The gym question, answered honestly. Medical steroids and muscle-building steroids are completely different animals — one usually passes, the other defers.
The deferral: anabolic steroids
Anabolic-androgenic steroids — the injectable or tablet kind used to build muscle — defer you from donating. Two reasons:
- They change your blood — thickening it, altering liver values, sometimes triggering your body’s response in ways a patient’s unit should not carry
- What often travels with them — unregulated sources, shared needles (a serious infection risk), and dose patterns no screening form can verify
If you have used them, the honest move is to declare, stop, let your system wash out fully, and speak to screening about when you can return. The deferral is not forever; the honesty is permanent.
The pass: medical steroids
- Inhalers (asthma preventers) — fine
- Skin creams (eczema, psoriasis) — fine
- Short doctor-prescribed courses (a flare, a rash) — usually fine once the reason for the course is resolved
- Long-term low-dose prednisolone — assessed individually
Declare it. “Steroid” on a screening form triggers a question, not an automatic refusal — the staff separate medical from muscle every day.
The gym donor’s reality
Lifting and donating coexist perfectly — skip max-effort training for 24 hours after donating, hydrate well, and you lose nothing. Plenty of our most regular donors are gym regulars who plan donations between training blocks.