How women choose sperm donors online - study shows intelligent, shy donors are more sought after

A study into how women choose sperm donors via online websites has revealed men who are intellectual, shy, calm and methodical are selected to produce more children than those who are extroverted. It also highlighted that women choose donors who have a higher income, even though there is no requirement for ongoing parental support.
The study, Determinants of online sperm donor success: how women choose by Stephen Whyte and Professor Benno Torgler from QUT's Queensland Behavioural Economics Group, has been published by the international journal Applied Economic Letters.
"Worldwide demand for sperm donors is so great an informal online market has emerged in which offspring are being produced outside of the more formal fertility clinic setting," said Mr Whyte.
"You would expect in an online setting, men would have to sell or promote themselves to women, and extroverted men should be better at doing that. But what we find is actually the opposite.
"In what we believe is the first study to include males who are donating purely through unregulated websites and forums, we interviewed and collected data from 56 men.
"This online donor market works quite differently to fertility clinics in that it facilitates more interaction between the recipient and the donor. This allows us to explore individual donor personality characteristics and how likely they are to be chosen by women as their donor.
"Women were far less likely to choose the sperm of fretful or socially awkward men but at the same time those with lively, extroverted personalities were also less successful in being chosen."
The participants for the study were aged between 23 and 66 and were from Australia, Canada, the UK, Italy, Sweden and the USA. Data was collected across 2012 and 2013 via online surveys of regulated (paid), semi-regulated and online sperm donation forums and websites such as Pride Angel.
"Research has previously shown humans are good at judging personality traits as well as levels of intelligence with only minimal exposure to appearance and behaviours, and our findings certainly seem to support that," Mr Whyte said.
"We also found that 73 per cent of our participants who had children by donation kept in touch via mail, email, phone, video link or even in person with at least one of their donor children."

Donor conceived need to find the truth about their sperm donor's identity

Sperm donation is a topic that makes some people uncomfortable. For me, any qualms about discussing sperm vanished when I began producing a documentary about donor-conceived adults for the ABC. Sperm became a constant topic of conversation as we tried to unpack why in the past, sperm donation was anonymous and shrouded in secrecy.
In making our film Sperm Donors Anonymous we are hoping to reach the thousands of men who donated sperm anonymously and say: please watch these stories of children conceived with anonymous sperm. Many are growing into adults, finding out the truth about their conception, and many would like to know about their biological fathers. They have a right to know.
Laws need to be passed in Australia giving them this right. It’s time to put an end to the secrecy and the lack of openness that has surrounded donor-conception. Anonymity is a flawed process causing distress and grief for children, parents and sperm donors themselves.
When we started our project, director Lucy Paplinska and I made contact with sperm donors and donor-conceived adults through the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (Varta).
We met Michael Griffiths, 40, a musical theatre performer who, at 28, found out by accident that he was donor-conceived when he read it in his mother’s unpublished autobiography. This revelation had a profound impact on him, causing a great deal of soul searching. Unfortunately, Michael was conceived in South Australia where many donor records were deliberately destroyed, but he was determined to discover his donor’s identity to complete the picture of his own identity.
At a group meeting in Melbourne, we met Ian Smith, a donor from the Madmen (Melbourne Anonymous Donors). Ian spoke about how he felt for the seven children he had fathered but never met. He and other donors at the meeting revealed a side to this story we hadn’t heard before. Here were guys who donated sperm more than 30 years ago, who at the time of donating thought little about “offspring”. But now they were open to contact, and in doing so, were supporting the donor-conceived people they knew who were fighting for the right to identifying information about their donor.
Lucy and I often asked ourselves what the fertility doctors who used anonymous sperm for almost 40 years were thinking. But it is estimated that the majority of the 60,000 donor-conceived people in Australia don’t know they are donor-conceived. Their parents haven’t told them, the clinics won’t tell them, and it’s not recorded on their birth certificates.
The clinics, in order to get on with the business of creating babies for infertile couples, made a decision in the 1970s that anonymous sperm donation was the only way society could deal with this new fertility treatment. This plan works as long as children don’t find out they are donor-conceived, and parents can shoulder the burden of keeping their secret.
Ross Hunter, who we also met in Melbourne, found out he was donor conceived at age 33. He wants to find his donor but his conception records are still to be located and his donor is not on a voluntary register or DNA database. Along with a group of other donor conceived folk, Ross started a campaign called RUDC? (Are you donor conceived?), encouraging children to ask their parents this question. But encouraging kids to ask also means encouraging parents to tell the truth. Parents are more likely to do this if they think their children will be able to find their donor.
The research to date isn’t conclusive on how many donors are open to contact. However it’s clear from our research that many donors are open to contact. We were fortunate two of our participants located their donors during filming and both were open to contact.
We followed Michael Griffiths as he returned to Adelaide looking for information about his donor. One donor came forward after reading a newspaper article but wanted to remain anonymous to Michael until a DNA test could prove paternity. A few weeks later, I went to visit the donor to ask if he would participate in our documentary.
I discovered he donated as a student. Seeing Michael’s face in a newspaper sent a jolt through him and he became determined to find out about the children he had fathered. He rang and emailed everyone he could think of – clinics, government, doctors. He showed me the file he kept tracking the correspondence; it was huge.
Here was a man coming to terms with the fact that he had children out there. He was willing to do a DNA test and go on a register, but no organisation in South Australia would facilitate a test, or give him information. When he told me his family was very musical (Michael is a singer and pianist), it was hard to hold back the tears. I could see clearly that the power of biological connection was going both ways, it wasn’t just the children who had a need to know.
Victorian clinics like Monash IVF now write to donors when requested by their biological children, as they have kept identity profiles. Some donors reject contact, and when they do, the clinic cannot give the children any identifying information. This rejection is painful. I know that making contact and handing over identifying information isn’t what anonymous donors signed up for, but there are real children out there.
I stayed in contact with the anonymous donor in Adelaide, and through the process of his DNA test with Michael. While waiting for the results of the test, he was on tenterhooks. He said he felt like an expectant father waiting for the birth of a child.
Article: 17th August 2015 www.theguardian.com

Liverpool in the UK needs to recruit more sperm donors

Liverpool’s sperm bank is running dry due to a drought of willing donors.
Rule changes mean men who donate sperm can no longer hide their identities and are not paid. This has “decimated” the number of willing volunteers, according to Prof Charles Kingsland, founder of the Hewitt Fertility Centre in Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
Prof Kingsland said there is a growing need for sperm donors, but around another 200 men need to sign up in Liverpool for fertility experts to keep pace with demand. Prof Kingsland said: “The law changed so that a child has a right to know their genetic parent and donors cannot be paid for their service.
“Unsurprisingly, that decimated our sperm donation programme. It had a devastating impact. “Who is going to donate if you do not get paid and you are not allowed to remain anonymous?”
The law changed in 2006 to allow children fathered by sperm donors to track down their biological dad once they turn 18. The number of donors coming forward has fallen steadily ever since.
Prof Kingsland, a professor of reproductive medicine and a consultant gynaecologist, said: “The whole process has become much more difficult, but the demand has not gone away.
“We are now seeing more people importing sperm from overseas. The sperm donation capital is Denmark. “They have a whole industry over there because the laws covering anonymity are different and donors can be paid more money.”
The Hewitt Fertility Centre is now appealing for more donors to come forward. Prof Kingsland said: “We need healthy Liverpudlian males who may wish to consider this to help people who are in a position where they need sperm donation.
“We have the Hewitt Fertility Centre here in our city, a huge internationally renowned service, but we just can’t get the number of donors.”
He continued: “Liverpudlians are legendarily generous and if anywhere should suffer from a shortage of donors, it shouldn’t be here.”
The shortage of donors places massive mental strain on the families desperate to start a family. Prof Kingsland said: “Not being able to find a donor takes a big psychological toll. “The rules now mean waiting times are inevitably protracted and demand far outstrips supply.”
The primary recipients of donor sperm are heterosexual couples suffering from male infertility, lesbian couples and single women.
When straight couples opt to use a sperm donor, rigorous testing is carried out to find a donor with similar physical characteristics to the male partner.
Donors must also be rigorously screened for diseases, genetic defects and other health problems to ensure the children are born as healthy as possible.
Article: 15th August 2015 www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

NHS national sperm bank recruits just five sperm donors

The first NHS sperm bank was set up last year in Birmingham to help recruit sperm donors and help with the national shortage. Unfortunately it has emerged that only five donors have passed the screening process since October last year.
Despite being inundated with calls when the NHS-funded was first set up, strict profiling and medical screening procedures mean that only around one in 20 potential donors are eventually accepted.
Demand for fertility treatment with donated sperm is rising steadily in the UK but fertility experts say a shortage of donors is particularly acute in the Muslim community and other ethnic and religious groups.
Birmingham was chosen as the site for the unit because of central location and large population as well as its diverse ethnic make-up. More than 100 men have been screened as possible donors but so far only about five have been cleared, according to leading figures.
Dr Sue Avery, Director of the Birmingham Women's Fertility Centre, who helped found the National Sperm Bank, said: “We have to see and screen an awful lot of people to ultimately recruit one donor.
“One of the of the bits of the learning curve we are going through is to make sure that what we are now doing is to look at more targeted publicity rather than a broad spectrum.”
She explained that many initial contacts are screened out because of personal factors including age and medical history before tests are run for genetic predisposition to certain conditions.
Even then only those with a significantly higher sperm count than average are deemed eligible because of the need to dilute the sample for freezing, which kills off some of the sperm.
“If you think about all of those hurdles then we get relatively few that we can move on to the donation process at the end of it,” she said She explained that the shortage of donors is felt most acutely among some minority groups including the Asian and Muslim communities. “People want sperm donors from the same cultural background and particularly the same religious background,” she said.
“We have a difficulty where we have people from a religious background where the religious teaching – depending on which teaching you accept – suggests that being a sperm donor or having donated sperm is outside of the religion.
“And yet these people still need donor sperm and often are under cultural pressure to have children.” But despite the challenges, the clinic's founder, Dr Laura Witjens said last week that she hoped the centre will have “solved the national crisis” within the next three to five years.
Dr Avery added: “I think we hope to achieve a situation where everyone here in the UK who wants donor sperm will have access to an appropriate donor.
“So there is an existing donor bank here, we are looking to add to that and by targeting recruitment try to relieve the situation of inequality where people from different backgrounds have greater or less difficulty.”
Article: 7th July 2015 Pride Angel

Choosing a private sperm donor, is it the right decision?

So you have come to the decision that you are not going to meet Mr Right any time soon, or in the case of lesbian couples you have already met Mrs Right and you really want to start a family. Is a fertility clinic right for you... What are your options you may ask? A fertility clinic seems to be the right option but something is niggling inside of you saying 'do I really have to pay thousands of pounds or dollars to get a child of my own?' 'do I want to pick a sperm donor from a long list just based on eye colour or haircolour' 'what if I met him and I didn't even like him' or 'I really don't like the idea of spreading my legs in a fertility clinic!' or if you are in a lesbian couple you may have talked about 'wanting the conception to be a joint loving experience'. Finding a sperm donor through the internet... Well you are certainly not alone in having these thoughts, as many more people are turning to the internet and sperm donor websites to find their ideal genetic material for their future child. Leading connection website Pride Angel now has been than 36,000 members registered worldwide. So the web is certainly giving options to people, which they never previously had. Are private sperm donors safe... The concern many people have is that of how finding your own donor works and ultimately is it safe? We are often bomarded by the media about how bad and dangerous it is to find a donor from a website. With messages being given to us about 'sperm donors only being interested in sex' and 'prolific sperm donors having hundreds of children' or 'sperm donors carrying sexually transmitted diseases and genetic disorders' These negative messages breed fear and lead us running back to the safety net of regulated fertility clinics. Benefits to choosing your own donor ... So are these fears justified or is it just media hype. The truth is that there is always an element of risk in every choice we make, but armed with this knowledge it is possible to benefit from all advantages of finding your own donor and at the same time limit the possibility of anything going wrong. So what are the main benefits of finding your own donor and how can you keep yourself and your future child safe at the same time? Firstly finding a donor through a website puts you in control of picking the characteristics and personality traits of your donor and 50% genetics of your child. It means that you can keep in contact if you choose, and your child can get to know more about them before they reach age 18. If you prefer not to stay in touch, at least you have more info to tell your child as and when they ask questions. It means you can use fresh sperm (better chance of getting pregnant) and be flexible with your donor and fit around your fertility window. With the added benefit that it may certainly save you a packet of money which you can spend on your child instead. Read more about how you can help minimise the risks of using a private sperm donor by getting health screening and legal advice. Start your search of thousands of sperm donors for free now Article: 20th May 2015 www.prideangel.com

Single mum went to Danish sperm bank for Blonde blue eyed baby

As Jessica McCallin smiles down at her little girl, there is no mistaking the family resemblance. The pair share the same fair hair, blue eyes and broad smile – which makes it even more remarkable that three-year-old Freya was conceived using a sperm donor almost 800 miles away in Denmark and Jessica has absolutely no idea who the father is. Far from being unusual, hers is a decision that increasing numbers of British women are making. Approaching 40, single and with her body clock ticking, Jessica knew time was running out for her to become a mother. So she decided that the answer was to spend £480 on sperm from a Danish donor. “Being a single mother wasn’t what I wanted, hoped for or dreamt of. But not being a mother was unendurable,” says Jessica, 40. With a growing demand from British women for donor fathers and lack of red tape in Scandanavia compared to the UK, sales of Danish sperm are soaring, with the European Sperm Bank, one of the largest in Denmark, reporting a 20% surge in online sales to the UK in the last year. For Jessica the decision made perfect sense. “I chose to use a Danish donor because I knew the characteristics of the child would be similar to mine. People always ask me if I’m Swedish and a lot of the research I read said it can help if the child looks as much like you as possible. I know my family originates from the north of England, which was once conquered by the Norsemen, so it’s reasonable to assume I have Scandinavian ancestry. The Viking aspect had a certain appeal.” Coupled with the fact that there simply aren’t enough donors in the UK to meet demand, or the same level of clinical infrastructure, it is little wonder that Danish sperm now accounts for a third of the total used in the UK. Sperm, along with beer and Lego, has become one of Denmark’s top exports and Freya could soon have more in common with her peers than previously might have been expected. “With more and more women seeking Danish sperm, there’s going to be lots of children with Danish ancestry about,” says Jessica. “I think it’s something that’s going to become reasonably common and also more socially acceptable.” Jessica, who, by coincidence, lives in Denmark Hill, South London, had always wanted children. But it wasn’t until she hit her 30s that she realised that, as a single woman, her options for carrying a baby were limited. “I didn’t really think about starting a family in my 20s, but when I got to 32 I knew I wanted to do it,” she says. “There were no significant men in my life – my most serious relationship was in my 20s and we did talk about children but that all fell apart when I was 28. I have some gay friends who always said if no one came along we could have a child together, but for various reasons they weren’t quite ready when I was.” As her 35th birthday came and went, Jessica found herself reading articles about female fertility dropping after that age. It was then that she began researching the possibility of using donor sperm and discussed the idea with family and friends. “It was a Danish friend who suggested I go to Denmark. I had overwhelming support from family and friends and I was quite surprised about that,” says Jessica, a writer. “Everyone was extremely supportive with the exception of one friend who felt children need fathers – the others all thought I was worrying too much about the absence of a father.” It wasn’t just that playing on Jessica’s mind, however. She knew that if she used a Danish donor then her baby would never even know his name. Sperm donors in Denmark have a legal right to remain anonymous and can’t be traced, whereas in the UK a law was passed in 2005 saying a donor may be contacted by their offspring when they turn 18. The change sent the number of donors plummeting. “It was the complete black hole in a child’s life about never knowing the name of the father that worried me,” says Jessica. “But I came to the conclusion that knowing the name of the donor wouldn’t necessarily help because I had read that it can be a disappointment for donor children who do trace and meet their fathers because they’ve built up an image in their mind then the man turns about to be nothing like the person they expected, so they feel let down.” Despite her concerns, Jessica decided the time was right to become a mother. “I’ve always pretty much been single and I’ve never lived with anyone. It was normal for me. I was ready to have a baby and didn’t mind doing it on my own.” So, in June 2010, as a 36th birthday present to herself, Jessica travelled to Copenhagen to be inseminated with sperm from an anonymous donor. She says: “Although friends and family offered to come with me, I went on my own because when you track your ovulation you only know the “right” time at the last minute, so there wasn’t much notice. “The process was incredibly straightforward. I contacted the clinic, they sent me a questionnaire and conducted a phone interview to be sure I knew what I was doing and had thought it through and that was it. I paid £480 for the sperm and it cost around £1,000 in total for my two-day stay including travel. I was confident I’d considered enough of the issues and was very excited.” Although she had access to her donor’s profile, Jessica chose not to see it. She says: “I know nothing about him other than he’s a young Danish man screened for major genetic diseases and has fast swimming sperm. The clinics have basic information about the donors like their job but I didn’t ask for this because I don’t feel that it tells you anything meaningful about a person. With everyone in my family being tall, fair and with blue or green eyes, I just asked for a donor with a similar profile.” Knowing the chances were that insemination wouldn’t work the first time, Jessica had prepared herself for several trips to Denmark – trips she never needed to make. “I know it sounds silly but I just knew the insemination had worked the afternoon after they had done it. I wasn’t surprised when the pregnancy test was positive and I was absolutely delighted.” Jessica’s excitement was shared by her mother, father, brother and three younger sisters who all helped out during the pregnancy. Read more...

Should you opt for anonymous or open sperm donors?

Should you opt for anonymous, or non-anonymous sperm donors? And should you tell your child how they were conceived? For most it’s an agonising decision, writes Helen O’Callaghan. “Anonymous means the donor will never know who you are and you will never be able to contact or communicate with him. A non-anonymous donor will never be able to track you down but your child can make contact through the sperm bank when they reach 18,” explains Declan Keane, senior embryologist and director of ReproMed. Last year his clinic (most Irish clinics source sperm mainly from Denmark) saw a 49% increase in women going for IUI (intrauterine insemination) using donor sperm. Of donor sperm cycles, three out of four involved lesbian couples and single women. “The majority of single women and lesbian couples go for known donors. They want their child to at least have the choice to communicate [with donor in future]. Fifty percent of heterosexual couples reserve that choice too — the other half say ‘no, this is our child’.” Ann Bracken, counselling psychotherapist at Sims IVF — where 157 women used donor sperm last year — says those opting for non-anonymous donors want to give the adult child choices in the future around accessing their genetic heritage. “Some parents feel there’s nothing to hide.” Helen Browne, co-founder of NISIG (National Infertility Support and Information Group) hopes most parents of donor-conceived babies tell children about their origins. She recalls the mum who envisaged secondary school science sufficiently advanced 12 years hence for her daughter to discover the truth in the classroom. “She could take her father’s and her mother’s hair from the comb and do DNA at school,” this mother told Browne. “She’s so right!” exclaims Browne. “This is why honesty is so important.” So why don’t parents tell? “They fear rejection as a parent. They fear their child will be picked on at school. There’s an element of getting on with life and ‘putting it behind us’. They’ve carried the baby, it’s part of them and they forget,” says Browne, who believes it’s in the child’s best interests to be told “and so it’s not a secret that parents hold all their lives”. In the UK, anybody born through donation after April 2005 is entitled to request and receive their donor’s name and last known address, once they reach 18. Read more... Alternatively many more people are choosing to find known sperm donors through connection websites such as www.prideangel.com

Can sperm donors sign their rights away to being fathers?

California legislators are hoping to make resolving the tricky issue of parental rights as easy as filling out a form. Want to make sure a sperm donor can’t claim to be a father? Check here. And vice versa. Or at least that’s the hope of the “Modern Family Act.” But can you really check a box to sign away your rights to a child? Perhaps, but it’s probably not going to be that easy. These days, the increasing prevalence of sperm donors, egg donors and even surrogate mothers often result in thorny legal battles over who is really the parent. The bill, introduced by San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D), was inspired in part by the high-profile legal battle involving “Lost Boys” actor Jason Patric, who helped a former girlfriend have a child through artificial insemination, using his sperm. The problems is: Patric claims to have developed a father-like relationship with the boy, and he wants parental rights to the child. Last week, a California appeals court upheld his ability to claim those rights. The bad news for people like Patric’s former girlfriend, Danielle Schreiber, is that California’s new proposed law might not actually have changed the outcome of this case, according to Georgetown Law Professor Jeffrey Shulman. “The bottom line is that a written agreement still may not work if the sperm donor is encouraged to form a parent-like relationship with the child,” Shulman said. “There are constitutional law issues, federal constitutional law issues and a line of cases that grant biological fathers right to their children if they have acted like fathers.” Carlos Alcala, a spokesman for Ammiano, says that the bill isn’t intended to resolve all parental rights questions, but it might prevent some painful legal battles in many cases. Article: 20th May 2014 www.washingtonpost.com Read more about being a known sperm donor at www.prideangel.com

Friends who met at college discover they have the same sperm donor father

Mikayla told the Tulane Hullabaloo that she first made contact with Emily last summer while searching for a possible roommate on Facebook. 'There was an online survey, and we were both interested in Wall [Residential College],' Mikayla said. 'I was looking at the survey, and I was looking at Emily’s answers and I saw that we had a lot in common.' By then, Emily had already secured a roommate but the two continued to talk and became fast friends when they met in person on the New Orleans, Louisiana campus this fall. Both quickly figured out that they were conceived by a donation from an anonymous donor. But neither thought much of it, even when they figured out that both of their donors were Colombian. Mikayla's lesbian mothers Heidi and Debra Stern-Ellis used an anonymous sperm donor to have their daughter two decades ago. When the girls went home for winter break, Mikayla told her moms about her new friend with whom she had so much in common. Mikayla's mother Heidi remembers looking through the donor list two decades ago and while there were some 1,000 donors on the list, she doesn't remember any others with Colombian ethnicity. After seeing pictures of Emily, and remarking on how much she looked like her own daughter, she told Mikayla to text the girl asking for the sperm donor's number. Emily sent the number and it was a match, completely taking the two girls by surprise since they had been joking to schoolmates that there was a '25 per cent chance we're sisters'. Following the life-changing realization, the interests the girls shared before make much more sense. Both will perform in Tulane's upcoming production of the Vagina Monologues which means they may be taking after their father who listed drama as one of his interests on his donor profile. They also share the same mind when it comes to fashion, both buying the same fleece sweater without the other one knowing on Black Friday. For Mikayla, finding her half-sister in a college friend is proof that she's at the right school. 'For me Tulane just felt right, and this is one of the many things that proves I made the right decision,' Mikayla Stern-Ellis said. 'We thought [going to Tulane] she’d just find an education, but she found a sister,' mother Debra Stern-Ellis said. The two have since changed their Facebook profile pictures to an image of them hugging. After posting the picture on her profile, Mikayla wrote: 'An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, and circumstance.' Article: 21st January 2013 www.dailymail.co.uk

Australian donors split over past change in anonymity law

People who donated sperm and eggs before 1998 in one Australian state were able to remain anonymous, but potential new laws could have changed that. A recent study found those donors were split on the idea of possible contact from their donor children. Victoria, Australia introduced legislation to ban anonymous sperm and egg donation in 1998. "This means that donor-conceived children who were born after 1998 have a legal right to access information about their donor," Karin Hammarberg told Reuters Health by email. Hammarberg is a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne. It was also suggested that the government change the law to allow everyone conceived through sperm and egg donations to find information about their donor - including pre-1998 donors who thought they could stay anonymous, she said. But before deciding, the government wanted to ask people who donated in the past how they would feel about no longer being anonymous, and reached About half of the donors who rejected the recommendation were themselves willing to supply information to their donor offspring. They suggested the compromise of persuading donors to voluntarily release information to donor-conceived people. Many of them also thought parents should be encouraged to tell their children about their donor conception, and some thought it should be required. It's impossible to know if the views of these 42 donors represent the views of all Australians who donated eggs or sperm before 1998, the researchers noted. In August 2013, the Victorian government considered the survey findings. Although acknowledging the right of donor-conceived people to have information about their donors, the government decided identifying information should only be released with a donor's consent. "The balancing of donors' and donor-conceived people's rights requires utmost sensitivity. All over the world, increasing numbers of donor-conceived people are reaching adulthood. Of those who have been told that they were conceived with the help of a donor, some are likely to have a strong wish to know the identity of their donors," Hammarberg said. Read more ... Article: 23rd December 2013 www.reuters.com

'Generation Cyro' MTV reality series follows sperm donor kids

The MTV reality series Generation Cyro, premiering Monday, follows teenagers conceived via sperm donor searching for their half-siblings and donor parents. Marlow Stern spoke with several of the teens featured on the show, as well as the head of the Donor Sibling Registry (DSR), about life as donor children. Generation Cryo was green-lit two years ago in the wake of the great sperm donor craze of 2010, which saw films like The Kids Are All Right, The Switch, and The Backup Plan tackle the topic of donor insemination, which in turn led to a bevy of media coverage. And, as LGBT equality becomes increasingly the cultural norm, we’ll be seeing more and more families with same-sex parents, and more and more of these same-sex families turning to donor insemination. According to recent studies, 40 percent of same sex couples between the ages of 22 and 55 are raising children, but only about 5 percent of those kids are adopted. Generation Cryo doesn’t explore the larger issues, instead opting for a more personal approach. The show follows Breeanna—or Bree, for short—a 17-year-old native of Reno, Nevada. Bree’s a slightly introverted young woman with piercings. Through a combination of real-life scenes and Real World-esque testimonials, we learn that she was raised primarily by her two lesbian moms, and that she’s very eager to connect with not only her half-siblings, but find out who her donor was. So, Bree logs on to the DSR and discovers she has (at least) 15 half-siblings under donor #1096. The first half-siblings she connects with are a brother-sister combo in Atlanta, Georgia, who are both 17 as well. They go by the names Jonah and Hilit, and are very laid-back. They’re also practicing Jews, which comes as a bit of a shock to Bree. They get along famously, and welcome Bree into their home. After a few days, Bree even feels comfortable enough around them to come out as a lesbian, and admits she’s been too scared or unprepared to date a girl yet. The three seem, in the show, to share a bond with one another. They see physical similarities, as well. “We actually have cut-outs of eyes, noses, and mouths of different siblings, and we’ve been piecing them together to see whose look like one another’s,” Jonah tells The Daily Beast. According to Hilit, Bree and Jonah’s eyes are virtually identical. Article: 25th November 2013 www.thedailybeast.com Watch the trailer now at www.mtv.com

Babies from donor sperm in USA are big business

Todd Whitehurst was a young grad student at Stanford when he began donating sperm to pay his way through school. “I went about 3.5 years, two or three times a week,” said Whitehurst, who estimated he’d raked in more than $12,000. Then six years ago, Whitehurst, 48, married with children and living in Los Gatos, Calif., was contacted by a 14-year-old girl who said she was his daughter and that she had obtained his information from the cryobank he’d visited. “My first reaction was just to be stunned,” Whitehurst said. “I would say I was kind of shocked at first but really happy about it overall.” With more than 300 sperm banks expected to rake in a third of $1 billion this year, sperm donation births are a big business in the United States. ABC News learned of at least five individuals who had fathered more than 100 children and one individual who had fathered nearly 200. “It’s the wild, wild west of regulation,” said Deborah Spar, president of Barnard College and author of “The Baby Business.” “There’s essentially no sheriff in town. There’s virtually no regulation in this area, which has become quite large, quite lucrative and is literally involved in the most intimate area of people’s lives.” Sperm banks test for about a half-dozen diseases, including HIV, but there are many more, such as diabetes, that they don’t. There is no genetic testing and there is no limit on the number of children a donor can father, Spar said. In other countries, however, there are legal limits on the number of children a sperm donor can have — in the U.K., it’s 10 — and children have a right to know who their biological fathers are and be able to obtain his health records. “In England and most of Europe, it’s illegal to have anonymous sperm donation,” Spar said. In the U.S. where there are more than 2 million children born from donated sperm, there are no official records that connect them to their biological fathers. The private Donor Sibling Registry allows them to connect to their fathers and to their half-siblings, with their permission. In 13 years, the registry says more than 10,000 donors and children or siblings have connected to one another. Article: 6th November 2013 www.abcnews.go.com Read more about known sperm donation in US, Canada, Europe, Australia and UK at www.prideangel.com

China sperm bank boosts donor payments to increase stocks

The Henan Provincial Human Sperm Bank has offered cash payments of up to 5,000 yuan ($817) for donors, according to a notice on its Sina Weibo on Sunday, though the entire process takes around eight months. Demand is high due to an increasing number of people with fertility problems coupled with limited stocks of sperm, the head of the sperm bank told the Global Times on Monday. The 5,000 yuan subsidy pays for things like losing income and appropriate nutrition, according to Li Yushan, the director of the bank. At the very beginning of the donation process, donors are given 50 yuan for each donation. After they donate three or four times, qualified donors are given 200 yuan for each donation. They also need to undergo tests for Hepatitis B and syphilis. A successful volunteer needs to donate sperm 10 or 15 times, Li said. Around six months after the donations, donors need to take an HIV examination and will receive a final payment of 1,500 yuan. The total payments amount to 5,000 yuan, Li said. The candidates should be aged between 22 and 45, be healthy and have no genetic diseases. They should be at least 1.7 meters tall and have a diploma in technical secondary school or above. Li said that while the diplomas do not relate directly to the quality of a donor’s genes, clients insisted upon the requirement. After the notice was issued there were around 50 donations a day, twice the amount during the summer holidays. The total number of donors stood at around 1,200 between January and September, Li said. “About 90 percent of the donors are college students. They are young, energetic and find it easy to accept new things. And most of them have no bad lifestyle habits and no sex lives, and their time is flexible,” Li said. Some donated sperm are provided to reproductive centers to be used in assisted reproductive technology while some are used in medical research and some are frozen for donors for up to 30 years, in case they become infertile. Across the country, many of the 16 banks urgently require donated sperm due to increasing numbers of infertile people. Although medical technology has advanced, the quality of sperm has declined in recent years to some degree, Li said, adding that this is due to a number of factors including pollution, working pressure and unhealthy living habits. Statistics published by Lei Fang, former head of the second affiliated hospital of Zhengzhou University in Henan Province, show that there were about 40 million people with fertility problems in China among those aged between 20 and 40 in the past 20 years, the Dahe Daily reported. Article: 24th September 2013 www.nznews.com

Survivor star may have fathered over 200 children

No, Richard Hatch is not starring in Delivery Man, the upcoming comedy about a sperm donor who learns he's fathered more than 533 children at a fertility clinic. That would be Vince Vaughn (see the trailer below). However, the guy who won the first-ever edition of CBS' Survivor 13 years ago may have begot as many as 200 children—in his case, by donating sperm week after week to the Cryobank sperm bank in Fairfax, Va., over a two-year period during his college days because he was in need of cash. "I did it for two years, about two or three times a week," Hatch told Inside Edition about his stint at Virginia's George Mason University. It turns out the reality star was as free with his DNA as he was walking the beaches of Borneo in his birthday suit. Hatch acknowledged that he made several hundred deposits at his local sperm bank that netted him $30 a donation, which, if one does the math, could mean he might have fathered dozens, if not, a couple of hundred kids during that span. While there's no telling exactly how many offspring might be running around, word of his paternity got out when the news magazine interviewed him as he met two of the biological children he fathered—Emily Kidd and Devin O'Neill, both 24. Apparently, the two were able to track down the Castaway with the help of information from their mothers and a website called the Donor Sibling Registry, which listed him as a 6'4" educated Swede. At which point, O'Neill said he emailed Hatch inquiring about paternity while Kidd's mom subsequently confirmed that the erstwhile corporate trainer turned convicted tax dodger was indeed her dad. And upon hearing it was Hatch, Emily recalled watching the first season of Survivor so long ago. "I didn't remember much from when I was 11, but I do remember the naked man and the hype of it," she remarked. As for Devin, he had no clue of the Rhode Island native's past life on Survivor or The Apprentice for that matter. Hatch, who's gay, has one son whom he adopted in 1998. The latter currently lives in Newport with his dad and Richard's partner, Emiliano, whom Hatch married in 2005. As far as meeting the children whom he fathered through the sperm bank, the reality star told Inside Edition that he's up for getting to know them better, though he has no intention of taking the place of the fathers who raised them. "It's an exciting time. It's a great time," he said. Article: 15th September 2013 www.uk.eonline.com

Hollywood sperm donor fights for parental rights to see his son

An unusual battle is developing in the state capital as a Hollywood father fights for parental rights. That dad says he was more than just a sperm donor, but hasn't seen the child in months. Men who sell their sperm to a sperm bank lose all parental rights, but what if he gives it to someone he knows? Is he a donor or a dad? Jason Patric is an actor from the 1987 teen vampire film "Lost Boys". On Wednesday Patric told us, "My son was stolen, was taken away." Now he has a starring role in what could be a reality show. The 47-year-old is in Sacramento lobbying politicians for a proposal that allows the law to define him as a dad. A court has already ruled he's just a sperm donor. "Because you're a donor, you are not allowed to prove in any other statute or any other way, you're a parent, even though I'm the biological father," said Patric. Patric's drama started when he and his former girlfriend, Danielle Schreiber, agreed to have a child through artificial insemination. He was even a part of his son's life for more than two years. The actor could have been considered the legal father if a signed agreement granting him that status was in place prior to conception. After a split and no legally binding contract in place, he lost custody and hasn't seen the now 3-year-old for months. St. Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, doesn't like what he calls "the Hollywood circus" his bill has created. He just wants to help men and same-sex couples who have been in that situation. "Because of the PR hype, it has lost its focus. To me the focus is parenting. What's in the best interest of the child?" said Hill. Calls to Schreiber's Sacramento representative were not returned, but the California Cryobank is also opposed to changing the 25-year-old law that protects birth mothers from custody battles. Alice Crisci, who is eight months pregnant through an anonymous donor, says we shouldn't get in the middle of a court battle. "The reality is he's seeking to impact a few number of men that then disrupts tens of thousands of families. That seems like an irresponsible use of creating new laws," said Crisci. Patric insists Hill's proposal just gives him and others a fighting chance to be part of their child's life. "This doesn't give you your son back, your daughter back. It gives you the opportunity to go to court and present your evidence," said Patric. Schreiber attorney recently told ABC7 News they hope lawmakers do not interfere with the rights they were promised. Article: 7th August 2013 www.abclocal.go.com Read more about sperm donor law in the UK at www.prideangel.com

Sperm donor to pay child support after donating by natural insemination

A UK man who donated sperm to a married woman he met via a sperm donor website has been ordered to pay child support. The pair met via a website advertising sperm donors and started trying to conceive artificially, before they began an affair. The High Court heard evidence from both sides and rejected the man’s evidence that the couple only started having sex after the child was conceived, finding that the child was conceived through ‘natural insemination’ – in other words sexual intercourse – rather than through artificial insemination. This meant that the donor was not legally a sperm donor, and so like any other biological father was liable to pay child support. In a rare move for a children case, he was also ordered to pay all the legal costs of the woman’s husband and three quarter’s of the woman’s legal costs, since the court decided he had not told the truth. What makes a legal sperm donor? Men who agree to donate their sperm are not protected from financial responsibilities just because they agree this with the birth mother or describe themselves as a donor. They are only sheltered from financial claims if they: 1) donate via a UK licensed clinic, or 2) donate by artificial insemination to a married or civilly partnered couple, with the consent of both partners. In this case, the birth mother was married. Had the court decided that conception took place by artificial insemination, it would next have had to determine whether the birth mother’s husband consented (and if so he, rather than the sperm donor, would have been the child’s legal father). However, given that conception occurred through intercourse, there was no need to go to the next step, and the sperm donor was financially responsible. Lessons for other sperm donors The case shows the risks of conceiving through donation outside the framework of regulated treatment at clinics. It’s been an expensive lesson for the donor in this case. Other men considering donating via websites should be clear about how the law works, and whether their plans might put them on the hook financially. If they donate via ‘NI’ they can forget any legal protection whatsoever. There is more information about known sperm donation on our website. You can read the judgment in this case in full here. Article: 1st August 2013 www.nataliegambleassociates.co.uk

The single women who wish their sperm donor children knew their fathers

There is no doubt Freya McCallin was a wanted child. That she will always be loved unconditionally by her mum and large extended family is also incontrovertible. But there is another significant truth about Freya: she will never know her genetic father. Indeed, as Freya’s mum Jessica travelled to Copenhagen from her home in South London to be inseminated with the donor sperm that produced her daughter, this omission from her child’s family tree was the one concern that preyed upon her mind. For sperm donors in Denmark — unlike those in the UK who may be contacted by their offspring when they reach 18 — have a legal right to remain anonymous. Men who donate sperm there can’t be traced by any potential offspring. This explains why the sperm donation industry in Denmark is the largest in the world, and why increasing numbers of British women are travelling there to undergo the quick and relatively inexpensive procedure that endows them with the greatest gift of all: creating a new life. It also helps to explain why, because of seismic shifts in Britain’s fertility landscape — highlighted in last week’s Femail magazine cover story — the shape and make-up of our nation’s families is changing irrevocably. 'My concern is that the need to know who your father is, even if he has no meaningful role in your life' Today, in part two of our investigation, we examine some of these new ‘diverse’ families, and speak to the single mothers — all professionals with degrees — who are raising donor children without fathers. In last week’s dispatch, we interviewed educated women who have remained childless; either from choice or because they deferred motherhood in favour of their careers, only to find out they had passed the age of fertility. As our report showed, the consequences have been dramatic: middle-class Britain is having fewer and fewer children, with larger families increasingly the preserve of the poorer and disadvantaged. But the rise in middle-class women remaining childless is not the only factor at work here. Since 2008, when the law changed to allow single women to be donor inseminated, small, self-contained and fatherless family units like Jessica and Freya’s are burgeoning. There are now two million lone-parent families in the UK — they account for one in four of the nation’s families — and rising numbers of them are headed by educated, middle-class women. Many of these, forced by the ticking of their biological clocks and their failure to find the right partner, have procreated by non-traditional methods such as sperm donation, egg donation and IVF. Because typically these women are deferring motherhood until they are 35 when their fertility is in perilous decline, they are often having just one child. It is also financially very exacting to raise a child alone. That is another reason why Middle England is producing fewer offspring. And why, conversely, poorer households — because benefits rise in line with the size of their family — who have relatively little to gain from limiting their fertility, are growing. But what will be the emotional fall-out for this new generation of donor children who grow up without knowing their fathers? This is one of the great imponderables in this brave new world of diverse families. ‘The urge to discover our roots and our relationship with those who have provided half of our DNA is elemental, says Adrienne Burgess, joint CEO of the Fatherhood Institute. ‘The literature is clear: some donor children are haunted by their situation and go searching.’ Jessica McCallin, a writer and broadcaster from South-East London, chose a Danish donor for her daughter Freya because her family originates from the north of England, an area conquered by the Norsemen, and it seemed reasonable to assume she had Scandinavian ancestry. She knew it would also be helpful to her child if she shared her blonde hair and blue eyes — as indeed Freya does. 'Not a day goes by when I don’t agonise about the consequences of my actions' Whether her daughter will be troubled by not knowing her father’s identity, she cannot say. Read more... Article: 8th May 2013 www.dailymail.co.uk

Ontario sperm donor and lesbian couple in dispute, settle out of court

A sperm donor and lesbian couple from Ontario Canada who have been fighting over custody of their two year old son, have suddenly settled their case, after months of litigation and shortly before a scheduled trial. The man had signed an agreement that he would have nothing to do with his genetic offspring. But he had second thoughts after the baby was born, felt the biological mother had reneged on her part of their deal and asked the courts to recognize him as the father, providing liberal access. The suit, whose parties cannot be named under the terms of a publication ban, has now been effectively withdrawn. ‘It is always better for litigants to come to a resolution on their own’ “This is certainly the right outcome for this loving, bonded and stable family,” Michelle Flowerday, the couple’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement. “It is always better for litigants to come to a resolution on their own, as opposed to having one imposed upon them by the court.” The fact that the courts will not rule on the dispute, however, leaves a gap in the law in Ontario and other provinces, she said. There is a growing national movement to make clear that donating sperm does not equate to being a parent, but only B.C., Alberta and Quebec have enshrined the idea in their legislation, said Ms. Flowerday. The donor and his lawyer could not be reached for comment. Growing numbers of children are being born in Canada as a result of in-vitro fertilization and other forms of “assisted” reproduction. When donations are obtained anonymously from sperm banks, and in the few provinces with laws that directly address the issue, parenthood is generally uncontested. Where couples and single people make arrangements with sperm donors they know, however, the rights of the various parties remain largely unresolved. The northern Ontario dispute boasted the most clear-cut set of facts of any to reach the courts, making it an ideal legal testing ground. A trial was scheduled for this summer. The donor was a high-school acquaintance of the biological mother, and initially agreed to bear a child for him, as well, if he agreed to provide his sperm. The actual agreement he signed, though, did not mention that part of their arrangement. He went to court after the boy was born, saying that he had felt pressured by the mother and that she now appeared unwilling to have a baby for him. But then, at a meeting last week, the parties agreed to a declaration that the two women are the child’s parents and the donor is not his father, according to an order issued by Justice Gregory Ellies of the Ontario Superior Court. ‘I don’t think anybody wants to be a test case’ The document also includes a restraining order preventing him from having contact with the child or the two women. In exchange, though, he and his parents have the right to one meeting of at least an hour in a public place, with an agreed-upon third party observing. The donor and his parents “may not initiate physical contact” with the boy, and cannot take photographs or video. As well, the man and his parents are barred from identifying themselves as the child’s father or grandparents, said the order. “I don’t think anybody wants to be a test case,” noted Fiona Kelly, a University of British Columbia law professor who studies the field, about the settlement. The lack of a ruling, however, means continued ambiguity in the majority of provinces that lack laws like one recently enacted in B.C., she said. That legislation says being a sperm donor does not in itself make someone a father. Article: 13th April 2013 www.news.nationalpost.com Read more about using a known sperm donor in the UK at www.prideangel.com

Sperm donor mum tracks down son's global siblings

With their similarly shaped faces and shared blond hair and blue eyes, it’s easy to guess that the three boys are brothers. But Max Silverwood and half-brothers Liam and Grant come from three different families – and have nine other siblings around the world. Their remarkable global ‘family’ has emerged after six-year-old Max’s mother Ellie Silverwood tracked down the other offspring of the sperm donor she used. The only information she had for the anonymous man was that he is Danish and had the donor alias ‘Dane 1421’. Miss Silverwood, from Oxford, conceived Max with a donor because her now ex-husband was unable to have children. As her son grew, she began to wonder more and more about what Max’s siblings might look like if he had any. She joined the Donor Sibling Registry, a US-based website which allows families of donor children to locate each other, registering her interest in contacting anyone related to Dane 1421. In the next two years, she received messages from nine families, who between them had eight boys – including Grant, four, and Liam, five – and three girls, all conceived by the Dane. They live as far afield as the US and Australia. Max is the oldest; the youngest is four. ‘One of the first people to contact me was Liam’s mother, Mary,’ said Miss Silverwood, a retail buyer. ‘She emailed me a picture of Liam and I burst into tears when I saw it. He was the spitting image of Max. I was really happy and excited.’ The first face-to-face meeting came when she and Max flew to Texas to spend Christmas with Grant and Liam, who have different mothers. Ellie Silverwood and her son Max, age 6, from Abingdon. Ellie conceived via sperm donor and she has tracked down 12 half siblings to her own son Miss Silverwood said: ‘It was hugely emotional for myself and Grant’s and Liam’s families to see the boys together. ‘The similarities are uncanny. They all share what must be their father’s hair, distinctive shaped eyes, eye colour, head shape and noses. They also have the same outgoing sparky characters – and they all loved playing Angry Birds. ‘Us mothers became quite emotional thinking about the man responsible for giving us our wonderful children. All I could think was surely he would be bursting with pride if he could see them.’ She chose a donor from Denmark because far more information is given there about fathers than in the UK, where it is limited to height, hair and eye colour. As well as a full family medical history going back two generations, information on personality was also available. She found Dane 1421 via a New York-based agency called Scandinavian Cryobank. He stood out on their list of 30 possible donors: he is 6ft, blond, blue-eyed, speaks four languages, has two degrees and plays the saxophone – and she also learned his favourite car is an Aston Martin Vantage V8. She said: ‘But what really set him apart was he’d written how he and his wife made the decision for him to donate because his own two sons were such a joy. ‘He described his love for his wife, and referred to his children as “his treasures” which I thought was wonderful. ‘I liked the fact this was an educated man who had come to a decision with his wife to help childless couples.’ With the help of a fertility clinic, she imported the sperm under licence from regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Miss Silverwood – who was married at the time of Max’s birth – said: ‘As he started to grow up and his personality started to come through, I found myself wondering about the donor more, particularly his two children. ‘I used to wonder if his sons looked like Max, and whether they were sporty and bright and funny like Max.’ In 2008, she paid to register with the Donor Sibling Registry. ‘Max had always wanted a brother or sister, and talked about it from as soon as he could speak,’ she said. ‘I would have loved to have another child from the same donor, but Dane 1421 was no longer donating.’ Max has spoken on the phone with two other half-brothers, Tristan in California and Nicholas in New York. Miss Silverwood hopes all 12 will get together soon, possibly in Disneyland. She said: ‘Max knows a special man in Denmark with the help of special doctors helped his mummy and these other mummies have their lovely children. Finding them has been a fantastic adventure for both of us.’ Article: 26th February 2013 www.dailymail.co.uk

TV company wants to hear from sperm donors and recipients, can you help?

Seneca Productions is a television production company based in London, UK. We specialise in high-end documentaries, the most recent of which was All In The Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry. We're developing an observational documentary on private sperm donation, in which we'll follow donors and recipients through their experiences, while getting insight into the community and its motivations. We want to speak to as many British donors and recipients as possible. We'd like to have a telephone conversation with those who reach out to us, rather than send out a standard questionnaire. Individuals can be as open or anonymous as they like during this informal chat. Do you have something to say about sperm donation? Do you have an interesting story to tell? If so, get in touch. We want to tell people's story as it is. If anyone wishes to know more about the type of programmes we make please take a look at our recent Channel 4 documentary, 'All in the best possible taste with Grayson Perry' “A fabulous work of television.” (The Guardian) “A terrific series.” ***** (The Times). Available on 4oD. You can contact Pride Angel for more information, or email Marcus direct - marcusplowright@senecaproductions.com or give Marcus a call on +44 (0)20 7324 6079. Many thanks for all your help. Article: 22nd February 2012 Seneca Productions