Donation if you are LGBT+

Assuming you meet all of the other criteria for donation, you can donate your blood except:

• If you have had anal sex with a new partner or multiple partners in the last three months, regardless of your gender or your partner’s gender.
• 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.

Read more about the rules on the blood donation website or the JPAC blood safety guidelines and read the SaBTO report which recommended the move to a more individualised assessment.

As with all guidelines, the evidence that they are based upon evolves over time and NHSBT are committed to reviewing donor deferrals periodically.

You can donate your organs regardless of sexual orientation or gender. Find out more about organ donation. 

It is important that you discuss your wishes for organ donation with your family and consider joining the Organ Donor Register.

The law on organ donation in England has changed. All adults in England will now be considered to have agreed to be an organ donor when they die unless they have recorded a decision not to donate or are in one of the excluded groups.

Assuming you meet all of the other criteria for donation, you can donate your tissues except:

• If you have had anal sex with a new partner or multiple partners in the last three months, regardless of your gender or your partner’s gender.
• 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.

There is not a deferral for women who have sex with women – these women can donate at any time.

When exploring tissue donation, staff apply the criteria and assess suitability carefully and sympathetically.

You can donate your stem cells regardless of sexual orientation or gender. 

NHSBT manages the British Bone Marrow Registry (BBMR), which recruits from blood donors. If a gay or bisexual man becomes a blood donor following a deferral, they can also join the BBMR and donate stem cells subject to individual medical risk assessment. More information about the British Bone Marrow Registry. 

You can also join the Anthony Nolan stem cell register or the DKMS register who work in partnership with NHS Blood and Transplant. All three registries share their information to ensure the best possible chance of finding someone a match.

For some patients, doctors prefer to use a donor whose sex assigned at birth is matched with that of the patient.

You can donate all forms of donation regardless of gender, NHS Blood and Transplant considers all donors to be the sex and/or gender that they identify as, including nonbinary, genderfluid and agender donors. We’ll use the pronouns of every donors choice as well as our people sharing theirs.

Blood, plasma and platelet donation if you are transgender

As part of our continuous drive to be inclusive and make sure our donors and patients receive the best care possible, we have made some changes to how we record your sex assigned at birth and gender.

From July 2024, we will ask all donors their sex assigned at birth, as well as their gender when signing up to donate. This will be asked only once, at registration, and then recorded confidentially – this will allow us to know what blood products are safe to manufacture from your donation (as this can differ based on the risk of a previous pregnancy) as well as allowing us to treat donors more respectfully on session.

We also want to make sure your donation is safe for patients and that you are not at risk of harming yourself by donating too often.

The JPAC guidelines give more information about donation if you are transgender. This link goes to a different website which may not use the same language as this site. 

NHS Blood and Transplant does not set the guidelines for donation. Recommendations on donor eligibility are made to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO).

If these recommendations are accepted by the Government, NHS Blood and Transplant and usually the other United Kingdom blood services are instructed to implement them. The donor selection criteria are then written by the Joint United Kingdom (UK) Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC).