Sperm do­na­tion

There are many dif­fe­rent re­asons for sperm do­na­tion. For he­te­ro­se­xual cou­ples, for ex­ample, sperm do­na­tion can be con­sidered if the man is in­fer­tile or has li­mited fer­ti­lity and pre­vious at­tempts at as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion have been un­suc­cessful. The re­ason can also be a her­edi­tary di­sease of the man, which should not be passed on to the child. Ho­wever, sperm do­na­tion can also be an in­dis­pensable step on the way to ha­ving a child for les­bian cou­ples and sin­gles who wish to have a child. Sperm do­na­tion has been me­di­cally pos­sible for over 100 years. Ac­cor­dingly, the level of awa­re­ness is high: 97% of all women and 96% of all men have al­ready heard about it [1].

Be­fore de­ci­ding to do­nate sperm, there are often many legal ques­tions to be ans­wered. One of the most bur­ning ques­tions is often the ques­tion of bio­lo­gical iden­tity. What hap­pens if the donor child wants to know his bio­lo­gical fa­ther, or vice versa, a donor wants to know his bio­lo­gical child? Ba­si­cally, a di­stinc­tion is made bet­ween open and an­ony­mous sperm do­na­tion (so­me­times also called YES donor and NO donor). In Ger­many, only open sperm do­na­tion is per­mitted. The re­ason for the le­gis­la­tion in Ger­many is that the Fe­deral Con­sti­tu­tional Court gives greater weight to the right to know one’s own pa­ren­tage than to the do­nor’s right to an­ony­mity. In other Eu­ro­pean count­ries, both types of le­gis­la­tion can be found.

Ger­many: Donor data must be kept for 110 years 

In Ger­many, the law on “know­ledge of pa­ren­tage in the case of he­te­ro­logous use of semen” was also en­acted on the 17th of July 2017 and came into force on the 1st of July 2018. This law states that the names and data of all sperm do­nors in Ger­many must be kept in the so-called Sperm Do­na­tion Re­gister of the German In­sti­tute for Me­dical Do­cu­men­ta­tion and In­for­ma­tion — for 110 years [2].

How are do­nors sel­ected?

First of all, we have to di­stin­guish bet­ween the legal mi­nimum re­qui­re­ments and the in­ternal qua­lity stan­dards of the cli­nics.  Again, the legal re­qui­re­ments differ from country to country. In Ger­many, for ex­ample, only do­nors bet­ween the ages of 18 and 40 are ac­cepted. Fer­ti­lity as well as phy­sical and mental he­alth must be proven. Chronic or her­edi­tary di­se­ases such as epi­lepsy, heart pro­blems, asthma, etc. are also ex­cluded. Fi­nally, the sperm do­nors must be tested for se­xu­ally trans­mitted di­se­ases such as HIV, he­pa­titis and other in­fec­tions [3]. Fur­ther­more, many cli­nics im­pose ad­di­tional stan­dards for the sperm do­nors, so that the pro­grams differ from clinic to clinic.

Legal re­qui­re­ments for sperm do­nors in Ger­many

• Age bet­ween 18 and 40
• Proven fer­ti­lity
• Proven phy­sical & mental he­alth
• No ve­ne­real di­se­ases

Sperm do­na­tion: Costs

De­pen­ding on the type of tre­at­ment and the choice of sperm bank (German or Da­nish), the costs vary greatly. Your per­sonal ad­visor will be happy to help you with your choice.

At Fer­tilly, we have made it our mis­sion to ac­com­pany cou­ples (ho­mo­se­xual and he­te­ro­se­xual) and sin­gles on the way to ful­fil­ling their child wish. In doing so, it is im­portant to us to create trans­pa­rency in the area of fer­ti­lity ser­vices, to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion and know­ledge on the to­pics of pregnancy and fer­ti­lity and to help you to find the most sui­table Fer­ti­lity Center. Th­rough co­ope­ra­tion with first-class Fer­ti­lity Cen­tres and cli­nics in Eu­rope, en­qui­ries about Fer­tilly are given pre­fe­ren­tial tre­at­ment. This means that our pa­ti­ents avoid the usually long wai­ting times and get ap­point­ments more quickly.

If you would like more in­for­ma­tion about Fer­ti­lity Cen­ters, suc­cess rates and prices, please contact us using this ques­ti­on­n­aire. We will ad­vise you free of charge and wi­t­hout any ob­li­ga­tion.

Sources:

1. Prof. Dr. Wip­per­mann, C. (2015) — https://www.bmfsfj.de/blob/94130/bc0479bf5f54e5d798720b32f9987bf2/kinderlose-frauen-und-maenner-ungewollte-oder-gewollte-kinderlosigkeit-im-lebenslauf-und-nutzung-von-unterstuetzungsangeboten-studie-data.pdf
2. Bun­des­ge­setz­blatt, Ge­setz zur Re­ge­lung des Rechts auf Kenntnis der Ab­stam­mung bei he­te­ro­loger Ver­wen­dung von Samen (2017) — https://www.bgbl.de/xaver/bgbl/start.xav#__bgbl__%2F%2F*%5B%40attr_id%3D%27bgbl117s2513.pdf%27%5D__1559661113027
3. Bun­des­ärz­te­kammer, Richt­linie zur Ent­nahme und Über­tra­gung von mensch­li­chen Keim­zellen im Rah­mender as­sis­tierten Re­pro­duk­tion (2018) — https://www.bundesaerztekammer.de/fileadmin/user_upload/downloads/pdf-Ordner/RL/Ass-Reproduktion_Richtlinie.pdf