Frequently Asked Questions

When you have given blood, your blood pressure drops a very small amount, but returns to previous levels and stabilises quickly. Giving blood is not a treatment for high blood pressure.

You may donate blood if this was performed using sterile disposable equipment by a qualified professional.
This is at the discretion of the blood bank’s donation doctor. You may not donate blood for 4 months following if you do not meet these requirements or in case of doubt.
If needles are still in the skin, the skin at the insertion site must not be inflamed.

HIV is a bloodborne, sexually transmissible virus that can cause AIDS. Sanquin takes a number of measures to prevent the transmission of HIV via blood.

Every blood and plasma donation is tested for HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), but this test is not 100% reliable immediately after contracting an HIV infection. This can take a while. So risks of infectious diseases and thus of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are evaluated during screening.

If you have been exposed to a risk of infectious diseases, including sexually transmitted infections, we will ask you to stop giving blood temporarily or permanently.

Important: please contact the Blood Bank at 088-730 8686 as quickly as possible in this case.

Also contact us if you discover you were previously at risk of an STI (e.g. a warning from an ex-partner) on 088-730 8686. 

You may donate blood.
If you have been treated for hemorrhoids, you may donate blood as soon as the wound has healed. Sometimes an endoscopic examination (using a camera on a tube) of the bowels is performed to exclude other causes of blood loss. You may not donate blood for 4 months following an endoscopy.

If the inflammation occurs after drawing blood, contact the Blood Bank (088-730 8686).

You may donate blood if you have few symptoms or if you use pain medication. If you do have a lot of symptoms and/or use main medication frequently, contact the Blood Bank on 088-730 8686 before coming in to donate.

You may donate blood if you are symptom-free. The use of an inhaler is not a problem.

If your condition worsens temporarily and/or you develop a respiratory tract infection, you may not donate blood until you are symptom-free for at least 2 weeks.

If you have been prescribed antibiotics, you need to wait for 2 weeks after taking the last tablet before giving blood.

If you used corticosteroids in tablet form (such as prednisolone), you need to wait for 1 week after taking the last tablet.

If you are always severely short of breath or very regularly have (respiratory) infections, you cannot be a blood donor (any more). Contact the Blood Bank at 088-730 8686 in this case. 

Please contact the Blood Bank at 088-730 8686. This may be a problem for donation. (Also see: Pap smear)

You may not donate blood. Contact the Blood Bank at 088-730 8686.

If you have had a mammogram or pap smear as part of a population screening programme, you may donate blood. You do not need to wait for the test results.

If one of these tests was performed due to symptoms or complaints, you do need to wait until the test results come back.

Consult the Blood Bank (088-730 8686) in the event of abnormalities.