[Blood donors, risk factors and sexual orientation]

In order to reach high-quality blood-components, it is necessary that people who wish to be a blood donor shall observe a series of conditions that guarantee the least possible risk for the recipient and themselves. According to international standards, an adequate and reliable supply of safe blood can be assured by a stable base of regular, voluntary, unpaid blood donors (altruistic), which is a goal set by the World Health Organization; unfortunately in our country it only represents around 3%, despite the efforts of different institutions. In addition, the population is unaware of risk factors that prevent donating, due to the low culture of this issue. Therefore, it is necessary to implement strategies to disseminate that blood donation is a privilege and donors must have a lifestyle that allows being in a position to be able to carry out this act of solidarity, including having an excellent state of health, adequate dietary hygiene habits, and a lifestyle free of risky behaviors, which includes the non-use of substances as well as a sexual behavior free from situations of exposure to infectious agents transmitted by transfusion. In particular, this point has been controversial, since some groups of the LGBT community have interpreted it as discrimination. The aim of this article is to highlight the difference between the risk factor, particularly for patients who require blood-components for their treatment and sexual behavior.