Did you know that the FDA currently bans men who have sex with men from donating sperm?

At PSD, we believe that everyone has the right to help others by becoming a sperm donor. We are closely tracking regulatory changes at the FDA that could reverse the ban on men who have sex with men from donating sperm.

Since the 1980s, the FDA has considered men who have had sex with another man as being at an elevated risk of spreading infectious diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS. As a result, the FDA placed a specific ban on all men who have had sex with another man in the past five years. It was under this same reasoning that the FDA also banned gay men from donating blood.

For decades, practitioners and advocates in the fertility industry have advocated against this ban. To comply with infectious disease regulations set by the FDA, all sperm banks are required to test every donor for a full panel of diseases (including HIV/AIDS) before becoming donors, consistently while they are donating, and before we can release any samples to recipients. Any positive test result (for any infectious disease on the panel) results in the destruction of any affected samples. Thus, there are already protections in place to safeguard the samples from being released if the donor has a positive test result.

There is also a global shortage of sperm donors, and fertility professionals want to provide as many donor options for their patients as possible. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), infertility affects approximately 1 in 6 people worldwide. Additionally, same-sex couples, single parents by choice, and other circumstances might necessitate the need for a sperm donor. A larger pool of sperm donors is better for everyone who is trying to start a family.

PSD is proud to support the organizations and policymakers who have advocated for the FDA to change its ban on gay donors.

Thankfully, we are starting to see signs of change at the FDA, which we believe will fundamentally change how we screen gay men who apply to become sperm donors.