The 5 most frequently asked questions about sperm donation
Some of the most common questions we receive are about sperm donation. Can we pick our donor? Will the baby look like us? Where can you find a donor? Some of these questions are answered by the Spanish law 14 of 2006, which states that all gamete donations (sperm and eggs) are anonymous. Do you want to know more?
1. Can we pick the donor?
Sperm donation is completely anonymous. Which means that mothers can’t choose any of the baby’s traits. However, this also means that the children can’t meet their biological father and he also doesn’t have any legal rights over the children. The donor will not have any information on the women who decide to use his sperm.
Due to its anonymous nature, the donation can’t be done with a family member or friend’s sperm.
2.Where can we find a donor?
The sperm donation process is very simple. The man will go to an assisted reproduction centre and there he will undergo some testing in order to determine his eligibility. If his tests are satisfactory the entire donation process takes around 3 to 9 months in total. It consists of going to the centre every week to deposit a sample.
The donor must collect the sample in a sterile container every time. The sample must be collected after a period of 3 to 5 days of abstinence from masturbating (in order to guarantee the quality of the sperm).
Throughout this process the centre will conduct blood tests as many times as they deem necessary.
All the sperm samples are frozen and kept in a sperm bank. Most assisted reproduction centres have their own sperm bank. Liquid nitrogen is used to keep the samples frozen safeguarding their original functional and morphological characteristics.
With IVF and other similar techniques, a woman can only have a maximum of three pre-embryos transferred every cycle.
3.Who can be a sperm donor?
Spanish law requires that the following criteria be met:
- Must be between 18 to 35 years old.
- Must go of their own volition and be aware of what the donation entails.
- Be free of any infectious disease that might be transferable to offspring such as, HIV, syphilis, or hepatitis B or C.
- Be free of any genetic, hereditary or infectious disease that might be transferable to offspring.
- Must be in good mental and physical health. The donor will undergo phenotype and psychological testing, as well as any other clinical tests that are required.
- Must have an excellent sperm quality.
- The donor must not have more than 6 children in the country in order to avoid kinship (blood relationships).
If the man doesn’t fulfil all these criteria he won’t be considered for donation in any clinic in Spain.
The sperm must be able to survive the freezing process because all samples are frozen for at least 6 months. This is the minimum amount of time in order to determine the presence of a sexually transmitted disease in the sample.
4. Is sperm donation a business?
The donations are by nature altruistic and never for profit. The monetary compensation given is for any disruption in the life of the donor in regards to commute and work costs that might have occurred due to the donation process.
5. Will the baby look like us?
You can’t choose your sperm or egg donor in Spain. You also can’t choose specific physical traits that you might like. The clinic will choose and assign you a donor that has the closest physical appearance to you both.
They take into account the physical characteristics (race, skin colour, eyes, hair, etc.) and clinical characteristics (blood type, RH factor).
If the patient has uncommon physical characteristics and a donor can’t be matched with them the clinic can get samples from a foreign sperm bank.
Do you have more questions? Contact us and we’ll get in touch as soon as possible.
