Two arms one facing up, one facing down connected by red tubes to a red heart that is 2/3 full with the text "Donor Rules Relaxed" above the image and "10s of thousands more people able to donate" underneath on a peach coloured background

MEDIA RELEASE
18 June 2025

Lifeblood Relaxes Rules for Blood and Plasma Donations

The Victorian Pride Lobby welcomes yesterday’s announcement that Lifeblood has made blood and plasma donation more inclusive and accessible to as many people as possible, while maintaining the safety of the blood supply.

Currently, gay and bisexual men, as well as trans women who have had sex with men or those assigned male at birth, in the past three months are banned from donating blood or plasma.

The first of the changes will come into effect on Monday 14 July 2025 with Lifeblood removing wait times for most sexual activities for people wanting to donate plasma. Described as a “world-leading ‘plasma pathway’” people will be able to donate plasma without a wait time, including those on PrEP provided they meet the other eligibility criteria.

Other changes include asking all donors the same questions about their sexual activities, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. These changes include:

  • People in a sexual relationship with a single partner of six months or more will be eligible to donate blood.
  • People with new or multiple partners will be able to donate blood if they have not had anal sex in the past three months
  • Most people who will not be able to donate blood under these new rules will still be able to donate plasma without a wait time

The Victorian Pride Lobby is pleased to hear of these changes, we acknowledge that there is still a long way to go in implementing gender-neutral assessments for those wanting to donate blood and plasma. We do acknowledge that Lifeblood is continuing to work towards implementing this though and hope to be able to implement further adjustments next year.

This announcement is a step towards bringing Australia in line with countries like Canada and the UK, both of whom have ditched antiquated restrictions. Such restrictions, which limited donations from gay, bisexual, and transgender people, are founded in discriminatory prejudice – modern research shows no substantial risk where such sexual activity restrictions are not in force.¹

The Lobby welcomes this important step towards equality.

The Lobby commends the advocacy of all individuals and organisations who have fought for this outcome over several years, especially the work of Let Us Give, led by Rodney Croome

You can read Lifeblood’s media release on this topic on their website.

—References—

1 Dr Sharon Dane, ‘Current Research and Policy Recommendations for Men Who 
Have Sex with Men (MSM) Blood Donor Deferrals’ (Report: 01/06/2023) 
< c5c879_db261d754da343d88109389d9c1452e5.pdf >

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Media comment: info@vicpridelobby.org