Hello Doctor,

With all of the terrible things happening in the world, I would like to give blood. However, I have been told that finasteride is not allowed in blood transfusions.

Are there any organizations for whom I can donate blood or plasma or platelets that can be used? It seems an awful shame that I can’t give blood while on proscar.

It seems as though I could stop taking it for a few days, give blood and then start up again, right? Or would it be possible to tag the blood as having finasteride and only transfuse it into male patients?

If you’re taking finasteride, blood donation is bad for recipient women who are pregnant due to the risk of birth defects… and that is why it is banned for blood donors. I don’t know about tagging the blood in the donation process. Finasteride users are supposed to wait at least a month after the last dose and dutasteride users should wait at least 6 months before donating blood.

There are other medications that take even longer, such as severe psoriasis treatment acitretin, which has a 3 year wait before you should give blood… and etretinate, which eliminates you from giving blood entirely.

Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):