By Alyssa Hui; Very Well Health
According to a survey sponsored by USANA and conducted by OnePoll, about a third of Americans don’t know what their blood type is.1 However, experts say that number might be even higher.
“Probably more than half of people don’t know their blood type,” Donald Karcher, MD, FCAP, president-elect of the College of American Pathologists, told Verywell. “Most people just haven’t gotten that information or didn’t think of it as something that was important to have.”
If you don’t know your blood type but you know you should, how can you find out what it is? And what does it mean for your health if you’re A, B, AB, and Rh-positive or negative?
Here’s everything you need to know about learning what your blood type is and why having that information could be life-saving not just for you, but for others.
Why Should You Know Your Blood Type?
Karcher said that knowing your blood type can help you understand your general health, but it’s also critical information to have in specific situations—for example, if you get in an accident and need an emergency blood transfusion.
There are also some more common situations where healthcare providers need to know your blood type. For example, if you need surgery (which carries a risk of losing blood and needing it replaced) or if you plan to get pregnant (in which case your blood type might not match up with the fetus’s).
Knowing your blood type isn’t just relevant to your health—it also matters if you’re donating blood to help other people, especially in communities where blood supplies are in short supply.
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