Blood donation: abstinence period required for men who have sex with other men is lifted

The selection criteria for blood donors have been modified as part of the bioethic law.

Le Monde

Men who have sex with other men (HSH) are now on an equal footing with other blood donors. They no longer have to justify a period of abstinence of four months to give their blood since Wednesday, March 16th. An amendment adopted under the Bioethical Bill has changed the criteria for selecting blood donors, which were so far different depending on sexual orientation.

The prior donation questionnaire has been updated. It only questions risk practices, that is, if the donor has had more than one partner in the last four months or has consumed drugs. The box “Man with a sexual relationship with another man”, found on the eligibility simulator of the website of the French Blood Establishment (EFS), has been withdrawn as well as his question: ” You had sex with a male partner in the last 4 months? “

End of an exclusion

Under the socialist government of François Hollande (2012-2017), a first step had been done. Marisol Touraine, then Minister of Social Affairs and Health, had conditioned the blood donation of HSHs to a twelve-month sexual abstinence, in 2016. Thus, the exclusion of this population, established in 1983 due to the risks of transmission AIDS, estimated higher among male homosexuals, had ended.

A study by Public health France , published in 2019, showed that the opening of the blood donation to HSH had not had an impact on the risk of HIV transfusion transmission. In the light of this encouraging result, in 2020, the period of abstinence had been reduced to four months, with the objective of considering for 2022 of the conditions identical to those of other donors.

In February, the EFS alerted on a significant decline in blood reserves, which were at the lowest. “The situation is critical,” she warned, because the reserves were below the safety threshold.