Under the current rule, men who have had sex with men within the last five years are blocked from anonymously donating sperm amid fears of HIV infection.
But the agency is now seeking to scrap the blanket ban, and replace it with screening questions that assess a donor’s risk of carrying HIV or other infections.
If approved, the shift would increase the number of anonymous sperm donations available to those seeking fertility treatments.
It could also affect limits on donations of other tissues from gay and bisexual donors.
The shift comes the year after the FDA permitted gay and bisexual men to give blood – after a long ban due to concerns about HIV.
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