Who it is for
Azoospermia, severe sperm abnormality after failed ICSI, risk of transmitting a serious genetic condition, female couples and single women where the law allows. Donor sperm is used in insemination when the uterus and tubes are normal, and in IVF otherwise.
Becoming a donor
- An interview, often with a psychologist, about motivation and about what donation commits you to — including an adult turning up twenty years later.
- A work-up: full serology, karyotype, screening for the commonest mutations in the relevant population, family genetic history.
- Several samples, spaced out, frozen, then quarantined while serology is repeated — the delay exists to cover the window period of infections.
- A cap: the number of families from one donor is limited, to avoid unwitting consanguinity. The cap varies by country and is not universally respected: international banks distribute across several countries at once.
Anonymity in retreat
The movement is clear and goes one way. More and more countries give the child, at majority, access to the donor's identity, having found that secrecy weighs heavier than truth. Two things settled it: the benefit, shown in follow-up studies, of telling early and plainly; and the collapse of anonymity through recreational DNA testing, which lets anyone trace a donor without his consent.
In practice: if you conceive with donor sperm today, assume your child will be able to find out. The question is no longer whether, but how and from whom.
Waiting times
They depend entirely on the number of donors and range from a few months to several years. Requested physical characteristics can lengthen the wait; depending on the country, choosing a donor on that basis is allowed or forbidden.