Canadian Blood Services places restrictions on transgender donors

Canadian Blood Services will introduce a new donation policyfor transgenderpeople this summerthat does notsitwell with some critics.

The policywill be implemented on Aug.15.Up until this point,donation clinics in Canada allowed transpeople to give blood on a case-by-case basis.

Dr. Mindy Goldman, medical director of Canadian Blood Services, told CBC Newsthat at least 30 to50 of the country's 409,000 registered blood donors currently identify as transgender.

She says the policy is a way to "recognize that (transpeople are)a group of Canadians interested in participating in blood donation.".

• Abstinent gay men cleared to give blood
• Trans Canadians should feel 'free and safe'
• Trans patients face healthcare discrimination

"This is the first time that we have standardized and put something in our national criteria manual.Previously,(trans) donors could have gotten a different screening outcome if they had gone to a clinic in Vancouver compared to a clinic in Montreal," saidGoldman.

But many activists are upset with the policybecause it focuses onwhether or not atransperson has undergone gender confirmingsurgery.

Goldmansays the criteria willcreate acountrywide, streamlined mandatefor alltransblood donors.

According to Canadian Blood Services, there has been an increase inpotentialtransdonorsand thisprompted the organizationto implement criteria for those individuals.

The policyspecifically targetstrans women and is similar toCanadian Blood Services' updatedguidelinesfor gay blood donors.On June 20,Health Canada announced that gay men would be allowed to donate blood if they had abstained from sex for at least one year.

Trans women who undergo gender confirming surgery will have to wait one yearbefore they can donate blood. After thewait period,Canadian Blood services will also identify them bytheirreconfirmed gender. "Ifa trans woman has not had[gender confirming surgery], that person would be considered as a male having sex with a male," Goldman said.

Canadian Blood Services saysthere areregulations specific to trans women because that demographic is at high risk for HIV.

According to the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development, an estimated 27.7 per cent of trans women in Canada are living with HIV.

"There is a very high HIV prevalence rate in trans women," Goldman said. "So we are obliged to treat (them) as a high risk group."

Criteria comewith complexities

The guidelines differdepending on the trans donor's sexual history.For instance, if atranswoman or manis intimatewith a female, that person willnot have to wait before they donate blood, but they will still be screened by the sex they were assigned at birth.

Goldman acknowledges that the policy is complex and may overlook some individual cases.

"If a situation is not covered in the criteria manual, (our staff)needs to do a medical inquiry and get in contact with one of our physicians. We would get more information and work things out on a case-by-case basis," she said.

Dr. Adrian Edgar, a specialist in trans, queerand reproductive health at Clinic 544 in Fredericton, N.B., believes the trans blood donation policy should not emphasize gender confirming surgery as a focal point in its criteria.

Edgar saysthere is also no medical proof that the surgery will directly affect the safety of a trans person's blood.

"I have never seen data that suggests that the sexual anatomy of a person who is trans would have an impact on their HIV, syphilisor their hepatitis status," he told CBC News.

Edgar also believes screeningtranspeople by their sex assigned at birthwill discourage them from donating blood.

"No one is going to go to a facility that refuses to respect and acknowledge their gender identity," he said.

Activist'would not bother' donating

Susan Gapka, a trans woman and the founding chair of the Trans Lobby Group, says she "would not bother" going through the process of donating bloodgiven the new rules, which she thinks are discriminatory.

"It says that they don't want my blood. It says that I'm not worthy. It says that I don't belong, that I am not good enough. It just really builds on that erasure," Gapka told CBC News.

The policy's focuson gender confirming surgery is also problematic for Gapka.

"It reduces people to a surgical procedure, which is not accessible to everyone and not everyone wants it. It is really outdated," she said.

Trans people have limited access to gender confirming surgery in Canada. The Centre Mtropolitain de Chirurgie, located in Montreal, is the only clinic in the country that performs the procedure.

The medical coverage for the surgery varies between provinces but there is no coverage provided in P.E.I.

Montreal-based trans activist Sophia Banks expressed her outrageon social media.

"How does me castrating myself all of a sudden mean my blood is clean and I can't have HIV? What sense does that make?" she said.

"Everything about this is extremely transphobic."

New rules are'not perfect'

Canadian Blood Services says that it included various stakeholders, donorsand members of the trans community who currently donate blood in crafting the new policy, which was approved by Health Canada in June.

Health Canada told CBC News that "the change in (Canadian Blood Services') policy will allow some transgender people to donate blood who may have been excluded before."

But Goldman acknowledges that the new procedure is not perfect.

"I think moving forward we will have to see if there is something we can craft that will meet our regulatory framework, ensures safety for recipientsand is more acceptableto members of the trans community. But it is complex and we will have to beg people's patience," she said.