At Canadian Blood Services, we periodically review our donor eligibility criteria, including those related to men who have sex with men. In 2019, Health Canada approved Canadian Blood Services’ and Héma-Québec’s applications to reduce the men who have sex with men waiting period from one year to three months. In other words, as long as they meet all other donor eligibility criteria, a man is now eligible to donate blood if it has been at least three months since he last had sex with a man. We believe this is an important step toward being as minimally restrictive as possible while also maintaining the safety of the blood supply.

This change was made after extensive review of scientific and epidemiologic evidence. Equally important was the consultation with high-interest groups, including patient groups representing heavy users of blood and blood products as well as members of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer community groups.