Men who have had sex with other men cannot donate blood in the UK

[Demona]

https://secure.blood.co.uk/vi_c11_cant.asp


...Irrespective of how few partners they have had or whether the sex was protected. Heterosexuals of either gender who have had lots of promiscuous unprotected sex can.

A woman who has had sex with a man who has had sex with other men can give blood if the incident was more than 12 months ago.

The primary concern here is HIV, indicated by the list of people who cannot give blood for 12 months. Though all donated blood is tested for HIV the test will give false negatives in the early stages of contracting the disease.

Now, proportionally more men who have had sex with other men have HIV than other people (however overall numbers are greater for heterosexuals and rising every year. Proportionally fewer heterosexuals are tested for HIV as well). Even if the risk is great enough that it is worth eliminating men who have had sex with other men in the last 12 months, by their own terms it should not eliminate them from giving blood ever. Similarly even one-time drug users are excluded from ever giving blood.


Such rules confirm prejudices and dangerous assumptions that HIV is a 'gay disease'. As well, obviously, of ruling out a source of donated blood.

[Daethian]

Torn on this one...its obviously biased but then again if I were receiving the blood would I be glad they ruled out the most likely candidates for spreading HIV?
I realize that you can spread HIV hetro to hetro but its more widespread among gays so why increase the chances of contaminated blood making it into the inventory?

[Lucid]

Do they not test all the donated blood for hiv ?

It has been awhile since I read anything about hiv or aids , but I seem to remember reading that any unprotected sex was risky ( even hetro sex). But sex that caused tears in the skin was especially risky . So to me that would mean women who had anal sex were just as "dangerous" as men that had it .

[Demona]

Torn on this one...its obviously biased but then again if I were receiving the blood would I be glad they ruled out the most likely candidates for spreading HIV?
I realize that you can spread HIV hetro to hetro but its more widespread among gays so why increase the chances of contaminated blood making it into the inventory?

But they're not ruling out other people who are high risk based on behaviour and not which group of people they've had sex with. Such as those heterosexuals who have lots of sex with different people and don't use protection. Likewise there are homosexuals who have one partner who has been tested for HIV and always uses condoms anyway and yet still cannot ever donate blood.

And yes, as I said in the first post, all donated blood is tested for HIV.

[Prisoner]

I am not allowed to donate blood in the U.S. because I was stationed in Germany for more than 6 months between 1980-present. Because of the mad-cow bullshit.

That sucks shit too because I used to donate at every blood drive. I always felt it was a duty for me to do it, especially since the war and the military needs the blood.

[Lola]

I can't donate blood either because I lived in England from 1977-1980, and 1988. Same reason: mad cow

So you can't give blood, so what? I mean, really-aren't there more noble "gay" causes to fight? Lots of people can't give blood.

[Epicurus]

I haven't given blood in a long time but the last time I did I had to fill out a long questionnaire (3 pages as I recall). It included how many sexual partners I had as well as homosexual questions. It was not biased at all. They were looking for known risk factors as far as I could see.
If you are homosexual and convinced you are not tainted than give blood and lie. They only care about getting clean blood. I, for one, am glad they do what they can to keep the blood supply clean.

Collette