Canadian Blood Services is calling on more Canadians to roll up their sleeves after a change in iron guidelines increased the wait time between donations for women.
The guidelines, which were introduced in December, require women to wait 12 weeks between donations, rather than eight weeks.
Officials with Canadian Blood Services say 35,000 donations could be affected due to the new guidelines.
“Certainly the challenges that we have, we made changes to enhance donor safety, where our female donors now come every 84 days, as opposed to every 56 days,” explains Peter MacDonald of Canadian Blood Services.
MacDonald says it’s common for frequent donors to have lower iron stores in their body, which can lead to anemia. He says they’re hopeful the new guideline will prevent this from happening.
“It really, you know, stresses the impetus to bring new donors to the blood system and to grow our donor base,” says MacDonald.
He says women typically have lower hemoglobin levels than men because of their menstrual cycle.
Donor Kalin Smith says she will still try to donate as often as she can, and she’s encouraging others to do the same.
“Come and check it out. It’s a good way to come and get your iron levels checked. They do that here, and also your blood pressure,” says Smith. “I think if you can just fit it in when you have some time, drop in.”
MacDonald says only 3.4 per cent of eligible donors actually give blood and that there are slightly more female donors than male donors in the Maritime region.
“We’ve done something that I think is good for our donors and our donor base, but the challenge is, we need more people giving blood in this country, right here in Atlantic Canada and across the Maritimes,” he says.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Suzette Belliveau
