Hi,
Does anyone know how many times a donor can donate stem cells in their lifetime? I looked on the bone marrow registry site and couldn't find an answer.
Thanks and take care
Robin
That's an excellent question, Robin. I know it's more than once (and maybe more), but not too close together. My original donor match couldn't donate to me because he'd already given within that same year. Luckily I had an equally good matched donor as a back-up. But that's a really good question, hope someone knows more than I do!
Pam
I don't know. I think I remember that there needs to be something like a five year period between. The five years might be the result of some confusion but it's a figure that's been in my brain a long time.
I'll be interested to see if someone knows. Good question.
Blessings
I've never heard that there is any lifetime limit on donating stem cells. My neighbor across the street was a donor for her brother and an unrelated match, so at least I know that some people have donated more than once. Wish I had more information to give you.
I would be pretty sure there is no limit. I donated twice to Hamish, and his current donor has also donated before. There is a 12 month period between minimum (as Pam said) which also applies to the donor donating blood ... this is all precautionary since they really don't know the effect other than guessing it is nothing. The bone (for hip harvest) heals readily and the stem cells themselves are back to normal levels within a month, so arguably there is no reason that you couldn't donate under the 12 month period again.
I know it is unusual to match more than once so it is unlikely that you would be doing it multiple times anyway.
Sandra