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Sperm donation
Sperm donation is a well-established form of assisted
conception treatment. Ithas been used for more than one hundred years.
In the United Kingdom it is a legally accepted form of treatment. Around
13,000 donor insemination cycles are carried out annually in the United
Kingdom with more than 1,300 children born in the period between 1997-1998.
In some countries, sperm donation is not allowed. The use of frozen
sperm is now mandatory in many countries to minimize the risk of HIV
transmission to the recipients.
It is important that both the donor and recipient couples
be adequately counseled,
screened and made aware of the psychological, moral and legal implications
of sperm donation before being accepted onto the program.
To whom donor insemination is advised?
There are selected groups of patients to whom sperm
donation is recommended.
- A couple wishes to have a child, the female partner appears to be
fertile but her husband or the male partner have either a very
poor sperm or no sperm in his semen. This could be due to vasectomy,
testicular damage by chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer, inability
to ejaculate normally or another irreversible male fertility factor.
This is by far the most common group seeking donor insemination. The
introduction of intracytoplasmic sperm
injection (ICSI), surgical sperm retrieval
and rectal electroejaculation
procedures into in-vitro fertilization
(IVF) programs, have helped many men to father their own children
when only a few sperm are available. However, the high cost and complexity
of these procedures put them beyond the means of many couples.
- A couple wishes to have a child, but there is a risk that the husband
or male partner may pass on an inherited disease such as hemophilia
and Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. Although antenatal fetal diagnosis
is available for an increasing number of these conditions, termination
of pregnancy remains unacceptable to many couples. Recent advanced in
preimplantation genetic diagnosis has
enabled couples to undergo IVF, preimplantation embryo biopsy and the
transfer of normal embryos. However, the high cost and complexity of
these procedures put them beyond the means of many couples.
- If the female partner is Rhesus (Rh) sensitized and the male partner
is Rh positive (severe rhesus incompatibility).
- Donor insemination may also be used to treat single women or lesbian
couples.
- The husband or male partner has an incurable sexually transmitted
disease such as HIV.
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User Contributed Notes
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Dr Samuel Marcus
09-Feb-2004 12:48 |
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The UK government is to change the law which safeguards the anonymity of men who have donated sperm to infertile couples, giving their children the right to know their genetic parents.
The new regulations will not be retrospective and Ms Melanie Johnson, the UK minster of health, reported that the identities of adults who had already donated will not be disclosed. |
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