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Information for Recipients of Donated Sperm

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Information for Recipients of Donated Sperm The Fertility Centre Information for recipients of donated sperm Fertility treatments involving donor sperm can help many patients achieve their dream of having a baby. The decision to go ahead with donor treatment is sometimes difficult, and there are many medical, ethical and legal aspects to consider. As a recipient, you will be encouraged to see our counsellor before embarking on any treatment. The counsellor will discuss with you the implications of donor treatment with respect to you and your family. This aim of this information sheet is to: Help prepare you for treatment with donor sperm Provide information about the law with respect to donation and how it affects you Answer your questions about donors and donor treatments Encourage you to think about the issues you may face Who are the sperm donors? Donors recruited by the Fertility Centre The Fertility Centre selects donors very carefully. They are recruited primarily from the local community using advertising material displayed in the Whittington Hospital itself, local newspapers, blood donation centres, GP surgeries, businesses and higher education establishments. Some people motivated to donate will also find our website through internet searches and social media campaigns. All Fertility Centre sperm donors are men aged between 18 and 45, however in practice, few men under age 25 apply, and the majority tend to be in their 30s at the time of their donation. Since April 2005 anyone donating sperm does so as an identifiable donor. This means that at the age of 18, any person conceived via donation will be able to obtain certain identifiable information about their donor from a register held by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Donor-conceived people over 18 may also be able to find out identifiable information about any donor-conceived half-siblings they have, on the basis of mutual consent. Individuals accepted onto our donor programme must produce high quality semen samples which we judge to have a good chance of being capable of initiating a pregnancy. We thoroughly assess the medical and family history of potential donors in order to minimise the risk of heritable disorders being passed on to your child. We also screen donors for a range of transmissible viral and bacterial diseases in order to prevent you from becoming infected via treatment. All potential donors are specifically tested for: • The viral infections HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and Hepatitis A • The bacterial infections syphilis and chlamydia • The genetic disease(s) most common in people belonging to the donor’s specific ethic background, for example cystic fibrosis, thalassaemia or sickle cell disease 2 Donors who have travelled to countries in which there is a greater risk of exposure to other infectious diseases will also undergo additional screening. All semen samples are frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored in our sperm bank. Samples are only released for treatment after the donor has undergone a final round of testing that excludes the possibility of new infections having been acquired during the donation period. Although our testing procedures are rigorous, it is impossible to completely rule out the possibility of transmission of an infection or a genetic condition. Known donors It is possible that you may already know someone who is willing to act as a ‘known’ sperm donor for you / you and your partner. If you have someone who wishes to donate in order for you to undergo insemination treatment then please contact us to obtain more information about using his sperm on a known-donation basis. We can register this man as a donor who is willing to donate only to one family (i.e. yours). HFEA-licenced clinics have a responsibility to assess and screen all sperm donors in exactly the same way; even if the intended recipient would be willing to be more relaxed about the screening process because they know the donor personally. As such, recipients of known-donor sperm must cover the costs of the donor’s viral and bacterial screening, counselling, medical appointment, sperm freezing and sperm storage themselves. If you use donor sperm in an HFEA-licenced clinic like the Fertility Centre, then the legal aspects relating to treatment are the same regardless of whether you use a known or an ‘anonymous’ donor. For example, if you have treatment in our centre then you (or you and your partner) will hold all legal rights and responsibilities towards your donor-conceived child (see later on for further information about donation and UK law). This is not the case if you use your known donor’s sperm in a private arrangement. Who may wish to use donated sperm? Donated sperm is needed by a broad group of patients. These range from heterosexual couples (where the male partner does not produce sperm, has very poor quality sperm or carries a genetic abnormality which could be transmitted to his children) to same-sex female couples and single women. Donated sperm is used to try and fertilise eggs, either using artificial insemination or IVF treatment; both of which take place within a fertility clinic. How will I/we be matched with a sperm donor? A list of current Fertility Centre donors will be given to you, and you may select which donor you would like to use from this list. This list contains information about the donors’ ethnic background and their physical characteristics such as eye colour, hair colour, height and build. We hope to be able to offer you a wide range of donors to choose from; however you may sometimes have a more limited choice at the time of your treatment. In order to help you select a donor from our bank we can also offer you access to non-identifying information that the donor has supplied. This information may include his reasons for donating, a ‘pen-portrait’ in which he describes himself and a ‘goodwill’ message designed to be read by your child once she or he is 16 or older. 3 If we do not have any donors who would be suitable for you, then we will attempt to help you find a donor at another clinic. We currently accept sperm from two other UK donor banks, namely: Brighton Fertility Associates: https://www.brightonfertility.co.uk/ Semovo: https://www.buysperm.co.uk/ What traits/characteristics could a child inherit from their donor? It is very difficult to say what characteristics a child might inherit from their donor. It is likely that your child will bear some physical resemblance to their donor; however genetics is very complicated and most traits are the result of a sophisticated interplay between many different genes. Eye colour is one characteristic which follows a more predictable inheritance pattern, as there are fewer genes involved. For example if you and your male partner both have blue eyes, you would naturally only be able to conceive a blue-eyed child. Therefore a blue-eyed donor would offer an ideal match for you. However, if either or both of you have brown eyes, a naturally conceived child may still have blue-eyes. This is particularly true if your parents, siblings or grandparents had blue eyes. In this case, a blue or a brown-eyed donor could be a good match for you. As for personality traits and interests, these are far more a product of nurture than nature. For example, if a donor describes themselves as sporty it doesn’t mean a child would automatically be sporty too; it would depend on the environment he or she had been brought up in. The same applies to intelligence, which is strongly related to the opportunities and education a child or person receives rather than genetics alone. In any case, it is important to remember that you will be encouraged to tell your child (at a reasonable time) how they were conceived. Evidence from studies involving donor-conceived and adopted children shows that it is best to tell donor-conceived children about their origins in childhood, as finding out later in life can be emotionally damaging to them and their family. If donation has been part of the family story for as long as your child can remember, their genetic origins needn’t be an issue. Opting not to tell them at all would be highly risky and is strongly discouraged. We will give you information about a number of excellent support groups that can help guide you through approaching this subject (these are listed at the end of this document). Your counsellor will also be able to discuss these types of things with you before you embark on any treatment. What types of donor sperm treatment are available? Donated sperm is used to fertilise eggs, either by artificial insemination or in vitro fertilisation. Intrauterine insemination with donor sperm Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is a treatment in which the sperm are inseminated directly into the uterus at or around the time of ovulation. The high concentration of sperm and the precise timing of the procedure help to enhance the chances of pregnancy. The treatment can be done in a natural menstrual cycle or in a stimulated cycle using low doses of hormones. For more information about IUI treatment please ask us for the Fertility Centre’s IUI information sheet. 4 In vitro fertilisation with donor sperm In vitro fertilisation (IVF) with donor sperm is a more advanced form of fertility treatment. It involves hormonal stimulation which typically results in the growth of many more follicles than would be produced during stimulation for IUI. At the appropriate time, eggs are then retrieved from these follicles during a minor operation, and inseminated with donor sperm in the laboratory.
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