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SAN DIEGO (FRONTLINE MEDICAL NEWS) – Transgender male blood donors may have been pregnant at some point, an issue that can be missed at the time of blood donation. If HLA testing is not performed in these cases, male blood recipients can potentially be placed at risk.
In study results presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Blood Banks, 3% of transgender males who were identified as such reported a prior history of pregnancy. Importantly, this pregnancy history may not be divulged unless transgender males are asked “female” questions, said Kathleen M. Grima, MD, executive medical officer at the American Red Cross and medical director of the blood bank at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, New York.
Several studies have suggested that blood from ever-pregnant female donors can present increased risks to male recipients. Research also has suggested that antibodies or other immune system factors that women develop when pregnant could trigger transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI), a serious inflammatory reaction that can result in death, in male blood-transfusion recipients.
For this reason, it is important to have pregnancy histories from blood donors, and obtaining those histories from transgender males “presents a challenge for blood centers,” she said. “At our center, when a donor requests a gender change from female to male, an HLA test is requested for the next donation.” But as first-time donors are qualified based on their stated gender, transgender donors who have been pregnant will not be identified unless they volunteer the information or are asked about their pregnancy history.
The AABB recommends that a facility can perform HLA testing on all apheresis plasma donors and all whole blood donors whose units are intended for production into plasma components or, as an alternative, obtain a pregnancy history from all female donors and perform HLA typing only on women with a history of one or more full-term pregnancies.
Dr. Grima explained that, prior to the implementation of the Food and Drug Administration’s “ final rule ” on requirements for blood and blood components, blood centers asked donors to identify their birth gender to determine eligibility. If gender had changed, the donor was then asked to answer both the male and female questions. The FDA’s final rule now allows blood centers to accept the donor’s stated gender and eligibility can be determined based on that gender.
Dr. Grima and her colleagues conducted a review to determine the number of transgender males who were actively donating with a large blood center and to assess the risk of failing to ask a transgender male donor about pregnancy.
From 2013 to 2015, there were 121 female donors who had changed their gender to male and 60 male donors who had changed their gender to female. Of this group, seven (6%) transgender male donors (female at birth) stated at one of their donations that they had a pregnancy history; three were apheresis donors who had been tested for HLA antibodies (one was positive and two negative). The other four were whole blood donors and had not been tested.
After 2016, donors self-identified their gender, and 326 had requested a gender change from female to male. Of this group, 5 (1.5%) answered yes to pregnancy questions, 56 said no, and 265 did not respond.
“In our system, if a donor identifies as a male, then they only see male questions,” she pointed out. The center subsequently added in a test for HLA antibodies, and 101 donors were tested. Of this group, 13 (13%) tested positive; 2 had answered yes to pregnancy, 4 answered no, and 7 did not respond to the pregnancy question.
Combining the two cohorts, there were 447 transgender males who were identified; 12 (3%) responded yes to pregnancy, and 5 (1%) tested positive for HLA antibodies.
“We are continuing to add the HLA test,” said Dr. Grima. “I’m not sure this is the best [approach], but we will see over time.”
But if a donor comes in for the first time or identifies as a male or transgender male, they won’t be tested, and this is an opportunity that will be missed, she added. “Another option is to ask all donors if they have been pregnant or continue to ask donors their birth gender and then require that they answer both the male and female questions.”
Dr. Grima had no financial disclosures.
