Blood donation rules relaxed for gay and bisexual men

Gay and bisexual men in a long-term relationship will be able to give blood from next summer as donation rules are relaxed.

Under previous rules, men who have sex with men had to abstain from sexual activity for three months to donate.

New rules mean anyone who has the same sexual partner for more than three months will be eligible to donate if there is no known exposure to a sexually transmitted infection (STI) or if there has been use of anti-HIV drugs PreP or PEP, said NHS Blood and Transplant.

Wales' health minister has welcomed the change, saying it will "put an end to the discrimination many people in the LGBT+ community have faced.Vaughan Gething said: "So many people have worked so hard to get us to this position. I’m very grateful to them and delighted the Welsh Government has been able to see through this long-standing ambition.

“With the great progress and certainty that our medical experts and systems have brought, we can now remove the barriers that have long been in place and that have meant that some LGBT+ people cannot easily donate blood.

“In the summer of 2021 donation systems will be up and running, which mean our systems are robust, safe and no longer exclusionary.”

The Terrence Higgins Trust charity welcomed the news, saying the move will make for a "fairer blood donation system" while also ensuring its safety.

Dr Michael Brady, medical director at the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "Welcome changes include the differentiation between oral and anal sex, and for those whose partner is HIV positive and virally suppressed due to six months or more of adherence to treatment.

"There is certainly more work to do and we will continue to work to ensure that our blood donation service is inclusive and evidence based.

"We now need to look at the restrictions in place for other groups, including former injecting drug users, to see if we can safely make the blood donation eligibility even more inclusive."

Commenting on the announcement, Alan Prosser, Director of the Welsh Blood Service said “These changes represent many years of hard work by the FAIR steering group which is a UK wide collaboration of healthcare professionals and academia within which the Welsh Blood Service has played an important role.

“Whilst blood services are not responsible for setting the rules around who can and can’t donate we’re delighted that the work of the group has resulted in the development of a series of new regulations that will enable us to welcome more donors to our clinics.

“There is still work to be done to implement these new regulations but we are delighted these changes have been announced and look forward to welcoming new donors to our clinics in 2021.”