How long does one have to wait before they can give blood a second time?
Red Cross guidelines suggest eight week intervals between blood donations. This is for standard donations of one pint of blood. Under these guidelines a person could give blood about six times per year or about once every two months. The same page of guidelines on the Red Cross website also suggests waiting three days between plateletpheresis donations. Plateletpheresis donations means that specific blood components are collected such as platelets, plasma, or white blood cells but not red blood cells. Red blood cells are the ones responsible for carrying oxygen around the body. In this procedure blood is removed through one arm, passed through a separator to collect the needed components, and then the red blood cells and other material is returned to the donor. There is also a donation referred to as a double red cell donations. In this procedure twice as many red blood cells are collected than as during a regular donation but some of the plasma is returned to the donor. This type of d
