Can you save lives? One of the noblest and most selfless act a person can do is to donate a body part. Sometimes, though, a person has the initiative and willingness to help but lacks guidance on how to go about it. If you’re thinking of being a kidney donor, here’s your quick guide.

Check with local hospitals and volunteer for the donor registry. They usually give you a checkup to determine if you’re healthy enough to be a donor. You have to be healthy to be qualified as a donor. Regardless of your gender, your kidney can be used by either a male or a female patient.

After you undergo an operation, it will take a few days or maybe a week to recover but it can take longer than that to be able to be active again. After recovering, a donor can resume normal activities such as work and even night outs. It is highly advisable for donors to adopt a healthier lifestyle than before, especially with regard to alcohol consumption.

There is the fear that a person needs his two kidneys to be perfectly healthy, and this fear renders some people afraid to be donors. The truth is, one kidney can handle your kidney functions. So giving your other one is not much of a loss especially if another person needs it.

Female kidney donors can safely become pregnant after the scar heals completely. For some donors, it takes a year, but others can completely heal in less time.