If you are a man who has sex with other men, you might not be eligible to donate blood.

Blood donation is important to community health and the need for blood donations to meet the needs of patient care is constant – even more so during a pandemic! However, if you are a man who has sex with other men, you might not be eligible to donate blood due to a current (and controversial) FDA restriction that men who have had sex with other men have to defer from donating blood for some period of time.

Below is a short history of why men who have sex with men have blood donation restrictions.

Additionally, we’ll talk about the recent (as well as potential) developments that have forced updates to eligibility that loosened previous restrictions.

A Short History of the Restriction of Blood Donation by Gay Men

It all began with a blanket ban for any and all men who had sex with other men.

Initially, this blood donation restriction was introduced in 1985 by the FDA as a lifetime ban for all men who had sex with other men after 1977.

This was put into place to block the transmission of HIV due to concerns of the rise in HIV and hepatitis B cases in the 1970s and 1980s.

Since those conditions could be passed on through blood and effective screening wasn’t available at the time, those who were most at risk of contracting the viruses to pass them on, including gay and bisexual men, were prevented to donate blood.

Check out this TikTok video for a short history of why gay men are restricted from donating blood.

The Loosening of the Blanket Ban in Recent Years

In the years since the blanket ban, it has been criticized as discriminatory federal guidelines against gay men.

The blanket ban existed until 2015 and has since loosened to an abstinence period of one year for men who have sex men if they wanted to donate blood after years of campaigning by sexual health and LGBTQ+ organizations.

The main argument for reducing the deferral period for men who have sex with men is that there are modern screening techniques that made a lengthy period of abstinence unnecessary.

Then in April 2020, due to COVID-19, the deferral period was further shortened to three months by the FDA for healthy for gay men who want to donate blood and avert shortages. 

Additionally, the FDA recently launched a study that could lead to the removal of restrictions on blood donations by gay and bisexual men by late 2021.

The study (ADVANCE: Assessing Donor Variability And New Concepts in Eligibility) is in collaboration with three of the largest blood centers in the United States (Vitalant, OneBlood, the American Red Cross) along with LGBTQ+ community centers across the country.

The results of the research will conclude whether deferral blood donations can be based on an individual basis rather than a blanket rule.

Check out this TikTok video about donating blood during COVID-19 as a gay man.

TL;DR

Too Long; Didn’t Read

• Blood donation for gay and bisexual has come a long way from the blanket ban in the 1980s.

• Over the past few decades, the restriction has loosened from one year of abstinence due to campaigning by sexual health and LGBTQ+ organizations to a shortened three months due to the current global health crisis of COVID-19.

• That restriction may be lifted following the results of a study by the FDA in 2021.

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