A World First For Gay, Bi+ & Trans Australians As New Rules For Blood And Plasma Donations Come Into Effect
Image: Image- Australian Red Cross
Australia will make history on Monday when it becomes the first country to remove sexual activity wait times for plasma donations and allow those on PrEP to provide donations as well.
The announcement of the July 14 dates follows updates last month that Lifeblood, formerly Red Cross Australia would be lifting the ban On Gay, Bi+ & Trans Blood Donation.
Australia to make donation history
In June this year it was revealed that Lifeblood would be lifting their sexual activity rule for blood donation and plasma donation, this prohibited gay and bisexual men and transgender women from being able to donate plasma if they had been sexually active with men in the last three months.
It followed years of campaigning from LGBTQIA+ advocacy groups to have the ban lifted, with public sentiment supporting the the campaigns.
Now the changes are set to come into effect officially on Monday.
“Australian Red Cross Lifeblood will drop most sexual activity wait times” they said in a statement today.
“With around 625,000 Australians becoming eligible to donate plasma, including people on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and sex workers.”
The changes around removal of sexual activity wait times for plasma donation as well as the inclusion for allowing people on PrEP to make donations makes Australia the first country to do so.
On Monday the first plasma donors from the LGBQTIA+ community to donate following the change in rules will do so at the Lifeblood Donor Centre in Sydney.
Dr Jo Pink, the Chief Medical Officer of Lifeblood praised the move citing the potential for thousands more donations to be received in the future.
“We now anticipate an extra 24,000 donors and 95,000 extra donations of plasma to be made each year.”
“We know the current donation rules have been very difficult for many people in the LGBTQIA+ community,” she said.
In 2026 the collection of questions based on gender that are used when screening potential blood and platelet donors will be removed as they launch their new gender neutral questionnaires that will be the same irrespective of gender or sexuality.
Changes to the question will allow monogamous gay men as questions will switch from asking men if they have had sex with men in the three months prior and will instead simply ask all participants if they have engaged in anal sex with any new partners in the previous three months.
RE: Blood and Plasma Donations
I rang the Red Cross Blood bank people to enquire about donating because i was not sure if my age made me ineligible to donate, I was told that , at the moment, they are only taking PLASMA at this time but later on, after more extensive tests ,they may also start to take Blood. I asked if the reason for this was because it was not yet known if Viral Load returned to infectious levels in Blood collected from for people who are HIV+ and on PrEP, for as we know if we want to keep Viral Load at undetectable Levels we have to keep taking PrEP. The response in the phone was a long hesitation after which the man I was speasking with said “I can’t really answer that at this time”.
If you are Hiv+ and on PrEP don’t get upset if they tell you they are only going to use your Plasma at this time. They’re not being homophobic or Discriminatory, they are just being Super Careful as they always have been.
Still can’t donate whole blood, unlike the UK, Israel, Canada and several other countries (which allow both whole blood and plasma donation – so not really a world first).
Why are they waiting till 2026 to change the questionnaire??