Promise kept. In the spring of 2015, the Minister of Health Marisol Touraine announced that she wanted open blood donation to gay men. One year later, on April 5, 2016, a decree published in the Official Journal concretizes the measure by setting the conditions under which a homosexual or bisexual man can donate blood.
One year of sexual abstinence
Thus, from July 10, 2016, gay men and bisexual men will be able to donate blood provided that their last sexual intercourse with a man dates back more than 12 months. This period drops to four months for plasma donations. These criteria are also valid for women “whose male partner has had sexual intercourse with a man in the past 12 months“. Such a delay is intended to limit the”risk of exposure of the candidate or of the candidate’s sexual partner to a sexually transmitted infectious agent“, in particular the AIDS and those of hepatitis B and C.
Conditions deemed too drastic
Associations, such as the Homodonneur collective, are protesting against these conditions which they consider too drastic and denounce a “hypocritical” measure. The Minister of Health indicated that it was necessary to wait for scientific data to demonstrate that the risks of drawing blood from homosexuals are not higher than among heterosexuals. Studies to assess these risks are ongoing and, if results permit, the one-year period of abstinence required by the decree may be reduced.
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Blood donation: the exclusion of homosexuals is discriminatory
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Infographic: the conditions to be able to donate blood
