hour to get the tiniest bit out and it has to be taken out the back of my hand so...meh.

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When I'm older.

I need a doner card, too.

That's what has always puzzled me. They check every donation so surely accepting the blood of homosexuals isn't much more work..? I mean the majority will be clean so accepting everyone and just picking up on the infected blood is surely beneficial.

And if anybody thinks 'well one could slip through the net' then that could easily be said about straight people too.

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I've done it three times, but after the first and last I ended up feeling sick and like I was going to pass out, so they told me not to do it again for a couple of years.

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Mark says:
the guy was sick
Mark says:
then his mam died
Mark says:
the bitch.

A mate of mine was telling me how when he always gets it down, you get the odd "Gusher" when the blood starts pissing out your arm... lmao.

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<3Becky

But you have to take in the fact that there are more straight people then there are gay people. Much more.

but my point is that it isn't a disease that restricts itself to gay people or prostitutes. it's very much on the increase in straight people and i dont think it should be assumed that gay people are more likely to have it and so are excluded from the worthwhile act of giving blood when apparently donations are greatly needed. there is no distinction between a prostitute who is paid to sleep with lots of people (and so is more likely to contract an STI) and a gay man in a monogmous relationship practicing safe sex. dont you think that must be enfuriating?

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founder of


http://www.last.fm/user/er_rachael

Take it to Parliament, its an old law - like you said its derived from the early 80's when HIV was the total Gayboy Disease. Its just never been changed, which is pretty shite considering all the new blood tests are really good and would obviously pick up that sort of problems in the blood. Plus they're crying out for donors

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<3Becky

This. If a friend or family needed it I would jump to it with no hesitation.