Can you donate plasma if youre gay
The FDA's new design to adjust plasma donation for homosexual and bisexual men is 'a step in the right direction' but still isn't enough progress
Donating plasma — or the liquid portion of blood that's left when red blood cells, light blood cells, and platelets are removed — can be lifesaving for medical patients who include experienced trauma, burns, and other medical emergencies.
Plasma donations are also crucial for those with diseases including immunodeficiency, hemophilia, and lung diseases, says Dr. Identify Schuster, founding dean and CEO at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson Academy of Medicine.
Despite a need for plasma donors, the Sustenance and Drug Administration (FDA) has restricted donations by men who have sex with men since 1983 due to fears of HIV transmission. The FDA eased this restriction in 2015 and again in 2020 for some men.
Now, the FDA may lift the restrictions in favor of an individualized assessing approach, according to news reports. The approach would let men who haven't had any unused partners in three months — but have had sex with an existing male partner — to donate.
Important: Federal restrictions on blood and plasma d
Landmark change to blood donation eligibility rules on today’s World Blood Donor Day
New eligibility rules that will allow more men who have sex with men to donate blood, platelets and plasma come into effect this week, marking an historic move to make blood donation more inclusive while keeping blood just as safe.
From today (Monday) – World Blood Donor Day – the questions asked of everyone when they come to donate blood in England, Scotland and Wales will change. Eligibility will be based on individual circumstances surrounding health, travel and sexual behaviours evidenced to be at a higher risk of sexual infection.
Donors will no longer be asked if they are a man who has had sex with another man, removing the element of assessment that is based on the previous population-based risks.
Instead, any individual who attends to grant blood - regardless of gender - will be asked if they hold had sex and, if so, about recent sexual behaviours. Anyone who has had the same sexual partner for the last three months will be eligible to donate.
The changes to the re-named Donation Safety Check form* will affect blood, plasma and platelet donors. The process of giving blood will not ch
Men who have sex with men (MSM)
On this page:
Can lgbtq+ men give blood?
Gay and bisexual men are not automatically prevented from giving blood.
Men who contain sex with men and who have had the same companion for 3 months or more and face our other eligibility criteria are proficient to give blood.
Anyone who has had anal sex with a new spouse or multiple partners in the last three months, regardless of their gender or their partner’s gender, must linger 3 months before donating.
We assess your eligibility to provide blood based solely on your hold individual experiences, making the process fairer for everyone.
If you are taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) or post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) you will be unable to grant blood. If you stop taking PrEP or PEP, you will need to wait 3 months before you can give blood.
We thank that any deferral is disappointing if you want to save lives by giving blood.
If you have previously been unable to grant blood because of the guidelines and would like to donate, please name us on 0300 123 23 23. One of our team can review the new guidelines with you and, if eligible, guide your next appointment.
Why is there a 3-month wait after sex?
The 3-mon
Donation if you are LGBT+
You can donate all forms of donation regardless of gender, NHS Blood and Transplant considers all donors to be the sex and/or gender that they identify as, including nonbinary, genderfluid and agender donors. We’ll use the pronouns of every donors decision as well as our people sharing theirs.
Blood, plasma and platelet donation if you are transgender
As part of our continuous pilot to be inclusive and make sure our donors and patients receive the best care possible, we have made some changes to how we register your sex assigned at birth and gender.
From July 2024, we will ask all donors their sex assigned at birth, as well as their gender when signing up to donate. This will be asked only once, at registration, and then recorded confidentially – this will allow us to know what blood products are safe to manufacture from your donation (as this can differ based on the chance of a previous pregnancy) as well as allowing us to treat donors more respectfully on session.
We also want to create sure your donation is safe for patients and that you are not at risk of harming yourself by donating too often.
The JPAC guidelines give more data about donation
Blood Donation by Gay and Bisexual Men
Blood donors give a gift for which there is no substitute. At AABB, we believe that the ability to save lives through donation of safe blood products should be expose to as many people as possible, irrespective of their sexual orientation or gender identity. That’s why AABB has led endeavors to make blood donation inclusive of non-binary donors and championed the adoption of equitable, science-based individual donor assessment (IDA) processes to determine blood donor eligibility that welcome Homosexual blood donors, strengthen the blood supply and spare lives.
FDA Approves Historic Extension of Donor Eligibility
On May 11, 2023, the Sustenance and Drug Administration issued a final guidance eliminating time-based blood donor deferral periods for gay, attracted to both genders and other men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with MSM. The agency now recommends a new donor filtering process that uses individual donor assessment - a donor screening process that uses gender-inclusive, individual donor-based questions for all individuals - to establish eligibility.
AABB is committed to helping the blood community execute the recommendations as adv as