Taking Finasteride and Giving Blood
Hello Doctor,
With all of the terrible things happening in the world, I would like to give blood. However, I have been told that finasteride is not allowed in blood transfusions.
Are there any organizations for whom I can donate blood or plasma or platelets that can be used? It seems an awful shame that I can’t give blood while on proscar.
It seems as though I could stop taking it for a few days, give blood and then start up again, right? Or would it be possible to tag the blood as having finasteride and only transfuse it into male patients?
If you’re taking finasteride, blood donation is bad for recipient women who are pregnant due to the risk of birth defects… and that is why it is banned for blood donors. I don’t know about tagging the blood in the donation process. Finasteride users are supposed to wait at least a month after the last dose and dutasteride users should wait at least 6 months before donating blood.
There are other medications that take even longer, such as severe psoriasis treatment acitretin, which has a 3 year wait before you should give blood… and etretinate, which eliminates you from giving blood entirely.
How about quitting Finasteride (Propecia in my case) for a month to donate, than getting back on the drug for couple of months and then doing the same again? It could match well the double red cell program, where you can donate once every 4 months anyway, so: 3 months on Propecia, then 1 month off, then donate and repeat.
Would that work?