This refers to a wide-spread fallacy. Bone marrow (the most important hematopoietic human organ) and bone marrow (a component of the central nervous system) are not the same thing. During the stem cell harvest from the bone marrow, the spinal cord remains unaffected. Therefore, there is also no risk of paraplegia!

Anyone between 18 and 55 years and who is in good physical health can become a life saver. In order to ensure your protection and the well-being of the patients, there are certain exceptions Read about the prerequisites for registration in our donor center here.

With the online registration, you can sign up as a donor in our donor center conveniently from home. Just complete our online form and we will mail a tissue typing set with cotton swabs to your private address. Use the cotton swabs to take a swab of the mucous membrane inside of your cheek and then send it back to us. You will not have to incur any of the costs for this. We will store the results of the examination of your buccal swab in the donor center and make it available anonymously for the global search for patients.
To the online registration form

Bei der Aufnahme in die DKMS als potenzieller Stammzellspender erhalten Sie nach ein paar Wochen per Post Ihre DKMS-Spendercard. Darauf ist Ihre persönliche Spendernummer eingetragen. Es erleichtert unsere Arbeit, wenn Sie die Spendercard griffbereit aufbewahren und uns Ihre Spendernummer im Falle einer Kontaktaufnahme mitteilen können.

A "double" registration is not necessary because the data of every potential stem cell donor from all German donor centers are consolidated together at the ZKRD Zentrales Knochenmarkspenderregister (Central Bone Marrow Donor Registry) in Ulm. Your donor data is already available in anonymous form for the global search for donors. The second registration in our donor center would only lead to unnecessary costs.

You can also register with us as a potential stem cell donor during your pregnancy insofar as you fulfill the standard prerequisites. In this case, please let us know that you are currently pregnant and provide us with the tentative delivery date.

We will block you as a potential stem cell donor for six months after the delivery of your child (breastfeeding and recovery time). After the expiry of the blocking period, you will be released again for inquiries unless we hear from you otherwise.

Homosexual men are excluded from donating. The exclusion of homosexual men from the blood and bone marrow donation is based on a professionally verifiable risk estimate of the medical profession in the governing directives of the German Medical Association, which are reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

Female partners of bisexual men are also excluded from the blood and bone marrow donation. That is because it is indisputable that homosexual men – just like the other groups mentioned – have a statistically higher risk to become infected with AIDS than it is the case for the rest of the population. The publically accessible, epidemiological figures on the homepage of the Robert Koch-Institute (www.rki.de) clearly confirm this. Out of estimated 3,000 new infections in 2008, around 2,650 were attributable to men, of which around 72 % are men who had sex with men. Incidentally, the German AIDS Foundation has also voiced its opinion that the exclusion of homosexual men from blood donations should remain in force in light of this background.

We are fully aware that an epidemiological consideration disregards the individual case consideration and that this can lead to the fact that individual persons have the feeling of being treated unjustly. However, the legislator has transferred the decision on such questions with justification to the medical association. They are able to assess the situation as professionally as possible.

When registering with DKMS, part of your tissue characteristics will be examined. No tests will be carried out with regard to specific infectious agents. Mostly a specific request for a stem cell donation takes place quite a few years later. We will then examine your blood sample for certain infectious agents such as HI viruses, hepatitis viruses (B and C), if you are actually a potential candidate for a donation.

A donor’s tissue characteristics are analyzed for a tissue typing. The more detailed (i.e. "very high resolution") a donor’s tissue characteristics are, the faster an analysis can be conducted as to whether he or she can become a lifesaver for a patient since a post-typing is eliminated.

According to the actual, scientific status, ten characteristics, if possible, must match between the donor and patient for a successful transplantation. In order to save time that is vital for life, DKMS has therefore been conducting high resolution tissue typings of these ten key tissue characteristics which are relevant for a transplantation directly during the new registration of all donors since May 2010.

However, DKMS is not only the leader when it comes to quality, the laboratories we have commissioned work in accordance with state-of-the-art scientific standards and they’re able to tissue type over 25,000 samples every month. Persons who register with DKMS can therefore be certain that their tissue characteristics will be typed as quickly as possible and made available for the global search for donors.