FDA Makes it Easier For Gay Men to Donate Blood

(CTN News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has changed the three-month abstinence rule for Gay Men who want to donate blood.

Currently, contributions are only permitted if a guy has gone a whole period without having intercourse.

All prospective donors would be questioned about new or many sexual partners in the last three months under the new “individual risk-based” draught criteria.

The FDA anticipates that this modification will increase blood donations.

On Friday, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said that “our proposal for an individual risk assessment, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, would allow us to continue employing the finest research” to assure a sufficient and secure blood supply.

Since contemporary technology tests blood for contagious illnesses, advocacy organizations have long argued that the present limits are discriminatory toward the LGBT population.

All blood donors will be required to answer questions about their sexual history, including if they’ve had anal sex, new or numerous partners, and anal sex within the last three months.

A person would need to wait three months before giving blood if the answer to both questions is yes.

HIV-positive individuals will continue to be prohibited from giving blood.

The screening of all blood will continue for conditions including HIV and Hepatitis B and C.

The 1980s saw the beginning of national prohibitions on homosexual and Gay men donating blood in an attempt to stop the Aids pandemic.

Only in 2015 did the FDA modify its lifelong restriction on homosexual males donating blood to a one-year abstinence rule.

The adjustments will take some time since the FDA must wait 60 days before finalizing the rules in response to public comments.

Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said, “We are confident that the safety of the blood supply will be maintained.”

Canada just recently relaxed its three-month abstinence rule. Recently, limitations on blood donations were also removed in the UK, France, Greece, Israel, Hungary, Denmark, and Brazil.

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