Sperm needed: hunt is on for donors to help desperate families
An acute shortage of sperm donors is leading to long delays for single women wanting to start a family.
About 450 women are on the waiting list for a donor at Fertility Associates, which has clinics throughout the country. The wait time is about two years.
Auckland’s Fertility Plus has a waiting list of about 40 women but scientific director Margaret Merrilees said more women would put their names forward if there were more donors.
“We are desperately short,” she said.
Medical director of Fertility Associates Auckland Simon Kelly said single women looking to start a family were behind the growing demand.
“It’s a change in society. A lot more women in their mid-to-late 30s are coming in as single women looking for treatment. People are leaving having families until later and that’s reflected in the numbers of single women we are seeing.
“We’ve always had heterosexual couples and lesbian couples looking for sperm donor treatment but the biggest phenomenal change has been in the number of single women coming.”
The long wait time meant the clinic often encouraged women to see if they could find their own donor to speed up the process, he said.
Kelly estimated that another 200 sperm donors would be needed just to cope with demand but said that would involve screening double the number of men to find enough suitable donors.
He said the clinic usually had about 50 donors at any one time. Under New Zealand law donors could provide sperm to up to five families. Since the clinic was set up in 1987 more than 2000 men had donated sperm, he said.
New Zealand law also stipulated donors could be compensated for expenses like travel and parking but could not be paid for donating.
It was also an open process, which meant once the children turned 18 they were able to access their records and get in touch with their biological father.
Fertility New Zealand spokeswoman Juanita Copeland said more compensation could attract more donors but said it was a comfort to many recipients to know the donor was doing it to help someone else.
“We would like to see more compensation for donors but not to the level we see overseas because it can quickly become a heavily commercial exercise,” she said.
Copeland encouraged more men, particularly those who had finished their own family and knew how special it was, to consider donating.
“It seems like a simple act but it’s a simple act which is massively lifechanging for couples. It’s making their dream of parenthood come true.”
Becs Carter and Hope Shearer would agree. The women are the proud parents of a 2-week-old girl.
But if it hadn’t been for the generosity of a donor, they would never have been able to start their own family.
“It’s awesome — the best thing that we’ve done. The best thing in the world,” Carter said.
The women started the process to find a sperm donor about four years ago and Carter gave birth to Frankie James Carter-Shearer two weeks ago.
Carter said they were grateful for the generosity of the donor and encouraged other men to consider donating sperm, too.
“To have someone who was selfless enough to donate so that someone like us could have a family, you can’t put that into words,” she said.
“It’s amazing. It’s such a gift.”