How your body replaces blood

The average adult has around 10 pints of blood (roughly 8% of your body weight). Making a blood donation uses about 1 pint, after which your body has an amazing capacity to replace all the cells and fluids that have been lost.

Red blood cells

Take red cells. Millions of them are being made and dying every second. When you give blood you lose red cells and the body needs to make more to replace them. Special cells in the kidneys, called peritubular cells, sense that the level of oxygen in the blood has decreased (due to the loss of red cells) and start secreting a protein called erythropoietin. This passes through the bloodstream until it reaches the bone marrow (the soft fatty tissue inside the bone cavities).

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The bone marrow produces stem cells, the building blocks that the body uses to make the different blood cells – red cells, white cells and platelets. The erythropoietin sends a message to the stem cells telling more of them to develop into red blood cells, rather than white cells or platelets.

How fast does your body make blood?

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Your body makes about 2 million new red cells every second, so it only takes a number of weeks to build up stores of them again.

What about your white cells and platelets? A number of other messenger proteins also stimulate the production of these cells in the bone marrow, and over the next few days levels return to normal.

How long between blood donations?

Male donors need to wait a minimum of 12 weeks between whole blood donations and female donors 16 weeks. So why wait? Unlike white cells and platelets, it takes several weeks for all the red cells to be replaced. You can schedule your appointments the right distance apart using our online appointment system.

There’s an important link between your red cells and your health because it’s these cells, or rather the red-coloured haemoglobin they contain, that take oxygen around your body. Haemoglobin contains iron, and some is lost with each blood donation. To compensate, iron is mobilised from the body’s iron stores, and the body also increases the amount of iron it absorbs from food and drink. Men normally have more iron stores than women.

Your haemoglobin levels

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Before every blood donation we always test your haemoglobin levels. We make sure that your haemoglobin level is above 125g/l for women and 135g/l for men. This is because any iron deficiency can result in reduced haemoglobin levels, and eventually, if not treated, in iron deficiency anaemia. This deficiency can make you feel tired.

Your iron levels

The body stores iron in the form of 2 proteins – ferritin (in men it accounts for about 70% of stored iron, in women 80%) and haemosiderin. The proteins are found in the liver, bone marrow, spleen and muscles. If too much iron is taken out of storage and not replaced through dietary sources, iron stores may become depleted and haemoglobin levels fall.

After a donation, most people’s haemoglobin levels are back to normal after 6 to 12 weeks. This is why we ask donors to wait for a minimum of 12 weeks between donations (12 weeks for men and 16 weeks for women) to ensure that we don’t risk lowering your haemoglobin levels over the long term.

Drink up

Blood volume makes up approximately 8% of your body weight. About 55% of blood is comprised of plasma, of which 90% is water. So, although you donate less than a pint of blood at a time, almost half of this is water. That’s why it is important for you to drink plenty of water before you donate and immediately after you’ve donated. It’s important to replace fluids after you’ve donated, to help bring your blood volume levels back to normal. The kidneys also play their part in controlling blood volume by regulating the amount of sodium and water lost in urine.

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