What Women Look For When Choosing A Sperm Donor | Men's Health Magazine Australia

What Women Are Looking For When They’re Choosing A Sperm Donor

When it comes to having a family, most of us are familiar with the traditional story: boy meets girl, they fall in love, start a family, and live happily ever after. But an increasing number of women are choosing to rewrite the narrative – opting to become a mother solo with the help of sperm […]

When it comes to having a family, most of us are familiar with the traditional story: boy meets girl, they fall in love, start a family, and live happily ever after.

But an increasing number of women are choosing to rewrite the narrative – opting to become a mother solo with the help of sperm donations.

Watch the full story below

“The very first step is finding out a bit about the process, and the legalities of the process,” said Genea Fertility Specialist Dr Rachael Rodgers.

“There are two options: known donors, in which a friend might agree to donate sperm, and anonymous donors, largely sourced through a sperm bank. There are different legalities surrounding those.

“Once someone has made the decision to proceed, they should see a fertility specialist, to have an assessment of their own fertility and make sure there are no issues – and then we can put them in contact with our counsellors, who will go into more detail about how to obtain the sperm.”

Choosing a donor

“There are a few different groups of women who are accessing donor sperm,” Rodgers said.

“Heterosexual couples – where the male partner can’t provide the sperm that we need for medical reasons – are choosing donors who look most like the father.

“The other two groups are single women and women in same-sex relationships.

“They’re not going for the looks – they’re going for things like educational qualifications of the donors.

“The anonymous donors in particular often provide a lot of information about themselves – medical histories, educational histories, family histories – a lot of them have been through genetic testing. Some even provide essays about why they’ve chosen to be sperm donors.”

Shortage of donors

In Australia, there’s a shortage of sperm donors, as demand has outstripped supply.

“In Australia, you’re not allowed to pay for eggs or sperm – so it all has to be altruistic,” Rodgers said.

“There’s also a requirement that a child at the age of 18 that’s conceived using donated eggs or sperm can legally find out their biological origins.

“So every donor is put on a registry, and children have the right to access that identifying information.”

This article originally appeared on 7News

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