Recent changes to our eligibility criteria

Héma-Québec regularly reviews its blood donation eligibility criteria based on the latest scientific research. That means that people who were ineligible in the past may now be eligible to donate. Below are our recently announced changes.

Lifting criteria for “mad cow disease”

December 4, 2023

Potential donors who had previously been excluded from blood product donation for geographic risk factors related to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) are now eligible to donate.

This applies to anyone who has travelled, lived or received a transfusion in France, the United Kingdom, or another Western Europe country between 1980 and now.

Relaxing criteria for diabetes

December 4, 2023

This change means that more people living with diabetes are now eligible to donate blood products. The criteria are easier to apply at blood drives and are better at identifying the risks for blood product donors and recipients. This is a threepronged change:

  • Type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes): Under the vCJD-related changes, beef insulin is no longer considered reason for exclusion. As a result, people with type 1 diabetes are now eligible if they present no risk factors for themselves or recipients.

  • Type 2 diabetes (diabetes mellitus): Criteria were simplified to make it easier to assess a donor’s diabetes management and identify potential donors who present a higher risk of post-donation complications or whose donation could cause recipients to have a reaction to the transfusion.

  • Other types of diabetes: The health of these donors is now assessed by medical staff or their delegate to determine the safest option for the blood product donor and recipients.

Removing criteria for men who have sex with men (MSM) and implementing a gender-neutral questionnaire for blood product donation

December 4, 2022

All potential donors now respond to the same questions—no matter their sex, gender or sexual orientation—and must indicate if they’ve had sex with one or more new partners in the past three months. If so, they must say whether they have had anal sex in the past three months. The new questionnaire is more inclusive of potential donors in the LGBTQ+ community.

Individual risk-based evaluation

Eligibility for blood, platelets and plasma donations is now based on an individual at-risk behaviour evaluation rather than a population-based evaluation.

With this new approach, each person wishing to donate blood products, regardless of sex, gender or sexual orientation, is asked new questions aimed at at-risk sexual behaviours.

This enables a more inclusive approach to people hailing from LGBTQ+ communities.

New questions are being asked

The blood, plasma and platelet donation qualification questionnaires were replaced by gender-neutral questionnaires. Each person answers the same questions as a result of this change, regardless of sex, gender or sexual orientation.

Thus, there are no longer gender-specific questions. As a result, questions about pregnancy history and sexual risk behaviors are asked of everyone who comes in to donate.

In addition, we ask new questions to evaluate individual risk. In the last three months, we will ask if you had a new sexual partner, or more than one sexual partner.

If you answer yes to one of the questions above, we will ask if you have had anal intercourse. If so, you cannot donate in the three months following the most recent anal intercourse.

If you answer no, you may donate as long as you meet the other eligibility criteria. We realize that questions relating to specific sexual practices can be embarrassing and uncomfortable.

However, these questions are crucial to evaluate individual risk and guarantee the highest level of safety of blood products for recipients.

Thank you for your steadfast support of life donation.