Sperm in short supply as fewer men donate

By ELIZABETH BINNING

A lack of men willing to donate sperm has left some couples waiting up to two years for fertility treatment.

In Christchurch, couples wanting artificial insemination are warned that they could wait several years because of a national shortage of sperm donors.

In the Waikato the wait is at least six months - longer if the couple want a Maori donor.

The limited number of men prepared to visit sperm banks is an ongoing battle for fertility clinics around the country, despite public appeals for help.

Mary Whyte, from The Fertility Centre in Christchurch, said it was always trying to attract new donors, but the stocks remained low.

"It's an ongoing thing. We are constantly advertising."

Donors must meet certain criteria, and they do not receive payment.

"Each donor is used only so many times so it's a limited resource."

Auckland donors are also rare, but the wait for fertility treatment is not as bad, unless people want a Maori or ethnic donor, which can take more than a year.

Margaret Merrilees, the laboratory director of Fertility Plus at National Women's Hospital, said there had been a change in the kind of people seeking donated sperm over the years, but the demand had remained high.

In the past mainly heterosexual couples visited fertility clinics, often because the man had a low sperm count, which made it difficult for the couple to conceive.

But treatments such as Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injections had made it possible for such couples to have fertility treatment using the man's own sperm.

As a result, the number of heterosexual couples needing donors had reduced dramatically, but the demand for sperm remained because more single and lesbian woman wanted to become pregnant.

Mrs Merrilees said the lack of donors meant it would not be long before Aucklanders also faced waiting lists.

"We really get very few people coming in to be donors now."

She said there were various reason for the shortage.

They included the lack of payment, the time required to provide multiple samples, the requirement for personal details and an increasing awareness of the psychological consequences of donating sperm.