I suppose this is the best place to put this. I'd like to donate blood sometime, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to, given that I'm transgender and on hormones for the rest of my life. So yeah, does the presence of synthetic testosterone decrease the quality of donated blood?
I am not sure where you live, but I know that here in Canada and I think in the United states, men who have sex with men are not allowed to donate blood if the sex has happened in the last five years (this is a recent change - previously they were banned outright.) I'm not sure how being a transfer effects that, or what your sexual practices are. I would suggest calling the local blood donation clinic and asking about your specific situation.
here is a breakdown of the laws by country. and yes, I just checked, the USA has an indefinite ban on all men who have sex with men. same as Canada was until a week or so ago, when they lowered it to five years. Gay male blood donor controversy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia also, I just realized my phone autocorrected transguy to transfer in my last post. I went to edit it, but the time limit was up..
Ugh. Do I have to move to the UK or something. I was planning on moving there when I was a 'grown up' but if that law even extends there.... Maybe the UK.
Thanks for the replies, but I'm not asking from a MSM point of view. I'm aware of the homophobic regulations surrounding MSM donation, but I've never had sex before. I'm just wondering about the affects of synthetic hormones. As for asking the clinic, that is precisely what I would want to avoid. I'm stealth, and I'm not willing to come out to some random clinic.
I don't see anything that suggests it would be a problem, but you could blind call the blood donation center and ask about it perhaps if that would be easier than asking in person. You don't have to give your name or anything, just ask them if taking the synthetic hormones would ban you from giving blood. They will likely ask about medications you are taking at the interview prior to letting you give blood, though, so it might be tough to avoid telling anyone at the clinic.
Yeah I Just can't support these organizations with this kind of restrictions; it's such a blanket form of discrimination and you know if you ever really need blood I doubt you'd really mind where it came from; it can be that or death. Just in raw statistics they're is going to be more 'straight' people infected with HIV then gay people, just because there is more of them. The whole ban is just ridiculous. Now I knew a guy who would just lie to them and sure it's immoral and all but he was clean, not super active and it's not like he walked in and they could pick anything else up. We can be just as clean and healthy as anyone else ya'know. I'd defiantly ask about the hormone therapy though, since it is an additional additive in your system though I'd expect them to say no; just as an heads up.
Thanks for the responses. It occurred to me that I could say I'm cis, but taking hormones because of some other reason. Like low T levels. Yeah, I hate the restrictions too. They're missing out on a whole lot of blood. I think that they should at the very least allow men in monogamous relationships to donate. I mean, yes, there is a risk of HIV infection, but that exists among straight couples as well. Given that its likely men donating will be wanting to help people, they should be trusted to be honest about their chances of infection. The thing is about refusing to donate because of restrictions, that leads to people dying. I don't think its immoral. In fact, assuming he knows he's clean, I think lying about his sexual orientation in order to save lives is the ethical thing to do.
I agree that it's discriminatory and I agree that it's ridiculous, but the stats are that there are more gay people infected with HIV than straight people, even in the raw numbers, at least in western non-african countries. 60% of new infections still occur in men who have sex with men, even given our much smaller numbers.
