I discovered this for myself this morning when I gave blood. Last time I had gone was in February.

The blood mobile worker said "We've added a new question that takes our blood donors by surprise:


'What is your biological gender?'"


I think it is so interesting that this question has had to be added in this day and age. And I do see the rationale.

I've always been fascinated by the questions asked in the screening process, and am glad that they are so vigilant. However, I always feel for the elderly people who come in to give blood, and get asked these questions - they most be so shocked that the inquiries have become so progressively "alternative." I'm sure they remember a time when they just surrendered that preliminary finger prick for the iron content in their blood, and then got to engage in small talk while the volunteer collected the donation...

Oh my.

It probably would make me blink a couple times too, but because it's nothing I've ever been asked before.

The times they are a-chaingin'!

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Wow,I gave blood less than two months ago and didn't get that question. That one is really new!

Why does gender make a difference in blood donation/recipient? Curious minds want to know.....

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"Well-Behaved Women SELDOM make history."Laurel Thatcher Ulrich


"Yesterday is but a vision, and tomorrow is only a dream. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a dream of hope." Anonymous

"Your candle does not lose it's light by lighting another candle" Generosity

Have the courage to be yourself.

I wish I had thought to ask! I was so shocked that I just said "Still female!" and we moved on.

I have 2 theories, myself:

Either they used to have a Male/Female question on the survey, and it the responses were becoming too blurry,

or

Perhaps the Red Cross is reluctant to accept the blood of a trans gender person, if the fear is that the person leads/led a "high risk" lifestyle.


So we're left to speculate for now. I wish I had asked!

I doubt that a transgender person would be any more promiscuous than any other person. I'd assume it was because of the excessive amount of hormones they have to take in order to switch genders.

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

Jaded..I wsa about to say the same thing..the hormones may have something to do with it.

I gave a few weeks ago and was not asked that...I guess I will get it next time!

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Nutella,....
proving some of the best things in life come in a jar.

The hormone rationale doesn't make sense to me. The question would then be, 'Do you take hormone medication?" The whole bio-gender question is baffling to me except perhaps to allow for easier data collection. I doubt the Red Cross data has a column for "born female/now male," etc.

Last time I gave, I was somewhat amused by the question about night sweats....I had to say yes, but then we determined it was for a different reason that what they were intending.... Ah...the joys of menopause!

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

I thought being asked about race was weird too, though I'm pretty sure that's just statistical. But yeah, being asked about biological gender probably would have startled me too. Isn't that technically 'sex,' anyway?

The race question would appear to be a little more apropos, as in the case of racially-weighted diseases such as Sickle Cell and others that are predominant in specific races,....but gender still has me positing......

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"Well-Behaved Women SELDOM make history."Laurel Thatcher Ulrich


"Yesterday is but a vision, and tomorrow is only a dream. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a dream of hope." Anonymous

"Your candle does not lose it's light by lighting another candle" Generosity

Have the courage to be yourself.

They must've been following this guy's story, with the relevance being whether or not the donor might possibly be pregnant:
| News | News of the World Pregnant Man photos

If it is about the amount of hormones, then they have to ask men who have a prostate cancer (of course he can't give blood because of the cancer). One treatment is female horomone shots. My dil had to take the same homone shot to get pregnant.

Wow, I'm giving on the 21st. I'll see if that question is asked of me. [i] always perfer the "Have you had sex with a man who's had sex with a man? Like a man would tell me. LOL

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I have OCCD
Obsessive-Compulsive Coupon Disorder!!!

WOW

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Brenda

GO #24 JEFF GORDON

LOL, that question always kills me! "I'm not sure, can you hold on a minute while I make a few phone calls and find out?"

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I've had a Foreman Grill for about six years. I've done about 85% of my cooking on it, but I've never burnt myself. Probably because I don't use it as a pillow.

My guess is that (trying to put this delicately) if the person were born a male but has gender re-assignment to a female they would very likely have been invlolved with at least one man prior to their gender reassignment. I do know that there is a similar question that pertains to a man's sexual history.

I did a search on this on the net and found some articles about it. None of the articles have any scientific research to back the articles. This being said some of the reasons given are:
Some of the gender reassignment people cannot afford the hormone replacement therapy and get it from the black market, thus increasing the risk of HIV.
Gender reassigment carries all of the risks of surgery and possibly increasing the risk of HIV.