Study: Shortage of sperm donations in UK

Research conducted by the University of Sheffield in Northern England has revealed that there is a desperate shortage of sperm donors in the U.K., forcing some women to import sperm or buy do-it-yourself insemination kits via the Internet.

The study, carried out by Dr Allan Pacey from the university's medical school and published in The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist journal, has identified two reasons for the fall in the number of women in the U.K. receiving fertility treatment from donated sperm. Reuters reports that Dr Pacey found alternative fertility treatments such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection, the injection of a single sperm directly in to an egg, had grown in popularity. But the lack of sperm donors was, Dr Pacey concluded, the single biggest factor forcing women to turn to the Internet for help, import sperm from abroad or travel abroad for treatment. Sky News names Denmark as one of the countries from which sperm is being imported. Figures compiled by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the body responsible for "licensing and monitoring UK fertility clinics and all UK research involving human embryos", show that in 1992 some 9,000 patients received sperm from a donor, a figure that had fallen dramatically come 2007. Bloomberg states that by 2007 only 3,876 women were receiving sperm from donors, a figure contradicted by Reuters which quotes an even lower figure of 2,000. Both sources state that their figures come from HFEA but regardless of which figure is correct the data clearly illustrates the dilemma facing U.K. women wanting to conceive. Clinics are closing too due to the lack of donors. Some 85 percent of applicants to donate sperm are, says Sky News, rejected due to the poor quality of the sperm they can provide. However a change in the law in 2005 is attracting much of the blame for the dwindling number of donations. Between 1992 and 2005 the register of donors maintained by HFEA simply recorded a donor's physical characteristics - for example ethnic background, height and eye colour - insufficient information for a donor, whose sperm can be used for a maximum of 10 conceptions, to be identified. In 2005 the situation changed when a law removed the right of donors, not allowed by HFEA to receive payment for their donations, other than some expenses, to anonymity. Therefore, if so inclined, upon becoming 18 individuals conceived through fertility treatment involving a donor are entitled to know the details of their biological father. Nevertheless, according to Bloomberg, those biological fathers do not bear any legal or financial responsibility for the children they helped create. Faced with those requiring fertility treatments in some instances waiting a year or more for the first treatment and further delays in the event of the initial treatment failing, HFEA is reportedly reviewing its insistence that donors must be 45 years old or under, can only contribute to 10 conceptions and receive no payment for earnings they may have lost or expenses they may have incurred. Dr Pacey has spoken of his concerns regarding the steps some women are taking to obtain sperm, saying:

If someone goes to Spain, say, or the US, I wouldn't have a problem with that because they're very well regulated. But if someone's trawling the Internet and doesn't have much idea of the situation, then they may end up in some dodgy, unregulated clinic, where there may be all sorts of health hazards - not only to the mother, but a baby as well

Paying for donations, or at least making it a financially neutral process, is one solution Dr Pacey has offered. He observed too that people are not necessarily aware of the need for donors and some potential donors may be discouraged by the travel involved, an improvement in infrastructure being his answer to the latter problem. In a statement to Bloomberg, Susan Seenan of the charity Infertility Network UK echoed the concerns expressed by Dr Pacey in respect of sperm sourced through the Internet.