[Hot Topic] CBS Blood Donation Policy, Update

Last year, the big news was Canadian Blood Service's attitude change towards accepting blood donations from gay men. Previously completely banned, gay men can now donate blood if they have had no same sex sexual activity for the past five years.

This is a huge step for Canadian Blood Services.

Last year, they had still not quite ironed out how this change would echo through the rest of their policies.

For instance, what about women who had had sex, even once, with a man who had had a male sexual experience? Up until last May, they were also still excluded from giving blood. Even last May, when I called and spoke with a CBS associated nurse, they were still excluding those women from giving blood, as they "just didn't know" how things would play out.

I called back this year and clarified. Now the question for women has been changed from

"Are you a woman, who has had, even once, had sex with a man, who has had sex with a man?" 

to,

"Are you a woman, who has had sex with a man, who has had sex with a man, in the last five years?"

I.e. if the same sex sexual experience took place greater than five years ago, then you can donate.

This is particularly applicable for bisexual men and women, or partner's of those who "experimented" in college. Previously, if they were aware of their partner's past, they would have been permanently deferred. Now, if it has been more than five years since the MSM encounter, women are eligible to donate again.

As always, if you have questions about your eligibility to donate blood in BC, call the donor line at 1888- 2DONATE, and ask for the nurseline. They will be able to help address concerns about whether you are a good fit for a donor.

CBS continues to collect data to see if it can relax it's deferral policies in the manner any further.

It will likely be at least ten years of data collection though before we see any more change. One step at a time though is all we can do.

Hopefully, the screening process will continue to move more towards an actual sexual-risk based policy based on number/frequency of sexual partners rather than the sexual orientation of the donor.