Apheresis RBC donors are deferred for 16 weeks but due to cumulative RBC loss, they cannot get a third collection in (with our calculations) within the 12 month period. Wouldn't it be a lot easier (for us) if AABB/FDA extended the deferral to 18 weeks?

This is an old topic; however, I'd like to add that regardless of whether a donor was eligible for three double-RBC donations in a year, they may decide to donate a single unit, platelets, or plasma on the next donation instead. Perhaps the double-RBC makes them extra tired. Keeping the interval as short as possible means we can get additional donations more quickly if the donor isn't interested in only doing double-RBC donations.