Infertile couples face new donor shortage

Infertile couples will find it "doubly hard" to start a family following the loss of egg and sperm donor anonymity today, a leading infertility doctor has warned.

Professor Ian Craft of the London Fertility Centre predicts a serious shortage of donated sperm and eggs in the wake of new legislation that gives donorcreated children the right to know their biological parent on reachingthe age of 18. "A significant part of our practice concerns men with subfertile sperm counts, and I feel particularly sorry for those people because the loss of donor anonymity means they face double the problem," said Professor Craft. "The number of sperm donors has already dropped significantly."

Couples who cannot afford expensive ICSI treatment - where a single sperm from a subfertile man who would not be able to get a woman pregnant naturally is injected into an egg - will have little option but to wait for "known donor" sperm to become available or "be forced to accept that they aren't going to have children".

Professor Craft added: "The time frame for treatment will inevitably get longer once prospective donors realise they may be contacted 18 years later by a child, or possibly several children from different families."

Professor Craft is calling on the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority to redress the sperm and egg shortage by relaxing strict rules on the payment of prospective donors.

At present a nominal fee of ?15 per donation can be paid to both egg and sperm donors, with a capped ?50 per day to compensate loss of earnings. But such a small amount is clearly no counterbalance to the disincentive of loss of anonymity.

He said he supported the rights of children to know their biological parents, but warned of an increase in "reproductive tourism" where British couples went abroad for treatment in countries where donors remain anonymous.

"It is now imperative to explore alternative recruitment strategies including financial incentives to donors," he said.

Professor Craft is a pioneer of controversial "egg-sharing" procedures whereby women "pay" for IVF treatment by donating eggs to women who cannot produce them.