Men who have sex with men (MSM)

On this page:

Can gay men give blood?

Gay and bisexual men are not automatically prevented from giving blood.

Men who have sex with men and who have had the same partner for 3 months or more and meet our other eligibility criteria are able to give blood.

Anyone who has had anal sex with a new partner or multiple partners in the last three months, regardless of their gender or their partner’s gender, must wait 3 months before donating.

We assess your eligibility to give blood based solely on your own individual experiences, making the process fairer for everyone.

If you are taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) or post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) you will be unable to give blood. If you stop taking PrEP or PEP, you will need to wait 3 months before you can give blood.

We appreciate that any deferral is disappointing if you want to save lives by giving blood.

If you have previously been unable to give blood because of the guidelines and would like to donate, please call us on 0300 123 23 23. One of our team can review the new guidelines with you and, if eligible, book your next appointment.

Why is there a 3-month wait after sex?

The 3-month wait is to reduce the risk of any very recently acquired infections not being detected on screening and further tests. This applies to all donors whose partners may be at a higher risk of blood-borne infections. 

The reason a delay period exists is due to a combination of two things:

Increased risk of infection

At a behavioural level, having anal sex with new or multiple partners is associated with a higher risk of acquiring blood-borne infections.

The gap between getting an infection and being able to detect it

We test every blood donation but there is a small possibility that very recent infections don’t get picked up but may still be passed on through blood.

This is because there is a period of time (called a window period) between getting an infection and it showing up reliably on tests.

If someone gives blood during the window period, their blood could contain an infection that could be passed on to the people who receive their blood.

Blood donation rules 

Safety is at the forefront of everything we do, and this is the reason we have one of the safest blood supplies in the world.

The strict guidelines and testing we follow are to protect both donors and patients. We are also regularly inspected by independent regulators.

The Government set the three-month wait based on advice from an expert committee called SaBTO (Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs). Read the SaBTO report about the medical and scientific reasoning behind the wait. 

SaBTO advice covers a wide-range of topics, known as risk factors, that might stop you from giving blood, either for a short time, a temporary deferral or permanently.

These include:

  • lifestyle and sexual activity
  • travel
  • illness and medical conditions
  • getting a tattoo or piercing
  • endoscopy

The rules are there to protect the seriously ill people who need blood transfusions.

Questions we ask before you donate

To assess whether it’s safe to give blood, we ask everyone the same questions about these risk factors before they donate.

This health questionnaire is the first step in an important line of checks and tests we take to limit the chances of infections reaching vulnerable patients.

We trust people to answer these questions about their medical history and lifestyle as fully as possible.

Research into more personalised questions

We want as many people as possible to be able to donate safely.

So, we’re currently part of the FAIR steering group. This group was set up to explore whether a more individualised donor selection policy could be used which would take your personal circumstances into account in more detail.

We’re working with a range of people and LGBT+ groups including:

  • National AIDS Trust
  • Stonewall
  • Freedom to Donate
  • Terrence Higgins Trust
  • epidemiology and psychology experts

Get the latest report recommendations from FAIR.

Previous changes to blood donation rules

Blood donation rules have evolved over the years as the understanding and evidence about risks improves.

  • pre-2011 – men who have sex with men were not able to give blood
  • 2011 – a 12-month wait was introduced
  • November 2017 – a 3-month wait for men who have sex with men was introduced following changes to SaBTO guidance
  • June 2021 - men who have sex with men and who have had the same partner for 3 months able to give blood

We have some of the world’s most progressive rules about who can and can’t give blood. Internationally, some countries don’t allow men who have sex with men to give blood or have a 12-month delay.