Is there any kind of sexual activity that will affect my ability to donate blood?

If you answer ‘yes’ to any of the following questions, you can donate plasma right now. However, you’ll need to wait 3 months from the last sexual activity before you can donate blood or platelets.

In the last 3 months, have you:

• had oral or anal sex with another man, even ‘safer sex’ using a condom (if you’re a man or recorded male at birth)?
• had sex with a man who you think may have had oral or anal sex with another man?
• been a sex worker (i.e. received payment for sex in money, gifts or drugs)?
• had sex with a sex worker?
• engaged in sexual activity with someone who ever injected drugs not prescribed by a doctor or dentist?

In the last 12 months have you:

• had sexual activity with a new partner who currently lives or has previously lived overseas? If ‘yes’, you may need to wait to donate blood or platelets depending on the level of HIV risk in your partner’s country of residence. Call us on 13 14 95 to check.
• taken pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)? If yes, you can donate plasma but will need to wait 12 months from stopping the medication before giving blood or platelets.

If you answer ‘yes’ to the following question, you’ll need to wait 3 months from the last sexual activity before you can donate blood, platelets or plasma:

In the last 3 months, have you engaged in sexual activity with someone who was found to have HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C or human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV) infection?