autologous blood banking?

one of the first things a close friend said to me was, make sure you check into donating your own blood (autologous blood banking)....but i've found a couple studies that seem to strongly suggest that donating blood in the 6 weeks prior (and the autologous donations have a very short shelf life) actually substantially increases the odds that you will need blood.
yeah, i'd raher have my own blood transfused, rather than someone else's, but even more, i'd rather no transfusion at all.
i'm not surrently anemic, i take a multi with iron, and slow FE a few times/week...

any thoughts?

Hi Dancingfool,

I am a blood donor and I have complete faith in the safety of the blood donation system as is run by the regular VOLUNTEER donor organizations. All their blood is screened so carefully now it is totally safe.

I asked my Dr if self donation was worth it and he said that I would probably not need blood because the procedures nowadays are virtually bloodless, and that IF something happened that I did need blood, I would need more than I could donate for myself. (Blood only keeps a limited time no matter how it is stored.)

That is my worth of advice. Hope it helps.