Some blood products are safe to manufacture from the blood of donors assigned male at birth but not from those assigned female at birth. This link goes to a different website which may not use the same language as this site. The JPAC guidelines give more information about donation if you are transgender. This is because the majority of transgender people undergo hormone replacement therapy which brings their haemoglobin levels in line with most cis people of the same gender. Haemoglobin testing is conducted in accordance with the gender with which you identify. Blood donation if you are transgenderĪs with all donors, a careful and sympathetic consideration of sexual risk factors is undertaken. NHS Blood and Transplant considers all donors to be the sex and/or gender that they identify as, including nonbinary, genderfluid and agender donors. All donors are addressed using the title and pronouns of their choice. It’s not needed, and not medically necessary to protect the blood supply.Being transgender does not in any way prevent you from being able to donate. should continue to explore removing the ban. “I think Argentina’s move is incredible,” says Hayes. However, those following the progress of other countries remain hopeful. only just implemented its newest version of the policy, it’s unlikely authorities will be heading back to the drawing board soon. annual blood supply by 2 to 4% which could help save the lives of over a million people. A 2014 report from The Williams Institute estimates that if the ban were lifted 360,600 men would likely donate 615,300 additional pints of blood each year, increasing the total U.S. Those who want the ban lifted altogether say it will increase the nation’s blood supply and save lives. The FDA says that men who have had sex with other men are the population “most severely affected by HIV.” The agency says its deferral policy is “based on the documented increased risk of certain transfusion transmissible infections, such as HIV, associated with male-to-male sex and is not based on any judgment concerning the donor’s sexual orientation.” There’s a better way to protect the blood supply and be more inclusive about our policy.” We have to stop responding to HIV and AIDS like it’s the 1980s. That’s why you are seeing countries like Argentina make these changes. They are not doing this to heterosexuals who could also come in contact with HIV,” says Anthony Hayes, vice president of public affairs and policy for Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). They require men who have sex with men, including married monogamous gay couples, to be celibate for a year. “The FDA’s move to implement a one-year deferral is nothing more than a defacto lifetime ban. 2014, the FDA announced it would move forward on implementing this new policy.īut advocates say its not enough and it’s still discriminatory. 2014, an advisory panel to the FDA voted 16-2 that the FDA and HHS adopt a one-year deferral method, which would allow men who have sex with other men to give blood after they have been abstinent for one year. “Our current policies turn away healthy, willing donors, even when we face serious blood shortages.” “We have seen vast advances in blood screening technology, blood donation policy changes in other countries allowing MSM to donate, and opposition from our nation’s blood banks who have called the current ban ‘medically and scientifically unwarranted.’’ the letter reads. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) arguing that the agency was behind the times. In 2013, however, 86 members of Congress wrote to the U.S. policy regarding donation has moved only incrementally – the policy remained largely unchanged for over thirty years, despite opposition by the American Medical Association, America’s Blood Centers and the Red Cross, who said it was based on bad science. Since then, testing technologies for HIV have become increasingly innovative, but the U.S.
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A ban implemented by the FDA in 1983 forbade men from donating blood and tissue for life if they had sex with another man after 1977, the year the AIDS virus began spreading, even if they tested negative for HIV. The United States, however, still has highly restrictive laws for men who have sex with men. For instance in Italy, everyone -men and women- is assessed on their sexual risk, and those who have been tested and are determined to have safe sexual practices can donate. However, a small number of countries like Italy and now Argentina have changed their laws so that donor acceptance is based on overall risk rather than sexual orientation.
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Bans against gay and bisexual men donating blood have been commonplace in many countries, the United States included, since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.