TABLE 3.

Ferritin levels of donors who return after 6‐month deferral (ferritin level between 15 and 30 ng/mL) or 12‐month deferral (ferritin level <15 ng/mL). Symbols in the bottom three rows indicate whether the ferritin level has dropped (↓), has gone up one (↑) or two (↑↑) categories, or has stayed in the same category (=)

	Six‐month deferral		Twelve‐month deferral
	Female	Male	Female	Male
Number of donors returned	3059	3736	486	479
Donors with increased ferritin	61%	91%	91%	99%
Median total increase (IQR)	4 ng/mL (−3‐11)	15 ng/mL (7‐25)	12 ng/mL (5‐22)	27 ng/mL (16‐39)
Median increase per day	0.016 ng/mL	0.071 ng/mL	0.030 ng/mL	0.068 ng/mL
Ferritin after deferral <15 ng/mL	12% (↓)	1.5% (↓)	26% (=)	4.6% (=)
Ferritin after deferral 15‐30 ng/mL	54% (=)	30% (=)	43% (↑)	27% (↑)
Ferritin after deferral >30 ng/mL	34% (↑)	68% (↑)	30% (↑↑)	68% (↑↑)