Medical info

Below you can read a number of medical aspects like conception, donor sperm and laws that may be important when planning to start a family using a known sperm donor.

The content provided below is purely informational and has been compiled based on internet-based public content. As such, it should not be considered a source for legal advice and it is advisable to consult with a UK family law specialist if you are considering becoming a parent through one of these alternative methods.

UK fertility law
UK fertility law states that if you got pregnant without the help of a UK clinic, the donor could be seen as a legal parent. Even thought a ‘donor’ is a man who donates his seed specifically for this cause, the rulings can get fuzzy if you do ‘home’ self-insemination without the help of a certified clinic.

Legal status of sperm donors
In the UK, donors who make a sperm donation through the network of HFEA licensed fertility clinics are protected by the law, whether the donation is directed to a known person or not. Donors may not be considered as legal parents of any child born as a result of their donation and cannot be asked for a any type of financial child support.

If the gamete donation happens outside the legal framework though, different parenthood right may apply, and, depending on the circumstances, donor’ parental responsibility may be claimed (see the At-home insemination section). Any individual considering giving or getting a sperm donation outside an HFEA licensed clinic is this advised to speak with a law specialist before getting involved in a private agreement.

Testing sperm & Help of clinics
First let’s look into why there is testing and why there is frozen vs fresh sperm usage.

When a straight love couple tries to conceive together, in most cases they do not undergo tests, unless there is an explicit reasons for this. On the other hand, clinics that work with anonymous traceable donors extensively examine their donors. A clinic does this for several reasons:

• checking whether the man is physically and mentally healthy and between 18 and 41 years old (these requirements differ per clinic).
• check whether the quality of the seed is sufficient enough to be frozen, unfrozen and still have enough sperm counts (approximately 50% or more of the sperm cells survive the freezing/thawing process).
• checking whether there are at-job risk factors and whether he belongs to a risk group with regard to sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV and Hepatitis.
• find out if there are serious, hereditary disorders in the family.
• talk to a counselor to discuss the consequences of donorship.
• potential donors (and their receivers) must be aware that after examination, the majority (almost 90%) of the semen specimens analysed will fail to reach the very strict criteria required for freezing/thawing the sperm. Although in most cases this does not mean that these men have reduced fertility when using fresh sperm. This is a huge reason why aspiring parents ánd donors prefer to use fresh sperm instead of frozen, even though knowing there might be some relativeley small but possible high impact risks involved.

Based on the information above, we recommend that you get a clinics help when using sperm of a known donor. If you decide not to very aware of the risks involved and in any case make sure you have a donor agreement. If you want to get pregnant through the help of a clinic, make sure to discuss this with the donor candidate during the introductory phase.
Skipping these steps can result in:

• unconsciously transmitting sexual and inherited disorders.
• various attempts at pregnancy are unsuccessful because the quality of the seed is insufficient and / or because the intended mother appears insufficiently fertile.
• donor’ parental legal rights and responsibility may be claimed from one or both parties involved (including legal co-parenting visitation rights and financial child support)

Frozen or Fresh sperm
Not all clinics work with both frozen and fresh sperm. Make sure to ask if they do before signing up as a ‘patient’ bringing in a known donor. To ensure quality and safety reasons sperm can be tested and frozen to be quarantined for 180 days (nearly 6 months).  The donor will then need to be retested after this period before the actual treatment will start.
If you are planning to use fresh sperm (which won’t have been frozen and quarantined) you might consider testing the donor with an advanced method called Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAAT).

The age of the donor
Men over the age of 45 are at greater risk of conceiving a child with a chromosomal abnormality. Older men are also more likely to have poorer sperm quality. For these reasons, clinics advise looking for a young donor, but they realize that this is not always an option.

Known donor vs anonymous traceable donors

• Anonymous traceable donors: this is an anonymous traceable donor. The donor does not know his recipient (s) and the recipient (s) does not know the donor.
  Sperm from these donors are only available through a clinic. Anonymous traceable donors are registered by clinics so that the fathered child can later find out his / her origin.
  From the age of 16, the donor child can request a number of basic information about his / her donor, such as appearance, profession, marital status, family composition and characteristics as the donor gave up at the time of the donation 16 years earlier. Personal data can only be requested from the age of 18 (this was legally introduced on 1 June 2004).
  Keep in mind that foreign clinics have different rules and registration forms than in UK clinics.
• Known donors: you can find these yourself via your own network or via Future Family. Known donors are known to the mother and (later) the child. Conversely, the mother is also known to the donor via Future Family as the donor decides himself who he will help.

Choosing between co-parenting, a known- or anonymous donor
In the interest of the aspiring mother, donor and child, Future Family only encourages working with known donors or co-parenting. This is because we believe that every child has the freedom of right to get to know and possibly meet his or her biological parent from any desired (and appropriate) age. This means that the prospective parents and donors should inform the child about his or her ancestry, preferably as early as possible and before puberty.

Fertility options

Self-insemination

With self-insemination, you (or your partner or medical specialist) inseminate the sperm using a syringe and / or thin tube in the vagina or uterus (neck). With self-insemination, you generally use fresh sperm which the donor or male co-parent donates in a cup.

The chance of pregnancy is highest if fresh sperm is used and the insemination takes place just before ovulation, so it is important to follow the cycle of the woman, there are various apps and websites that can help you keep track.

It is wise to have a health examination performed before conception attempts and to consult a medical specialist.

Frozen sperm
Most clinics and hospitals offer services to freeze the sperm. You can then collect it when you need it. The advantage is that the sperm is quarantined for half a year, checking for STDs such as HIV and AIDS, but also sperm motility. Another advantage is that it is available when you need it, which helps of the donor lives far away from you or travels a lot. This way you are less dependent on the donor. The disadvantage is that the sperm loses quality. Know that 90% of men who want to become a donor won’t have a high enough sperm quality to survive the freezing/dawning process of the sperm.

→ Legal info
→ Co-parenting