Can gay people give blood uk

LGBT+ people donate and save lives all the time. What were the rules for gay and bisexual men before these new changes, and how have they changed over the years? Epidemiological data is used to assess this possible risk.

The new criteria focuses on individual behaviours, lifting a. This means gay and bisexual men in long-term relationships will be able to give blood when that person is the only person they have had anal sex within the three months prior to donating.

Under the new rules someone will be asked to defer their donation if they report anal sex with a new or multiple partners in the past three months.

Men who have sex

Currently, until the new rules are implemented, a man who reports that he has had sex with another man in the past three months is not eligible to give blood. Anal sex with one partner in the past three months, when that is not a new sexual partner i.

It was set up to consider how risk could be assessed on a more individual basis when people go to donate blood. What process led to these changes? Blood donation rules Questions we ask before you donate Research into more personalised questions Previous changes to blood donation rules Can gay men give blood?

Every donor is assessed before their donation to ensure a safe donation for you and the patient. Making donation more inclusive The UK’s blood services continue to work with the NHSBT LGBT+ Network, experts in epidemiology, virology and psychology and.

The rules around blood donation have also disproportionately affected this group. Men who have sex with men and who have had the same partner for 3 months or more and. On 14 Junethe UK implemented a new blood donation policy allowing gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men to donate blood without any waiting periods providing they declare they meet the blood donation eligibility requirement on legally-binding statutory declaration, as with any other donor.

Why does this specify anal sex? This therefore includes gay and bisexual men in ongoing sexual relationships with one other person. Today the Government announced rule changes that will allow more gay and bisexual men to donate blood in the UK.

These changes affect the assessment that donors complete when they give blood. Why is there a 3-month wait after sex? Screening of blood will pick up BBVs as long as the infection was acquired more than three months ago much earlier for HIV.

Therefore, blood donation services want to minimise any risk that someone could have acquired a BBV within the past three months. These current rules replaced previous rules for a month deferral period. Gay and bisexual men are not automatically prevented from giving blood.

Because of this, organisations like National AIDS Trust have called for the deferral periods to be decreased to reflect this so that people are not unnecessarily excluded from donating. Gay and bisexual men in England, Scotland, and Wales can now donate blood, plasma and platelets under certain circumstances without having to wait three months, the National Health Service.

Blood donation rules for gay and bisexual men are being relaxed across the UK, in what the government is calling a "landmark change". Gay and bisexual men, along with other groups, are disproportionately impacted by HIV. This is a significant health inequality that needs to be tackled.

Why do they ask questions about sexual behaviour when someone goes to donate blood? On this page: Can gay men give blood? The likelihood of an undiagnosed infection from recent anal sex is therefore higher. The UK today has one of the safest blood supplies in the world.

The evidence shows there is a higher risk of transmission of blood-borne viruses such as HIV from condomless anal sex than vaginal, oral or other types of sex.

Blood donation rules for

To make it simple we have outlined the key information on donation from LGBT+ people. What are the new rules FAIR recommended? Prior to that men could not donate blood if they reported they had ever had sex with another man, regardless of when the sex was.

The new donor questions will no longer consider the gender of the person donating or that of their sexual partners. To do this, questions are asked to potential donors about behaviours where risk of transmission is high enough that this could increase the chances of an undetected BBV being present in the blood.