Backgrounder: Men Who Have Sex with Men

Key Facts

• International standard
  Because the patterns, causes and effects of HIV differ by country, there is no international scientific consensus on an optimal deferral period for men who have sex with men. Some European countries have instituted lifetime bans on blood donations from men who have sex with men, while the United States and Australia have reduced their deferral periods to one year. The United Kingdom has implemented a three-month waiting period for men who have sex with men, like Canada.
• Eligibility Criteria
  • A man who has had sex with a man is eligible to donate blood three months after their last sexual contact with a male partner.
  • Blood is regulated as a drug by Health Canada.
  • Health Canada is the regulator of Canada’s blood system. Any change to donor eligibility criteria that may affect recipient safety must be sent to Health Canada for approval.
  • Health Canada approved reduction of the MSM waiting period to three months (in April 2019) based on a joint submission made by Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec. This change took effect on June 3, 2019 across Canada.
  • The previous reduction from a five-year to a one-year waiting period was introduced in August 2016, and it was in July 2013 that the indefinite deferral period was removed, and the five-year eligibility criteria was added.
  • Recommendations pertaining to donor eligibility criteria have all been based on the latest available data and scientific evidence.
  • Since Canadian Blood Services began managing Canada’s blood system in 1998, there has not been a single recorded instance of blood-borne infection from either hepatitis C or HIV.
  • At the outset of every blood donation, donors are screened to make sure they are healthy. This involves answering an extensive list of questions to ensure the safety of both the donor and the patient who will receive the blood products.
  • Each blood donation undergoes extensive testing for infectious diseases and contaminants. Within hours of collection, the test samples are sent to a lab and those samples are tested within the day.
  • Ultimately patients bear 100 per cent of the risk associated with blood transfusion, and of the consequences of changes made to donor eligibility criteria.
  • There is no international scientific consensus on an optimal deferral period for men who have sex with men. Donor screening criteria must address the Canadian context, which differs from that of other countries.
  • In partnership with Héma-Québec and with funding from Health Canada, Canadian Blood Services is supporting 15 research projects investigating various aspects of blood and plasma donors’ eligibility criteria and screening process.
• Blood testing
  We use antibody testing and nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) to test blood for HIV. Introduced in 2001, NAT greatly reduces the length of time HIV can go undetected in a person infected with the virus. However, there is still an approximately nine day period shortly after infection when an individual may transmit HIV but the virus is not detected by our tests. That’s why we use screening questions before a donation is made as part of a multi-tiered safety system to protect patients.