Sperm: Your country needs you

Eve and Ros were delighted when their first son Jude was born 11 months ago. The lesbian couple had talked about having a child for almost nine years, and they were clear they did not want contact from a father. Following treatment at a private fertility clinic in Harley Street, London, Jude was conceived using donated sperm. All the couple knew about their son's biological father was that he was of Macedonian descent and was a physiotherapist. Otherwise his identity was secret - and would remain so for ever.

"We decided we didn't want the complication of another person involved," said Eve, 30.

She and Ros are two of the lucky ones. They conceived just before new rules came into force lifting the right of sperm donors to remain anonymous. From April 2005, sperm donors faced the prospect of their offspring contacting them from the age of 18. With each donor allowed to father up to 10 families, in theory he could find up to 50 children knocking on his door 20 years after his first visit to a sperm donation clinic. New rules also meant that payment to sperm donors was banned, replaced by expenses which for many student donors amounts to little more than the bus fare.

The full consequences can now be revealed by The Independent on Sunday. The change in the law has contributed to a dramatic drop in the number of donors willing to come forward to help infertile couples, prompting infertility support groups to warn of a "national crisis" due to a shortage of donors. Clinicians running fertility services have resorted to importing frozen sperm from abroad. Scotland now has only one active donor. Oxfordshire clinics have only one man willing to provide both his semen and his name and address. Fertility experts believe that there are as few as 20 active donors being shared by 93 clinics in the UK.

The latest figures from the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Authority (HFEA) show that as few as 10 new donors a month are being recruited in Britain. With between 1,000 and 2,000 women - most of them in long-term relationships with infertile men - desperate for children, many face a childless future.

Clare Brown, chief executive of Infertility Network UK, yesterday called for an urgent recruitment drive by the Department of Health to persuade men to come forward and replenish the country's sperm banks - which have simply dried up.

"There is not just a shortage of donor sperm in the UK - we are actually facing a crisis," said Ms Brown. "The number of donors started to decline when the removal of anonymity of donors was first broached - even before it became law. But since the removal the situation has worsened and something has to be done to help the many, many couples who will never have a family unless we do something. Many couples face a childless future just because of a lack of sperm."

Around Britain, clinics have been closing their doors because of the sperm shortage. In Aberdeen more than 20 patients have been told by post that their fertility treatment will be not continued. Other clinics are having frozen semen couriered in from America, Denmark and Spain.

The drop in the number of donors has had a devastating effect on waiting lists, which, clinics say, have grown exponentially because of the shortage. Some couples face a wait of up to five years - too long for women already in their late 30s.

The crisis has led to couples, frustrated by the wait, posting blogs on the internet in search of a donor, going abroad for treatment in countries with no anonymity rules or taking the unofficial route of asking friends to donate sperm But unlike sperm donated in clinics this has not been screened for HIV/Aids or tested for motility. Others have contacted internet companies which mail out sperm.

The situation facing unfertile couples is so acute that Dame Suzi Leather, head of the HFEA, last month called on sperm banks to consider using stocks of sperm reserv-ed for couples who may want a second child. She said the "steady decline in the number of sperm donors" was not solely a result of removing donor anonymity, accusing some clinics of "hoarding" their supplies of sperm and refusing to release it to other clinics. But clinics say they have been forced to stop supplying other fertility centres because the sperm shortage means they cannot meet the needs of women on their own books.

Two years ago the London Women's Clinic on Harley Street had one of the largest sperm banks in the UK. It supplied clinics throughout the country but now has barely enough donors for its own clients. Thousands of healthy samples frozen in vials have had to be destroyed because the donors could not be contacted to give consent, or refused to do so. Others are suspended in liquid nitrogen, waiting for a change in the law that would allow the anonymous samples to be released to infertile couples.

Dr Kamal Ahuja, scientific and managing director of the London Women's Clinic in Harley Street said it was now buying in sperm from the United States. "Until about 18 months ago London Women's Clinic supplied sperm to 64 IVF centres. We are no longer in a position to do that. Although we are a large bank we have to apply for shipment from the US. At one stage we had very substantial stocks - tens of thousands of vials - but many of them are illegal to use, because [donors] have not given consent to release their identity."

Finding a viable donor, whose sperm not only matches the physical requirements of the inseminee but is suitable for use, is no easy matter. Many groups, including sexually active gay men, are barred. Those who do give visit two or three times a week for six months, for counselling and to make fresh donations.

Not only does their sperm have to be screened for sexually transmitted diseases, samples must also be tested for strength and to see if they will survive the freezing and thawing process.

"The quality of sperm has declined over the years because of stress, alcohol and tight jeans," says Laura Witjens, chair of the National Gamete Donation Trust, a government-funded charity which recruits and advises donors. "It takes 100 guys to make that phone call to bring in one viable sperm donor. Some guys call because they want their sperm tested,but they never donate. We need to have 'super sperm'.

"Of the 93 fertility clinics in the UK, if you have 20 current sperm donors between them that would surprise me. A lot of donations are coming from Denmark. You will see huge numbers of blonde, blue-eyed children in the north of England."

The shortage of home-grown sperm has horrified infertility groups and MPs, who have begun lobbying the Government to scrap the anonymity rule.

"The decision to abandon anonymity was stupid and misguided. This has led to long waits or no treatment for many infertile couples," said Dr Evan Harris MP, a former GP and Liberal Democrat member of the House of Commons science and technology committee. "The Government should reopen this issue. It's urgent because people are waiting. They will either go abroad, to unregulated sperm producers or go childless. What the Government is effectively saying is, it is better for children never to be born than not to be able to contact their parent."

Among the fertility experts backing a change in the law is Simon Fishel, an IVF pioneer and managing director of the Care group of clinics, the largest independent fertility provider in the UK. Care has begun buying in American sperm after a drop in donors. He said the removal of anonymity had had a grave and devastating effect.

"We have 150-plus on our waiting list, very, very few donors and are making huge efforts to establish our own bank. But there is no incentive for them to donate. There are plenty of clinics with no donors. They can't get the sperm."

But not all clinics are pessimistic. The Department of Health points to one in Manchester where an energetic recruitment drive, including a two-week radio ad campaign targeting men in their thirties and forties, has brought in inquiries from 15 potential sperm donors.

Professor Brian Lieberman, professor of reproductive medicine at St Mary's hospital in Manchester, said he thought donating sperm "should be a public service". Others are more blunt about the recruitment problem. The HFEA said the "slightly seedy image of the sperm donor" had to be addressed.

"In the past it was the archetypal medical student who donated sperm. They were paid. It was regarded as an odd thing to do. But now donors are not paid and you don't have anonymity. It's about targeting the right people. Sperm donors now are men from 36-40 - with their own family."

The Donor: 'I put it in the same category as giving blood'

Colin Francome, an author and former marathon runner, gave sperm for years out of a sense of altruism. The academic and father of four donated at least 10 times and knows at least one child was born from this.

The 55-year-old, an emeritus professor of sociology at Middlesex University, sometimes used to send his sperm samples in a taxi. He was paid £4 per sample for his trouble, but money was not a motivating factor.

"It was altruism," he says. "I felt it was a useful thing to do. They said my sperm was very good quality."

Although the donations were anonymous, Professor Francome met his biological daughter after 14 years through a series of curious coincidences.

"I know I have at least one child. I didn't know anything about the daughter but after 14 years I met her. She had my nose, which is a bit poky. I met the mum as well."

Professor Francome, who is now too old to donate under the rules governing sperm donation, believes the lifting of anonymity will act as a disincentive to donors: "People should be able to be anonymous. If you're donating sperm out of the goodness of your heart, you don't want someone coming around years later."

But he adds: "I would encourage men to do it. It's a necessary thing. I have given blood as well, and I put them both in the same category."

The Recipient: 'It felt very clinical, and not adulterous at all'

Olivia Montuschi has two children, William and Susannah, conceived by artificial insemination with different donors.

A visit to the GP began the process. It was established that her husband was infertile and the couple were forced to look around for other options. Though they knew there was the possibility of adoption, both preferred for at least one of them to be "genetically connected".

The parents-to-be opted for a small, private clinic as "there was the potential of a big wait on the NHS". "They said I should just pop in during my lunch break," said Olivia. "I went and was inseminated. It felt very clinical and not adulterous at all. After, I lay down for 15 minutes and then went back to work."

Luckily for Olivia, she was one of the few to have conceived first time. She admits that, at the age of 35, this was pretty unusual. As they had not considered the possibility of two children at the beginning, the same sperm was not available the second time.

Raising children conceived through insemination can place strains upon a marriage, Olivia says. "Donor conception can drive a wedge into cracks already there, but often it has brought couples together. If you get through that you can get through anything,"she said.

William and Susannah's attitudes are very different. William "doesn't think it's a big deal at all", but Susannah has joined Donor Link, a voluntary contact register where people conceived through donated sperm and/or eggs can exchange information.

The Science: What happens to donated sperm in the laboratory

SPERM ARE kept in quarantine for six months while various tests are undertaken to check the count and to ensure that the donor is healthy.

SAMPLES ARE stored in 15ml glass vials or thin glass straws that can be 30cm long. They are then frozen in liquid nitrogen at -197C. The stainless steel tanks are 1m high on average and can contain hundreds of samples.

WHEN required for fertilisation, the sperm are removed from the tank and placed into an incubator and thawed to room temperature.

ONCE AT ROOM temperature the sperm will be mixed with the donor egg in a Petri dish.

THE FERTILISED EGG is then placed in an incubator kept at body temperature and is checked every 24 hours for a few days to ensure that the embryo is growing.

IT IS THEN frozen for future use or implanted into the womb.

THERE IS NO shelf life on sperm; there have been cases of babies with sperm stored for 20 years.

THE TECHNIQUE has a success rate of 23 per cent per cycle.

The Law: How the rights of children and donors have changed

BEFORE 1 APRIL 2005 sperm donors could remain anonymous, with basic information provided to people looking for donors or children conceived from their sperm.

DURING THE 1990S there were hundreds of donors, some of whom were students attracted to the payment. Numbers dropped dramatically as debates raged about anonymity. As from April 2006, donors get only expenses.

CHILDREN OF PEOPLE who donated sperm after April 2005 are now legally entitled to track down their biological fathers.

DONORS ARE STILL unable to trace children and have no financial or legal responsibility towards them.

DONORS CAN STIPULATE conditions on who can receive their sperm and are still entitled to know the number, gender and ages of any children born from their donation.

NEW LAWS INTRODUCED in April mean that a donor's sperm can be used by up to 10 families instead of being limited to 10 children.

ONLY CLINICS licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, headed by Suzi Leather, can store sperm.

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