The government will conduct a review of the rules prohibiting gay and bisexual men from donating blood, the public health minister Jane Ellison has announced.
Under current legislation, men who have sex with men (MSM) are banned from giving blood for 12 months after having sexual intercourse.
Responding to a question from the Conservative MP for Lichfield, Michael Fabricant, during women and equalities questions in the House of Commons, Ellison said making sure the blood supply was safe was an absolute priority.
“Donor deferral for men who have sex with men was changed from lifetime to 12 months in 2011, but four years later it is time to look again at the question. Public Health England has just undertaken an anonymous survey of donors and I am pleased that the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs [Sabto] will review the issue in 2016.”
Ellison added: “It is important to put it on the record that the blood service does not discriminate on sexual orientation. Lesbians are free to give blood and their blood donations are extremely appreciated. The deferral period is based on sexual activity, and it applies to a number of other groups other than just men who have sex with men.”
Others who are prohibited from giving blood include those who have had sex with a commercial sex worker in the past 12 months, who have ever injected themselves with drugs, or who have been sexually active in parts of the world where HIV/Aids is very common. The policy is based on the statistical likelihood of certain groups being HIV-positive, as the virus does not show up in blood tests immediately.
The Freedom to Donate campaign, of which Fabricant is a long-time backer, claims that the restrictions should be reconsidered in light of advances made in screening capabilities and declines in the blood supply. The NHS Blood and Transplant authority issued a warning in June that the number of donors had fallen by 40% in a decade.
A spokesperson for the gay rights campaign group Stonewall said: “We want a donation system that is fair and based on up-to-date medical evidence. Currently gay and bi people cannot give blood if they have had sex in the past 12 months, regardless of whether they used protection. Yet straight people who may have had unprotected sex can donate.
“These current rules are clearly unfair and we want to see people asked similar questions, irrespective of their sexual orientation, to accurately assess the risk of infection. Screening all donors by sexual behaviour rather than by sexual orientation would increase blood stocks in times of shortage and create a safer supply by giving a more accurate, non-discriminatory assessment.”
