Health Canada Dropped a Policy Built on HIV Stigma, Not Science
Health Canada announced in late July 2026 that it will eliminate sexual behavior screening questions targeting gay and bisexual men from the sperm donor process. The move ends a policy framework that had existed for decades, one that medical experts say was never justified by current science.
The original policy barred men from donating sperm if they had sex with another man within the previous three months. When Health Canada revised the language in 2024 to refer to “anal sex” rather than naming gay and bisexual men specifically, Toronto donor Aziz M. continued his 2023 legal challenge. He argued the revision transferred “an explicit discrimination to an implicit one.”
“It felt like it was a group judgment. Like, anybody from that group is having, you know, risky sexual behavior and they’re diseased.”
Aziz M., sperm donor and plaintiff, CBC News interview
Three medical experts filed affidavits explaining that existing infectious disease screening already removes the need for behavior-based bans. Dr. Mona Loutfy, an infectious disease specialist, wrote that HIV testing methods today “are highly sensitive and accurate, such that there is effectively no residual risk associated with current testing methods.” Health Canada announced the full policy elimination before Aziz’s case reached a courtroom.
The U.S. FDA Still Applies a 5-Year Deferral to Sperm Donors
Canada’s policy shift contrasts with U.S. regulations. The FDA’s 2014 donor eligibility guidance still requires a five-year deferral for men who have had sex with another man before donating sperm or other reproductive tissue. The FDA updated its blood donation rules in 2023 to replace categorical MSM deferrals with individualized risk assessment, but the sperm donation deferral has not been revised to match.
Bennett Jensen, legal director at Egale Canada, called the case “an important opportunity to examine long-standing assumptions about sexual orientation in relation to HIV.” Gregory Ko, a lawyer on the case, described the government’s announcement as “an important and precedent-setting step in ending decades” of discriminatory policy.
What you can do now
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Contact your U.S. senators at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to direct the FDA to update its 2014 sperm donor deferral guidance to use individualized risk assessment, matching the 2023 reform the FDA already applied to blood donation. Name the specific policy: “21 CFR Part 1271 donor eligibility.”
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Submit a public comment to the FDA at regulations.gov if the agency opens a rulemaking on tissue donor eligibility. Search “HCT/P donor eligibility” and submit a comment explaining that a categorical MSM deferral is inconsistent with current HIV testing science and the FDA’s own 2023 blood donation update.
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Contact your U.S. representative through house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative and ask them to cosponsor legislation requiring FDA guidance on reproductive tissue donation to be updated to reflect current HIV testing accuracy. Reference Canada’s Health Canada announcement as a scientific and legal precedent.
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Share Aziz’s case with your healthcare provider or fertility clinic. If you use a clinic that still screens out donors based on sexual behavior history, ask them in writing which FDA guidance they follow and when they last reviewed it for consistency with current HIV testing standards.
Sources
CBC News: Aziz M. Sperm Donor Challenge Forces Health Canada Policy Change LGBTQ Nation: Canada Ends Sperm Donor Restrictions for Gay and Bisexual Men FDA: 2014 Donor Eligibility Guidance for Human Cells, Tissues, and Cellular Products FDA: 2023 Blood Donor Guidance Replacing MSM Deferral with Individual Risk Assessment Egale Canada: Bennett Jensen Statement on Health Canada Sperm Donor Policy