An agency official briefed on the proposal said the FDA is considering a more individualized strategy for screening gay and bisexual men for blood donations.
Men who have sex with men can't donate blood. Fears of H.I.V. transmission led to a complete prohibition in the 1980's. Gay and bisexual men were allowed to donate if they hadn't had sex with other men in the previous year.
The period was shortened because of the blood shortages.
The new plan requires men who have sex with men to fill out a questionnaire about condom use and other risk factors. Those with no new partners in the last three months would be allowed to donate.
It was reported by The Wall Street Journal. According to the F.D.A., new data will likely support a policy transition to individual risk-based donor screening questions.
Some L.G.B.T.Q. advocates feel that the plan is too broad and that previous blood donation policies may have been discrimination.
Sarah Kate Ellis is the president and chief executive of GLAAD, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy organization that has been pushing to end the ban for a long time.
That is not where it should be. The decisions that the F.D.A. makes on blood bans for the L.G.B.T.Q. community are based on stigma. That pattern is continuing here.
The new approach is meant to strike a balance between activists who want no restrictions that single out gay and bisexual men and blood banks that want to eliminate the risk of a recipient acquiring H.I.V.
The F.D.A.-funded study will assess the safety of replacing the current three-month waiting period with a more individualized assessment.
The researchers are hoping to identify a set of screening questions that can differentiate between men who have recently acquired H.I.V. and men who have not.
The ADVANCE study asked participants if they had any new sexual partners and if they were taking pre-exposure prophylactic drugs to reduce the risk of H.I.
The participants' blood was tested for H.I.V.
The final results from the interim analysis should be ready by the end of the year. He said that he expected the results to be informative for the agency but refused to give more information.
He said that he was confident that the F.D.A. could consider a risk-based approach to donor selection.
The study was meant to make blood donation more inclusive and to maintain the safety of the blood supply.
She said that the Red Cross looks forward to a future in which donation eligibility is not based on sexual orientation and more healthy individuals can give blood.
America's Blood Centers tracks the blood shortage every day. Some of the centers had less than a day's supply on hand.
The way people work has changed and blood drives hosted by businesses have not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
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