In order to donate blood, homosexuals must have a period of sexual abstinence. It will be reduced from one year to four months on April 2, 2020.
The period of abstinence that homosexuals must respect to donate blood will change on April 2, 2020. It will be reduced from one year to four months, according to an order published Thursday, December 26 in the Official Journal.
This reduction in the abstinence period was originally scheduled to take effect on February 1, 2020 is postponed for two months. The Directorate General of Health (DGS), which reports to the Ministry of Solidarity and Health, invokes the time required to print the new version of the questionnaire that all candidates for blood donation must fill out. The criteria for sexual activity and orientation are included in this form.
Towards an alignment of donation conditions
When it was formalized in July, this reduction in the abstinence period was presented by the Minister of Solidarity and Health, Agnès Buzyn, as “a first step” towards an alignment of the conditions of the donation for homosexuals over those of heterosexuals, considered “by 2022”.
The government wants to make sure that the lifting of the specific conditions applied to homosexual donors will not increase the risk of contamination for recipients during blood transfusions.
LGBTQI + associations talk about discrimination
From 1983 to 2016, men who have sex with men could not donate blood because of the risk of transmitting the AIDS virus.
These conditions were relaxed in 2016 with the introduction of a one-year abstinence period. It has attracted strong criticism from homosexual associations which discriminate against them.
Since 2016, homosexuals can donate their plasma according to the same criteria as other donors.
The importance of blood donation
One million patients a year are treated with blood products. 10,000 donations per day are necessary to meet the needs of the sick.
Each year, 1.7 million people donate blood, generating 3 million donations. At the same frequency, an average of 170,000 new donors must be recruited to have enough blood to treat patients.
However, during the holiday season, the blood supply is very low, because donors are scarce due to holidays and seasonal epidemics.
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