How painful is it for a bone-marrow donor?

Side effects: The donor for a transplant typically gives peripheral blood stem cells rather than bone marrow. This involves getting some shots under the skin for a few days and then cells are collected from the blood. There usually is not much discomfort. Bone marrow harvests require anesthesia so the donor does not feel discomfort during the collections but may have mild-moderate sitffness or soreness.