Wanted: healthy sperm for fertility treatments

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A British fertility clinic has overcome a shortage of home-grown sperm by importing it from Denmark.

Supplies of the rare commodity in Britain have dried up as donors take fright at new rules allowing them to be identified, forcing fertility clinics to look further away for supplies.

So far the Bourn Hall Clinic near Cambridge, which was founded by the pioneers of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), has brought in enough sperm to reduce its waiting lists and create 45 babies.

"It is top notch,” said Mike Macnamee, the clinic’s chief executive.

“We started discussions with this sperm bank over a year ago, specifying exactly what we needed to do to conform to the HFEA new legislation,” he added in an interview. The Human fertilization and Embryology Authority monitors fertility clinics in Britain.

Until about five years ago, the clinic worked with a laboratory in London that had enough volunteers to meet its needs. Since then sperm donation in Britain has decreased.

But there is no shortage of men willing to donate sperm in Denmark despite the fact that babies conceived through sperm donation will be able when they reach 18 to get information about the donor.

SPERM SHARING

The shortage of British sperm donors has coincided with a change in the law last year that removed the donor’s anonymity. British clinics can also only pay sperm donors 15 pounds ($28) plus travel expenses, which Macnamee believes is another deterrent for potential donors.

A BBC poll of fertility clinics revealed that 70 percent of them are having trouble obtaining sperm.

The Bourn Hall Clinic has also introduced a sperm-sharing scheme, the first in the country, to overcome the crisis. Couples having fertility treatment at the clinic will be offered a free cycle of IVF if the man is willing to donate sperm.

“Where routine semen analysis detects particularly strong and healthy sperm we are starting to approach couples to see if they would consider a sharing program. We have already successfully recruited two donors this way,” said Macnamee.

About one in six couples worldwide experience some form of infertility. Roughly 40 percent of cases are linked to a problem in men. A low sperm count, no sperm at all or poor movement or shape are causes of male infertility.

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