What happens when you donate plasma
Donating plasma takes about 45 minutes. You can expect to spend about an hour at the donation site for the entire donation process. Discover the different steps of a plasma donation.
Before your donation
Plan your donation
We recommend booking an appointment to donate plasma. Of course, if you’re passing by a donation centre and have the time to donate then and there, check with our team to see if there are any openings. If there are, we’ll be more than happy to take you. But of course, it’s best to book an appointment to guarantee your spot.
Preparing to donate: Some tips and tricks
- Make sure you feel well the day of your appointment.
- Review the eligibility criteria.*
- Wear loose-fitting clothing with sleeves that can be rolled up above the elbow.
- Bring your Héma-Québec donor card or your virtual donor card on the JeDonne Web app.
- If this is your first donation or if you’ve lost your donor card, bring a form of photo ID (e.g., driver’s licence, health insurance card or passport). Student IDs and business and public transit cards (e.g., OPUS) are not accepted.
- Have a list of all your medications and vaccinations handy to give our team.
- If you’re bringing a child with you to your appointment, plan to come with an adult who will not be donating. If both adults wish to donate, book appointments at least one hour apart. That way, there will always be someone to watch the child, and the first donor will be free before the second donor has begun their eligibility interview with a Héma-Québec staff member.
*Note: The Héma-Québec staff member conducting your pre-donation eligibility interview makes the final call on your eligibility.
Right before donating:
- Drink at least 500 ml of water or juice and eat something salty.
- Be sure to eat well and avoid fatty foods (bacon, fried food, etc.).
While you're at the centre
Donating plasma is only available at our donation centres. It’s not possible to donate plasma at mobile blood drives.
Reception
Upon arrival, you must:
- Show photo ID.
- Review the eligibility criteria.
- Review the information on plasma donation so you can give informed consent.
Registration
- We will go over your information with you to create or update your file.
- We will give you a wristband with a unique barcode that will be used to identify you at each step of the donation process, if needed.
- We will take your photo, if needed.
Health screening questionnaire
In this questionnaire, you will be asked about your health, your medications and any activities that put you at risk for transmissible diseases. You can ask for headphones to listen to the audio version of the questionnaire if you prefer.
Eligibility interview
- We will go over some of your answers to the questionnaire, if needed.
- We will take your temperature and check your hemoglobin levels.
- At the end of the interview, we will confirm whether you are eligible to donate. If you are, you will be asked to sign a donation consent form.
Donation
- We will disinfect the puncture site, insert a needle in the vein, and then collect the plasma.
- The collection device uses centrifugation to extract the plasma and return the other blood components to your body. This method has been shown to reliably collect around three times as much plasma as when you give blood.
- We will give you a hand exercise ball that you can squeeze at regular intervals to keep your blood vessels nicely dilated throughout your donation.
- For your first plasma donation, and every 8 donations thereafter, Héma-Québec will measure your levels of total protein and certain antibodies (immunoglobulin G or IgG).
- An anticoagulant is added to the blood collected for plasma donation to prevent it from coagulating inside the device. After the plasma is collected, a small amount of anticoagulant will be returned to your body along with the other blood components.
- You will be given a solution during the procedure to replace some of the blood volume collected and keep you as comfortable as possible.
- You’ll be set up in a comfy chair where you can read, chat with our staff and other donors or just sit back and relax.
- At the end of the donation, we will take samples directly from the collected plasma for lab testing.
Donating takes about 45 minutes. Our staff will keep a close eye on you the entire time.
We collect anywhere from 486 mL to 831 mL of plasma, depending on the donor’s height and weight. The amount of plasma collected is no more than 18% of the donor’s estimated blood volume.
We use sterile, single-use equipment. That means there’s zero danger of contracting a disease from plasma donation.
Rest and snack
When you’re done donating and the needle is removed, you must stay seated in the donor chair and apply pressure to the puncture site for 5 minutes before heading to the snack area.
You will be offered a selection of snacks and beverages. You’ll leave feeling proud that you helped save lives!
After your donation
After leaving our centre, you must:
- Rest, drink plenty of water or juice and avoid alcohol
- Keep your puncture site bandaged for 6 hours
- Avoid any strenuous activity for 6 to 8 hours
If you feel faint: Sit with your head between your knees or lie down and put your legs up for several minutes. If you are driving, park safely and ask for help or wait until you feel well enough to drive again.
You may need to wait longer before returning to work or exercise, depending on what you do (e.g., bus driver, heavy machinery operator, etc.).
Frequently asked questions
You can give plasma every 6 days! That means that donating plasma is ideal for people who want to donate more often. By comparison, blood can only be donated every 56 or 84 days, depending on gender.
If you’re bringing a child with you to your appointment, plan to come with an adult who will not be donating. If both adults wish to donate, book appointments at least one hour apart. That way, there will always be someone to watch the child, and the first donor will be free before the second donor has begun their eligibility interview with a Héma-Québec staff member.
Héma-Québec tests all donations for the following blood-borne diseases:
- Hepatitis A, B and C
- Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
- Phenotype (ABO, Rh and other groups, as needed)
- Parvovirus
Héma-Québec may also perform any other tests needed in pursuit of its mission.
Under certain circumstances, these tests might not be performed (e.g., if a sample is damaged). If so, these donations are discarded without further testing.
If your lab results are abnormal:
- Your donation will be discarded.
- We will notify you of your results, which are kept confidential. We will also notify Canadian Blood Services so that they know how long you are ineligible to donate.
- When required by law, we will notify regional public health departments of positive test results.
The blood products we collect are used for transfusions or for manufacturing medications. On rare occasions, donations may be used for educational purposes, specialized lab testing (transfusion medicine), product quality control and international aid.
Héma-Québec collects personal information from donors through their interactions with its staff and via completed questionnaires. This information is required in order to make a donation. Héma-Québec uses the personal information of its donors, including their test results, to determine their eligibility for donating blood products, manage donations and communicate with donors.
Héma-Québec may disclose information to Canadian Blood Services and to hospitals or other blood transfusion centres, some of which are located outside Québec, for blood recipient safety purposes.
Donors can view their personal information and have it corrected by contacting the person in charge of access to documents and protection of personal information at responsable.acces@hema-quebec.qc.ca.