Most common medications, including blood pressure pills, antidepressants, and thyroid hormones, do not prevent you from donating blood. But a specific group of drugs does require a waiting period or causes permanent deferral. The restrictions exist because certain medications can harm a blood recipient (especially a pregnant woman or developing fetus) or because the drug may mask an infection that screening tests need to detect.
The list below reflects the current AABB Medication Deferral List (version 4.0, updated July 2025), which blood centers across the United States use as their standard.
Blood Thinners and Antiplatelet Drugs
Blood thinners and antiplatelet medications are among the most common reasons donors get temporarily deferred. The waiting periods vary based on how long each drug affects your blood’s ability to clot.
For antiplatelet drugs, the wait times after your last dose are:
- Feldene (piroxicam): 2 days
- Effient (prasugrel): 3 days
- Brilinta (ticagrelor): 7 days
- Plavix (clopidogrel): 14 days
- Ticlid (ticlopidine) and Zontivity (vorapaxar): 1 month
For anticoagulants (blood thinners), the standard wait is 7 days after your last dose. This includes warfarin (sold as Coumadin or Jantoven), heparin, and the newer oral blood thinners like Eliquis, Xarelto, Pradaxa, and Savaysa. The injectable blood thinner Arixtra has a shorter wait of just 2 days.
Aspirin Is a Special Case
Aspirin does not disqualify you from donating whole blood. However, if you’re donating platelets specifically, you need to stop taking aspirin products for at least 2 full calendar days before your appointment. So if you take aspirin on Monday, the earliest you can donate platelets is Thursday.
Acne and Skin Medications
Isotretinoin, the powerful acne drug sold under names like Accutane, Absorica, Claravis, and Zenatane, requires a 1-month wait after your last dose. The concern is that isotretinoin causes severe birth defects. If donated blood containing the drug were transfused to a pregnant woman, it could harm the fetus.
Psoriasis medications carry much longer deferrals. Soriatane (acitretin) requires a 3-year wait because the drug and its active byproducts linger in the body for an extended period. Tegison (etretinate), an older psoriasis drug, results in permanent deferral. Etretinate can be detected in body fat for years after the last dose, and there is no safe window to clear it.
HIV Prevention and Treatment Drugs
If you take oral PrEP or PEP to prevent HIV (drugs like Truvada or Descovy), you must wait 3 months from your last dose before donating. For injectable HIV prevention drugs like Apretude (cabotegravir) or Yeztugo (lenacapavir), the wait is 2 years from your most recent injection. The longer deferral for injectables reflects how slowly these long-acting drugs leave your system.
The reason for these deferrals is not that the drugs themselves are dangerous to recipients. The issue is that PrEP and PEP can suppress HIV viral levels enough to cause a false-negative result on blood screening tests. A donor could be in the early stages of HIV infection and test negative because the medication is masking the virus. The 3-month and 2-year windows are based on how long each drug stays active in the body.
Any medication used to treat an active HIV infection (antiretroviral therapy) results in permanent deferral.
Hair Loss and Prostate Medications
Finasteride and dutasteride, commonly prescribed for hair loss and enlarged prostate, both require a 6-month wait. Propecia and Proscar (both finasteride) and Avodart or Jalyn (dutasteride) fall into this category. Like isotretinoin, these drugs can cause birth defects, and even trace amounts in donated blood could pose a risk to a pregnant recipient.
Medications With 6-Month or Longer Deferrals
Several medications used for serious conditions carry deferral periods of six months or more:
- Thalidomide (Thalomid) and lenalidomide (Revlimid): 6 months. These are used for multiple myeloma and are potent teratogens, meaning they cause severe birth defects.
- Rinvoq (upadacitinib): 6 months. This is used for rheumatoid arthritis.
- CellCept (mycophenolate mofetil): 6 weeks. This immune-suppressing drug is commonly prescribed after organ transplants.
- Arava (leflunomide): 2 years. Another rheumatoid arthritis drug that stays in the body for a long time.
Two medications for basal cell skin cancer, Erivedge (vismodegib) and Odomzo (sonidegib), also carry a 2-year deferral. The multiple sclerosis drug Aubagio (teriflunomide) has the same 2-year waiting period.
Other Deferrals Worth Knowing
Hepatitis B Immune Globulin (HBIG), given after potential hepatitis B exposure, requires a 3-month wait. Bovine-derived insulin, which was sourced from cattle, causes permanent deferral due to concerns about prion disease. This is rarely relevant today since virtually all insulin is now synthetic, but if you ever used beef-sourced insulin, the deferral still applies. Standard insulin made synthetically or from non-bovine sources does not affect your eligibility at all. People with well-controlled diabetes can donate whether they manage it through diet, oral medication, or modern insulin.
Any experimental medication, as determined by the blood center’s medical director, results in permanent deferral.
Medications That Do Not Affect Eligibility
The list of restricted medications is relatively short compared to the vast number of drugs people take daily. The following categories of medications generally do not prevent you from donating blood:
- Blood pressure medications
- Cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins)
- Antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications
- Thyroid medications
- Birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy
- Over-the-counter pain relievers (ibuprofen, acetaminophen)
- Allergy medications
- Antibiotics (as long as the underlying infection has cleared)
With antibiotics, the deferral is really about the infection, not the drug. Once you’ve finished your course and feel well, you’re typically eligible. If you were prescribed antibiotics as a preventive measure rather than for an active infection, there’s usually no waiting period at all.
If you’re unsure whether your specific medication affects your eligibility, the fastest way to check is to call the blood center where you plan to donate. Staff can look up your medication before you make the trip.