Britain’s fertility regulator has increased compensation for sperm donation amid a nationwide shortage of samples.
Previously, men were paid up to £35 per clinic visit to cover expenses such as travel. It is illegal to pay to donate sperm.
But from today, donors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive £45.
In the UK, men are allowed to help parent 10 families in total, meaning they could earn hundreds of pounds over the course of their appointments.
Men were paid up to £35 per clinic visit to cover expenses such as travel. It is illegal to pay to donate sperm. But from today, donors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive £45.
Health leaders have long feared that a nationwide shortage of donors may be forcing women to buy samples from dishonest online banks.
However, experts said it is not due to a “lack of applicants” in the UK, but rather a “lack of quality of applicants”.
Sperm donation is used to help people start families when they cannot have children of their own naturally (if, for example, a male partner is infertile, if both parents are women, or if the mother is single).
In the UK it is regulated by the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Under these rules, all donors are screened for STIs and inherited medical conditions, such as debilitating asthma, clubfoot, and hemophilia.
The HFEA said the increase in compensation was partly due to high inflation in recent years, but warned against donating solely for the money.
It is the first time that remuneration for sperm and egg donors in all three countries has increased since 2011.
Egg donor compensation has also increased today from £750 to £986.
An HFEA spokesperson said: “Choosing to be a donor is a complex decision, with implications for the donor and their wider family, the recipient and any children born as a result.”
“Donors will go through a rigorous medical check and should feel comfortable that any child born from their donation can contact them when they turn 18.”
To address the shortage, British couples can import sperm into the UK through any licensed fertility clinic at a cost of around £950 per dose.
According to statistics, about 3,000 samples are brought from Denmark and 4,000 from the United States each year.
Another option is online websites, where people can arrange a donation privately, but the HFEA warns that there are “very real risks and consequences” of obtaining sperm this way.
Nicole Nel, operations and laboratory director at London Sperm Bank, however believes that the shortage is not due to a “lack of applicants” in the UK, but rather “a lack of quality of applicants”.
she too he told the BBC that the way people live their lives may be affecting the quality of their sperm.
Nel also believes that the narrative surrounding the typical sperm donor is changing.
“Maybe 20 years ago it was students, but I think now it’s a very healthy mix of people because infertility has become a more widely discussed topic and awareness about it has increased,” she said.
“I think the type of person who really ends up becoming a donor is someone who is more aware of what they are doing, not the typical student who is just looking for an easy way to make money.”
The HFEA said UK sperm donors typically visit a clinic “once a week for between three and six months”.
One of these visits will involve ejaculating into a sterilized cup and then the sperm will be frozen and stored.
In July, Netflix released an explosive documentary ‘The Man with 1,000 Children’ that investigates Jonathan Meijer (pictured) who defrauded dozens of parents around the world.
The women told how they felt ‘betrayed’ and ‘angry’ after discovering how many other children the now 43-year-old musician has had.
It is not possible to donate anonymously and all donors are informed that any child born can contact them once they turn 18.
In the UK, current rules also mean that a single sperm donor can only create ten families in this country, and each family can include several siblings.
But there are no regulations limiting the number of families donors can create abroad.
Some foreign centers allow sperm donations from the same person to be used to create 1,000 or more separate families.
Experts warn that the issue is becoming pressing because more than half of the donated sperm used in Britain is imported from abroad, and demand for sperm donors is growing due to a rise in single women and same-sex female couples. who have children.
The number of same-sex female couples undergoing IVF increased by 33 per cent between 2019 and 2021, according to fertility regulator the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Last year, Professor Jackson Kirkman-Brown, president of the Association of Clinical and Reproductive Scientists, warned that it could be “psychologically damaging” for children to discover they have hundreds or even thousands of half-siblings.
He said: “If you’ve always thought you were an incredibly special gift, suddenly discovering that there are 300 people who share 50 per cent of your DNA is a very difficult concept to understand.”
Research also suggests that donor-conceived people often feel pressured to keep in touch with dozens of half-siblings, but this can be “almost an impossibility,” which can cause great stress.
In July, Netflix released an explosive documentary ‘The Man with 1,000 Children’ that investigates Jonathan Meijer, who defrauded dozens of parents around the world.
The women told how they felt “betrayed” and “angry” after discovering how many other children the now 43-year-old musician has had.