About 10 per cent of the 50,000 cycles of fertility treatment carried out last year used donated eggs, sperm or embryos and new rules were introduced in 2012 to increase the compensation paid to men and women acting as donors. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said clinics had reported an increase in donations and requests from women wanting to become egg donors since the guidelines were changed to allow them to receive up to 750 per cycle. This means more couples who need donated eggs have the chance to start a family, it said. Overall, the number of egg donors registered with clinics rose from 815 in 2011 to 1,103 last year. However, there was a particular rise in young donors and the proportion of women aged 25 and under offering their eggs doubled to 24 per cent between 2011 and 2013. At the same time, the proportion of young men volunteering as sperm donors, who are paid 35 per clinic visit, increased from 15 per cent to 22 per cent. This was against a backdrop of a slight dip in registered donors from 631 in 2012 to 586 in 2013. Laura Witjens, chief executive of the National … Continue reading →

With a nationwide donor shortage and increasing demand for sperm, the directors of the new national sperm bank in Birmingham say it will "revolutionise access to donor sperm". Please wait while this video loads. If it doesn't load after a few seconds you may need to have Adobe Flash installed. With some people waiting up to five years for donated sperm, the centre will seek to recruit men in the Birmingham area and distributing their samples nationwide, its director Dr Sue Avery said. "At present some patients needing donor sperm are faced with few safe options and find themselves on waiting lists of up to five years, or having to stop treatment altogether. "Not only is the National Sperm Bank going to revolutionise access to donor sperm in this country, its founders are also on a mission to change the face of sperm donation," said Dr Avery. The centre will also seek to encourage men from ethnic minorities to donate because there is a particular shortfall among their communities. Figures from the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) showed that, between 2009 and 2013, more than 86 per cent of the newly registered donors were white British, white Irish or … Continue reading →