What Makes Clinic-recruited Donor Sperm Safer?

Choosing a sperm donor is a big deal!

It requires serious consideration and support.

There is a lot you may not know about donor sperm from a safety and quality perspective. But rest assured, at Rainbow Fertility we do all the quality control checking, counselling and administrative side of things for you, to help you achieve your goal of a baby safely and sooner.

When a donor voluntarily donates their sperm to an unknown recipient in a clinic, this is called a clinic-recruited donation. The donor and recipient do not know each other, and the donor can choose to keep their identity unknown; however, they must agree to provide identifying information to be revealed to a child conceived as a result of their donation once the child turns 18 or younger with counsellor approval.

So why is a clinic-recruited sperm donor safer?

Here are some of the reasons:

Minimisation of health risks

• Review of the donor’s medical and family history by a fertility specialist and a fertility nurse.
• Thorough screening for infectious and/or genetic diseases.
• All clinic-recruited donor sperm is quarantined for three months before release for use.

Counselling

• All parties receive compulsory counselling to consider the legislative/regulatory requirements and the long-term implications of becoming a sperm donor or sperm recipient. This process ensures the donor understands the legalities of being a donor, including no legal rights to the child.
• Complex emotional and social issues are discussed as well as psychological implications and plans for future exchange of information and contact.

Systematic record-keeping

• All donations are carefully recorded and donor identifying information is kept by the IVF clinics / Central Registers (Vic and NSW) – depending on state legislation/regulations.
• Monitoring of the total family limits.
• Information and access to the donor identifying information, if the child once they are 18 requests information about their genetic origins.

Provide options for a sibling pregnancy

• In many cases, using a clinic-recruited donor will give the recipients the best chance of accessing the same donor for a subsequent pregnancy, providing the donor sample is still available.

Tailored treatment options

• When using clinic-recruited donor sperm, fertility investigations are undertaken to determine if Donor Insemination (DI) or IVF is the best treatment option. Or the option is provided to move from DI to IVF after few attempts.
• Partner IVF is also available when using donor sperm in a clinic (the egg from one partner can be fertilised with the donor sperm and then the embryo is carried by the other partner).

For more information visit our donor program page, spermdonorsaustralia.com.au or addamdonorbank.com.au