Foreigners ease sperm donor crisis

LONDON fertility clinics are turning to foreign sperm donors in a bid to beat record shortages, the Evening Standard can reveal today.

More than a third of recruits joining the capital's fertility registers are now non-British. The majority are Australians and South Africans but donors from Poland, the Ukraine and Colombia are also high up the list.

A report by the British Fertility Society today warns that the current national shortage of sperm donors is at a critical level and calls for an overhaul of recruitment.

Its members, including leading fertility doctors, say 14 special regional donor centres should be set up across Britain where recruits are screened and tested.

The latest figures from fertility watchdog the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority show there has been a 40 per cent drop since 1991 in the number of new donors registering.

One of London's largest sperm banks, the Bridge Centre fertility clinic, has stopped supplying smaller centres because of the shortage.

The clinic has seen a drop in donors over the past year from 45 to 25 and can now only meet the demand from its own patients.

The donor crisis has also forced up the cost of fertility treatment because clinics are having to spend money on recruitment drives. Experts say the rise in foreign donations is necessary to solve the problem, which has been partly triggered by laws removing the right of donors to remain anonymous.

But they also warn this new trend in foreign donors will make it harder for their children to trace their fathers when they grow up.

Tim Mott, spokesman for the Bridge Centre, said these donors would "disappear" back to their home countries.

"The profile used to be completely different. It used to be British students. But non-British donors are now easier to recruit. The reason we have a high number of foreign donors is they probably need the money and anonymity doesn't make any difference to them.

"They know no one will be able to find them in 18 years' time."

A spokesman for the HFEA said: "The number of donor insemination cycles and births continues to fall. While more couples are able to take advantage of techniques such as ICSI (injecting sperm directly into an egg), for those patients whose treatment requires donor sperm, this is of great concern."