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I've been meaning to start donating blood and/or plasma for a few years now, partly because it's a good thing to do, but also as a way to shed accumulating substances (PFASs have been studied, but also background heavy metals in the case of whole blood donation), but I use topical finasteride for hair loss, which I'd have to stop for a month before donating.

So, say I took a month off from finasteride, and then spent a month donating: whole blood once, and plasma 7 times. If my math is right, I'd have donated / regenerated 1 - 0.92^8 = ~half my blood volume; and ~10% of my body weight. Then maybe back to finasteride for two months, another month of no finasteride, and another donation month?

in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

It's a shame doctors don't do blood-letting any more.
in reply to Daniel Filan

Maybe precisely in order to incentivize people to donate blood????
in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

This doesnt address your musings . . . but I found plasma donation prohibitively unpleasant. It was painful and time consuming. By comparison, whole blood donation is a simple and easy way to help.