High Haemoglobin: What If You Can’t Donate Blood?

Being turned away from blood donation can leave you wondering what to do next, particularly if you have elevated haemoglobin or use testosterone. However, blood donation eligibility and medical treatment are separate issues.

The next step is to understand why your result is elevated and whether treatment is needed—not to arrange blood removal yourself.

High Haemoglobin and High Blood Pressure Are Different

Haemoglobin is the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells. Haematocrit measures the proportion of your blood occupied by those cells. Blood pressure measures the pressure within your arteries.

These measurements can be abnormal at the same time, but they are not interchangeable. Lowering blood pressure does not necessarily correct an elevated red blood cell concentration.

The NHS guide to erythrocytosis explains that elevated red blood cell concentrations can have different causes, requiring different approaches to treatment.

Can You Receive Treatment If You Cannot Donate?

Yes. If blood removal is medically indicated, a clinician can arrange therapeutic phlebotomy, also called venesection. This is a prescribed treatment rather than an ordinary blood donation.

There is no universal “every 60 days” schedule. The need for treatment, amount removed and timing depend on the diagnosis, blood results and response.

University College London Hospitals’ venesection guidance describes individual treatment plans, blood testing and monitoring during the procedure. An informal arrangement with a nurse friend does not replace that assessment and oversight. Do not attempt home bloodletting using a purchased kit.

What If Testosterone Is Contributing?

Testosterone can stimulate red blood cell production and cause erythrocytosis. If you use prescribed testosterone or anabolic steroids, tell the clinician exactly what you take.

Management may involve changing or pausing testosterone treatment and investigating other contributing conditions. Blood removal is not automatically the first or only answer.

The Endocrine Society’s testosterone treatment guideline recommends intervention when haematocrit exceeds 54%, including stopping treatment until it falls to a safe level and assessing for hypoxia and sleep apnoea. This is a clinical management threshold, not a guarantee that every lower result is harmless.

Can Supplements Lower Haemoglobin Safely?

The proposed combination of cod liver oil, vitamin E, apolactoferrin, curcumin and IP6 is not established by the cited studies as a treatment for elevated haemoglobin.

Reducing dietary iron absorption is different from safely treating an excessive red blood cell concentration. An elevated haemoglobin result also does not, by itself, establish iron overload.

The 1999 study of inositol phosphates examined iron absorption from food. It did not demonstrate that IP6 treats testosterone-related erythrocytosis. The 2011 phytic acid study investigated Alzheimer’s-related processes in animal and laboratory models, not treatment of high haemoglobin in people.

These findings cannot justify the supplement doses or treatment claims in the original article.

What About High Blood Pressure?

High blood pressure requires its own assessment and treatment plan. Carditone, cod liver oil and vitamin E should not be presented as a reliable substitute for that care.

Tadalafil, commonly known as Cialis, is also not a standard treatment for ordinary systemic hypertension. Its use for pulmonary arterial hypertension concerns a different condition affecting blood vessels in the lungs, as explained in MedlinePlus’s tadalafil information.

Do not add it simply to counter a blood pressure rise associated with steroid use.

What Should You Do Next?

Ask the donation service why you were deferred and take that information, your blood results and a complete list of medicines and supplements to a clinician.

The goal is to identify and treat the cause. Depending on the findings, you may need repeat testing, medication changes, specialist assessment or medically supervised venesection.