Your comment about rates of donation caused me to check what the frequency of donation for whole blood in other countries is compared to the US. I was surprised

Your comment about rates of donation caused me to check what the frequency of donation for whole blood in other countries is compared to the US. I was surprised to see that England and Australia both have 12 week periods (at least for men), while the US allows donations every 8 weeks. What’s interesting to me is that the last time I went to donate they had a new info sheet regarding post donation iron deficiency [0] for frequent donors, and I saw that one of the things the FDA was considering was increasing the period between donations. That a majority of the non-supplemented participants hadn’t regained their pre-donation iron levels after 24 weeks was surprising and caused me to start consciously increasing my iron intake after donating (along with starting iron supplements). That study contrasted with a more recent study that found no major downsides to the 8 week interval [1]. 0: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/study-shows-iron-supplementation-after-blood-donation-shortens-hemoglobin-recovery-time https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/study-shows-ir... 1: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170921095515.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170921095515.h...