It states that these donors are deferred from donating blood for three months from the time of their most recent sexual contact with another man. In 2020, the FDA revised its criteria for men who have sex with other men (MSM).
Gay and bisexual men who have sex with men. Without going into too much detail, that still rules me - and probably most other people - out. FDA Guidelines: LGBTQ+ Blood Donor Eligibility. Two years ago, the law changed, and now I'm allowed to donate blood so long as I don't have sex for three months. Unfortunately, men who'd slept with other men, even once and even decades earlier, were considered such a high risk for HIV that the NHS wasn't interested in our blood at all. As I grew up I planned to donate regularly in her place. It was a bit of a disappointment as my mother is a haematologist and was an almost religious blood donor until she developed a form of skin cancer (thankfully she's been clear for two decades).
Gay men, for those who don't know, were banned from giving blood for life until 2017. Then, eventually, I found the message: 'You can join the register when you next give blood, or at the same time as your first donation.' Oh, well. Maybe it was my advanced years, but it took me ages to get through all the messages urging me why I should sign up and work out how to actually do it.
