I am just giving my own opinion -- not any science or evidence.
I would not give blood.

1. Our blood has antibodies in it that could make it dangerous to others. Even if they can be removed and other parts used, I would be uncertain that it would still be absolutely safe. I would not want blood coming from someone with a serious autoimmune system problem.

2. When we take IVIG, we are getting blood products of a mix of 1000 or more donors. That is part of what we would be donating on to others.
We take IVIG to put blood products in us that somehow makes our MG better, and taking some of this out would seem to me to remove some of the benefit.

3. After years of giving blood, I was told to no longer ever give it again about 15 years before I was diagnosed with MG. I had some kind of IgG antibody in my blood that they said was not acceptable as a donor. I always wondered if that was some kind of a precursor to MG.

What I would do is to encourage my friends and relatives to donate blood, especially if I were getting IVIG and hope that my encouragement would make up for my not donating. In my case, my son does it every few months, as I did when I was allowed to.

For the scientific answer, just ask your local blood bank what they think.

If I cold give blood I would. I always liked the feeling that I was helping others. I also did apheresis where certain blood products were removed and given to matching persons who needed it. As O negative, most of my blood donations were saved for preterm infants so cross-typing was not needed -- they didn't have to draw blood from the tiny babies each time to check the match. (in the 1980s and 90s).

I just googled this -- donating blood autoimmune disease and it says NO

Patients with most autoimmune diseases cannot donate blood because of so many unknown factors of these diseases. ... In many cases deferral from donating blood is to protect the donor from complications. Even though the person can't donate blood, most can donate or sell their plasma for research purposes.

Although it is a good thought, we aren't allowed it appears.


Good Luck
Russ

hi.
Icould not have given a better explanation thta what Russ has given.

best of luck

Andre

Nor I, in fact, there is a total ban here in the UK for those of us with MG to give blood. If you feel the need to give something back, and why not, then join one of the support groups?

Peter

Interestingly, at least here in Pennsylvania, USA, people with MG are allowed to be organ donors but not tissue donors. I believe that blood is considered a tissue. It was a happy day for me when I found this out and registered as an organ donor.

I am on Cellcept and there are no restrictions for giving blood in CA. Having an auto-immune condition isn't enough to disqualify someone either. If this is a question of ethics for you, I can understand.

Having said that, people with MG are allowed to give blood. It just depends on what they are taking to treat the MG.

https://www.redcrossblood.org/faq.html#eligibility-medications
Must wait 6 weeks after last dose of cellcept to donate.

Well, that is coming from red cross. I must say that I recently donated blood to a blood bank and Cellcept wasn't listed. Again, seems to be more of a morals issue. At least in terms of my situation.

I certainly took it into consideration and did my due diligence. Apologies if this offends anyone..

Was scheduled to give blood again and I called the company to make sure. Having MG is alright, but the Cellcept was a deal breaker. I let them know my prior donation so it could possibly be pulled

Thanks everyone