on my card it says A Rh positive - I assume that makes me A+?

yeah, your A+, go to the top of the class

I think they don't like getting blood from girls that do boys that do boys. I wonder why they still let boys or girls that have had anal sex give blood?

mcleod syndrome??

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// Boys who do boys like they're boys apparently have a ten year stand down period.

I was told this when I last went to give blood. The woman I spoke to also told me it wasn't about whether or not you'd had anal sex.

Not exactly sure what they were trying to eliminate if that's the case, but am always pretty circumspect about this kind of thing. I think dispassionate use of stats is pretty sweet in this kind of situation, so if they found some statistical justification for it not being worth their while to get blood from guys who'd got it on with other guys, that's fine by me.

I was at a talk recently that contained probably some valid statistical grounds for the exclusion. I offer no stats or links, however, but it was interesting that (at least overseas), the gap is closing.
Actually, from that talk, they should probably also have a stand-down period for anyone who has been in a relationship while on an overseas holiday...

And actually, I have read that more primarily homosexual men are becoming infected with HIV these days, especially young ones who've never known the disease to be a killer since nowadays there's so many drugs to keep people with HIV alive. But again, I have no statistics at hand and I really should do some work instead of finding them. It's just that what seems like a semi-assumption that if you're gay you're obviously dying of AIDS really bugs the hell out of me.

Since the beginning of the epidemic to the end of 2004:

Ï Just over half of all HIV cases reported have been among men who have sex with men (MSM) (54.3%)
Ï 10.7% have been male heterosexually-acquired
Ï 11.7% have been female heterosexually-acquired
Ï 2.8% were injecting drug users (IDU)
Ï 1.3% have been mother-to-child
Ï 1.5% were infected through blood transfusions either overseas or in NZ before blood was screened for HIV
(data above supplied by AIDS Epidemiology Group, 2005).

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heh.. well that wasjust stats from the aids foundation.

many years ago, in a previous life back in NZ, I was a medic in the NZ Navy, I have a few blood stories, but this one sticks in my mind. I was a medic in the sickbay at the navy training base at Tamaki in Devonport. Every year there were three intakes of new raw recurits, all of whom had to give a testtube of blood and get tested for .. if memory serves me correctly, Tuberculosis, you know the thing we're all tested at school, starts off with a small thing pressed into the forearm then a few days later, if needed we get an injection in the bicep ... which leaves a small scar .. anyhow this day I was in the medical room giving these intital forearm" jabs" ( for want of a better word ), which was a small plastic thing just pressed onto the forearm, no broken skin and no blood. In the ward ( room ) next to me was where the bloods were being taken 4 beds at a time and a steady flow of trainees coming in to see me, anyhow there was a lull in the flow, so I popped next door the see what was going on .. nothing as it was, but I did see a young bloke, looking very pale and shakey sitting on a chair in the ward .. ah I thought, you don't like needles, so I immediately went back into my room, went to the cuboard and got the ear syringe out, for those who don't know, it's a large stainless steel syringe used to, well flush the earwax out of your ears, just like a syringe shaped water squirter, no needles. I filled this up with water and placed it next to my medical kit. When this bloke came in slightly shakey and nervous, in a serious manner I asked if he'd had his bloods .. his responce was a slight nod of the head, and a small yes, so again serious I said roll up your sleeve, which he duely started doing, as I turned around and picked up my syringe and turned back to him with it held frimly in my hand ... his shaking got worse, and I think his eyes expanded, I put the syringe to his arm, by which time he'd turned his head away and closed his eyes, I bashed the end of the syringe which sent a shot of water all up his arm and said something like, now I've cleaned the area lets start, dried him off and pressed my little plastic thing to his arm ... not quite the end of story ... five mins later there was a small commotion outside the sickbay, for some unknown reason, this poor chap had fainted, he spent an hour or so on one of our beds in the ward laying on his back with his legs elevated ... then there was the time I ..........................

I was the medical horror story for many of those who came to see me ....