They also acknowledge that sexual orientation should not determine blood donation eligibility. Organizations such as the Red Cross understand that not all people identify as male or female and that there are many gender identities. There is no deferral period for males who have sex with females or females who have sex with other females. The same guidelines also apply to males in a monogamous same-sex relationship and to anyone who has had sex with an MSM. Under the FDA’s revised guidelines, MSM are eligible to donate blood if they have abstained from intercourse for 3 or more months. Share on Pinterest Suthiwan Koysomboon/EyeEm/Getty Images The guidelines also use “male” and “female” to refer to gender rather than sex. These guidelines do not consider nonbinary genders and require people to identify as male or female. Throughout the rest of this article, we will use the same binary language present in the blood donation guidelines. In this article, we discuss changes to blood donation rules and exclusion criteria and explain how these changes may affect LGBTQIA+ individuals wishing to donate blood. The FDA reduced the 12-month deferral period to 3 months.
In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changed its guidelines to encourage more blood donations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many sexual health and LGBTQIA+ organizations have campaigned against this deferral period. However, this policy discriminated against members of LGBTQIA+ communities.
The reasoning was that this would reduce the risk of passing certain infections, such as HIV, to the recipient. Previously, MSM would face deferral for 12 months and could only donate after a year of abstinence. However, it is important that all blood donations are safe, with no risk of passing bloodborne infections to the recipient or causing other potential complications due to incompatible blood types. At present, the deferral period for MSM in the United States is now 3 months.ĭonating blood is vital to public health as it is a safe, quick, and easy way to help doctors and nurses save lives. However, challenges to blood supply and campaigns to alter eligibility have resulted in changes to the donation criteria. They would have to abstain from sex for 12 months to be eligible for donation. Previously, men who have sex with men (MSM) were unable to donate blood.
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