Sperm donation is a well-established form of assisted conception treatment and it has been used for more than one hundred years. In the United Kingdom it is a legally accepted form of treatment and is regulated by the HFEA; around 13,000 donor insemination cycles are carried out annually in the United Kingdom. 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.
People who might use sperm donation:
- A couple wishes to have a child, the female partner appears to be fertile but her husband or the male partner has 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) programmes, 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 haemophilia or 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) sensitised 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.
How successful is it?
The HFEA publishes annual figures on the success rates of various sorts of fertility treatments. The following figures are for donor insemination in 2005:
Number of patients undergoing Donor Insemination treatment 2624
Number of cycles of Donor Insemination treatment 5865
Number of children born through Donor Insemination 606 successful births
- giving rise to 645 children
Further information: