Whirlpool of Life HELP

[ALMOE]

I have been a member for quite some time and this is my first post.

My bisexuality has been to say the least a challange. Only two friends know of it and it does not bother them. None of my family knows and my sister thinks that because I'm 40 and not married I must be gay.
A few years ago I went to a shrink and after an hour or so I was told I was Hetero with an open mind. With that said I went on my marry way and eventually had sex with a guy. It was a guy I knew and things went well. After the encounter, I felt as if I had come full circle and that I was comfortable with being bi.

Now comes the fun part. I wanted to go donate blood and started answering their questions. It all stopped when I got to the question where if I had sex with another male. Saying yes slammed the door on ever donating blood. The problem with this is having too many red blood cells. My heart is basically pumping sludge not blood. After telling my father this, now he wonders why I cannot donate I just told him a story to get out of it so far so good. I guess eventually this will catch up with me. I hold the guy I had sex with the news and all he said was I could have told you that. My thought was well horse apples.
After all this rambling, My question is how can I live a life style that although I stay clean, cannot donate blood to help my own health?.

I quit looking at gay, bi and transgendered porn. As well as using dildos to help excersise the demons, but no matter how hard I try to swim out of the center of the whirlpool, I feel my self getting sucked back into the center. One part of me has no problem with being bi and the other is trying to run as fast as it can the other way to try and avoid it. When I am not in the bi feeling I feel alone and angary towards the life style. Maybe anothe trip to see the shrink is the answer.

I thank you for you time and hope I didn't bore the hell out of you all.

[look4one]

Personally, being bi is more than the sex part. For me, it is about acknowledging to my own self that it is ok for me to enjoy the beauty of both males and females, and also that it is ok that I will attracted to both males and females.

Only a very few people know that I am bi. As I live my life with the motto "I will not enforce what I feel and believe to anyone, so anyone should not enforce his or her believe or feeling to myself", I only tell people who can accept it. If they cannot accept it, then I am not going to trouble them with it.

I don't understand about having more red blood cell if you have sex with a male. But, is it not a discrimination that gay/bi male cannot donate blood, even medically they are healthy and free of any disease? What happened if gays/bi males blood is the last hope of mankind ever to survive a epidemic? :tong:

Ayways... :bipride:

[slipnslide]

Could you clarify the blood thing for us? Yes, I understand that after that first MSM experience you can't give blood anymore, but is this something you need to do for medical reasons?

Your post didn't bore me, but it was a bit rambling so it's difficult for us to weigh in.

[slipnslide]

But, is it not a discrimination that gay/bi male cannot donate blood, even medically they are healthy and free of any disease? What happened if gays/bi males blood is the last hope of mankind ever to survive a epidemic? :tong:

Ayways... :bipride:

As a Canadian I thought you would know that if you have sex with guy, his dick just needs to touch your tongue, you can't ever give blood again. Any women you have sex with afterwards can't give blood for 12 months.

[look4one]

As a Canadian I thought you would know that if you have sex with guy, his dick just needs to touch your tongue, you can't ever give blood again. Any women you have sex with afterwards can't give blood for 12 months.

Yeah, it is something that I am not understanding why specifically male to male? I know that I don't have the full medical knowledge on this topic.

[slipnslide]

Yeah, it is something that I am not understanding why specifically male to male? I know that I don't have the full medical knowledge on this topic.

From what I understand it's because of HIV. Men who have sex with men make up a small portion of the population, but represent over 50% of all HIV infections. MSM sexual activity is more efficient at transmitting infection so part of this is risk mitigation for when the next HIV-like infection comes along. It takes a while to identify viruses when it happens, so by preventing MSM from giving blood you minimize the risk of passing any infection along through blood donations.

Several countries are reviewing these policies in light of better understand of HIV. Instead of outright banning us, they'll allow donations if you haven't had sex with a guy in a certain amount of time.

At the end of it all, discrimination is allowed here because it's in the best interest of public safety.

[look4one]

From what I understand it's because of HIV. Men who have sex with men make up a small portion of the population, but represent over 50% of all HIV infections. MSM sexual activity is more efficient at transmitting infection so part of this is risk mitigation for when the next HIV-like infection comes along. It takes a while to identify viruses when it happens, so by preventing MSM from giving blood you minimize the risk of passing any infection along through blood donations.

Several countries are reviewing these policies in light of better understand of HIV. Instead of outright banning us, they'll allow donations if you haven't had sex with a guy in a certain amount of time.

At the end of it all, discrimination is allowed here because it's in the best interest of public safety.

Makes sense. Thanks.

[ALMOE]

Sorry for the messed up thread. What I ment to say was that because I had sex with a male, I cannot donate blood. By me donating blood, that reduces the red blood cell count for awhile. For what ever reason, I produce more than I should and the heart has to wok harder. Now because I have had male to male sex I am being discriminated against. I just want to get rid of the blood.

Hope that helps if not I'll try and get a better explanation for it.

[elian]

Yeah, it sure sounds as though it sucks - you are now in a "high risk" category just because of who you choose to love.

I am glad you clarified that because if they told you that your red blood cell count was affected just by having sex with a man and so you couldn't give blood that sounds like a bunch of crap - I mean - healthy straight people have anal sex too and I don't see anyone telling them not to give blood?!

You would think that the easy way to fix it would be to pass a blood test for STDs and HIV - but apparently the tests aren't perfect yet according to above.. I guess your "risk" depends on how much you sleep around - and they just assume that all gay men are sluts?!

I once went to a pride picnic and a local organization was handing out free condoms and asking people to fill out a survey which had all sorts of neat questions about number of partners, sleeping habits, drug use habits... made me feel like a real human being. They thought they were being accepting and tolerant - I made a point of filling out the survey just so they could see there is such a thing as monogamous gay people.

Any medics out there care to comment?

-E

[drugstore cowboy]

Go see a doctor.

If you really do have an issue with having too many red blood cells I'm sure there's a medication they can give you or some sort of treatment they can suggest.