“Blood, it’s in you to give.” We have all heard this advertising pitch from Canadian Blood Services before, but what we don’t hear is the invisible asterisk for the fine print regarding who can and cannot donate blood.
There are two specific groups of people who are unable to donate blood — not due to any underlying medical reason, but due to sexual orientation. Any man, which they define by their “current anatomic sex,” who has had sex with another male (MSM) within the past five years is banned from donating blood, due to this being an act that allegedly places those people at a higher risk of infection from HIV.
While HIV/AIDS is a blood-borne infection, the new testing that Canadian Blood Services implemented in 2001 can detect HIV in the blood as early as two weeks after infection, yet the ban is still in place after five years. While this is better than the ban that is in place in the US — where the ban is for life — it is significantly worse than Australia, where the ban is only for a year.
The length of the Canadian ban prevents males and trans women, who are otherwise healthy, from donating blood based solely on those with whom they have sex. This ban, which seems to be based completely on the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and was reduced to five years from a lifetime ban in 2013, does not seems to acknowledge other groups who may not be included in the high-risk HIV/AIDS category, but are still engaged in high risk sexual practices.
For instance, a female who has had multiple sexual partners is allowed to donate blood as long as there was no exchange of money or drugs for sex. As one of my gay friends pointed out, “A girl could go and have sex with the whole hockey team and then give blood, but because I’ve had [healthy] sex with someone I’ve been in a monogamous relationship with for the past year I won’t be able to give blood just because we are both men.”
This comment has always struck me; what makes one group of people allowed to engage in high-risk sex and still donate blood while another group cannot? Other activities, such as getting tattoos, piercings, or having acupuncture with non-disposable sterilized needles — all of which carry a high risk of hepatitis C infection — only have a six-month ban attached to them.
Canadian Blood Services needs to reassess the length of the ban that they place upon men and trans women who have had sex with men. It seems grossly unfair to place one group of people who engage in high-risk sex activities under a long-term ban when others are still able to donate blood.
The testing that is currently in place should be more than enough to prevent any infected blood from entering into the system, and to keep those receiving blood safe. A new policy should state that MSM individuals simply be tested for HIV and AIDS before donating blood, or, at the very most, reduce the ban to one year, as it is in Australia and the UK.
It’s upsetting to hear of such discrimination in medical practice, and it makes me reconsider just how fair or progressive our country really is.
