The Importance of Donating Blood When on Testosterone Replacement Therapy

Transcription

Dr. Philip W. F…: Hi everyone. I’m Dr. Philip Faler with Anti-Aging Northwest. Hope everyone out there is having a great day. Just wanted to take a minute this morning and talk a little bit about the importance of donating blood when you’re using testosterone replacement therapy. Now, primarily this applies to the guys. The low doses that the women are on doesn’t tend to cause erythrocytosis, or polycythemia, or an elevation in red blood cells. However, for the dudes, the fellas, raising testosterone levels can increase red blood cell counts, known as polycythemia.

What Are the Risks of Donating Blood When on TRT?

That comes with some risks. Raising red blood cell count thickens the blood, it makes it more viscous. Thickening the blood can make it move slower, make it harder to pump. That can cause heart enlargement. That can cause increased risks of strokes or MIs. It can cause cardiomegaly, or a thickening, enlargement of the heart. It can just simply cause hypertension or high blood pressure. It can cause kidney problems, splenomegalia.

How to Prevent the Risks of TRT?

I think it’s the biggest risk with testosterone replacement therapy, and it can be so easily prevented. A, keeping our dosages normalized, right? So that we’re not having too much testosterone, which is going to make that problem a lot worse. But even if, you say total testosterone is averaging 900 to 1000, in some men, that will cause elevated red blood cell counts.

So what I ask all my patients who are on TRT to do is to just go ahead and start donating blood three, four times a year, every three months, just go ahead and donate blood four times a year, every three months, every 90 days. There’s a shortage of blood anyway. If you’re donating blood every three months, we’re not very likely at all going to run into the problem of overproduction of red blood cells, because you’ll be pulling off a bolus of red blood cells every month and we’ll never get an accumulation. Plus, you’ll be helping people who need blood.

What Can Happen if You Don’t Donate Blood?

If you don’t do that, and on follow-up labs, I get your labs and the red blood cell count, hematocrit, hemoglobin are elevated, there’s a good chance I’m going to have to write a therapeutic blood draw prescription, in which case you have to go to a special place at a special time, it’s a little bit more work, you can’t just go to the blood mobile. So ounce of prevention, pound of cure. If you’re on testosterone replacement therapy, please donate blood every 90 days. Thank you so much and have a wonderful day.