Sperm donations fall to record low

26 June 2008 08:29am

Donations of sperm have fallen to the lowest recorded level following the removal of donors' right to anonymity, officials said.

The decline in donations is making it more difficult for couples to obtain the infertility treatment they need to try for a baby.

The number of women treated with donated sperm fell by about 20% from 2,727 in 2005 to 2,107 in 2006, the first full year after the change in the law, according to official figures obtained by The Times.

The new law gives donor-conceived children the right to trace their biological parents when they reach 18.

The secretary of the British Fertility Society, Dr Allan Pacey, said that the number of men giving sperm appeared to have remained fairly constant, but that donors were putting restrictions on the use it was put to.

By law, an individual man's sperm may be used to treat up to 10 women. But more donors were now telling clinics that they wanted it used fewer times, or were naming a specific female friend who may receive it, said Dr Pacey.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "These figures really reflect what we have found, in that it is harder to either recruit sperm at your own centre or to obtain sperm from centres that are more effective in recruiting.

"If you look at the figures for the number of men registering as donors, there doesn't seem to have been a change in the period of time immediately before the law change and the time immediately after it.

"What we sense is that before the law change, men were more likely to sign up to allow more women to be treated with their sperm. They can sign up for a maximum of 10 in law.

"After the law change, men were more reluctant to allow a greater number of women to receive treatment. Couples are bringing a friend of the family as their own donor and that donor is only giving the donation specifically to them."

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