Sperm Donation

Pride Angel has many single and lesbian couples wishing to meet someone genuine who is willing to donate sperm through personal arrangement. If you are purely wishing to donate sperm with no involvement with the child we recommend that after finding the right person or couple you wish to donate to, that you use a fertility clinic for the treatment. If however you want to be known to the child and even enter into a co-parenting arrangement, then some members prefer to use home insemination following completion of all necessary health screening and infection tests. It is also advisable to prepare a legal donor agreement when donating outside of a clinic.

Use our Clinic directory to search for regulated fertility clinics and services within your local area.

Alternatively you may find further information about fertility clinics via the HFEA website. For a list of all licensed fertility clinics in the UK click on the link below:

http://guide.hfea.gov.uk/guide/

 

As a sperm donor who donates through a fertility clinic, you would not be classed as the legal father and would not be financially responsible. For legal information on sperm donation and donating through a clinic see our fertility law pages

Using a connection service like Pride Angel allows you to donate to a woman or couple whom you choose to. This has many advantages, it allows you to search profiles and pick the right person to help. It also enables you to stay in touch with the child if you so choose. Some donors do not want contact but are happy for the child to contact them when they are older. Other donors wish to be partially involved and act as an 'uncle figure' contacting the child on special occasions. This arrangement can have many advantages for the child, as they grow to understand the identity of their biological parents.

The legal position varies dependent upon who you donate to and whether they are single, married or in a civil partnership. We recommend reading further about your legal rights within our fertility law section about known sperm donation

We are looking for genuine donors who are willing to donate without payment (expenses may be requested). Donors should be a minimum of 18 years and preferably under 50 years. Sperm donors should have no serious health problems or a family history of genetic disorders.

Members wishing to donate sperm should also be committed to health screening tests to include sexually transmitted infections and genetic screens where applicable.

Donors who have not previously had children or who are over 40 years are recommend to have sperm count testing prior to offering to become a donor.

In addition we always recommend that donors sign legal donor agreements to ensure that they are not legally liable for any financial support.

Membership is free and as a donor you will receive 10 monthly free message credits. These will be automatically added to your account.

The law has recently changed, so that by donating to a lesbian couple (married or civil partnered) you will have no parental or financial responsibility. This gives sperm donors the reassurance that if they choose to help lesbian couples, that they will not be pursued for child support in any way. Please read more within our fertility law section.

As a Pride Angel Donor there is no ongoing commitment. You can take your time in choosing the right person or couple to donate to. When you do find the right recipient we ask that you do undertake health screening and infection testing at your local GP or fertility clinic. This normally involves a simple blood test. It may take several months of donating and inseminations to achieve pregnancy; therefore we ask that donors are prepared to continue with donations for a reasonable length of time. If a donor does not feel comfortable with donating to particular receipient they are entitled to decline donating.

Sperm donation is the process by which a man, known as a sperm donor donates his semen to a recipient with the intention that it be used to achieve a pregnancy and produce a baby in a woman who is not the man's sexual partner. 

Pregnancies are most commonly achieved via sperm donation by the use of artificial insemination (known as AI or, where a donor is used, as donor insemination or DI), and less commonly by IVF, rather than by NI (or sexual intercourse). Artificial insemination performed at home is also known as home insemination. Sperm donation is a means of third party reproduction. Sperm donated in this way is known as donor sperm. A sperm donor may donate his sperm directly to recipient women, at a clinic known as a sperm bank or fertility clinic. 

Sperm donation commonly assists heterosexual couples unable to produce children because of 'male factor' fertility problems, but it is increasingly used as a means to enable single women (termed choice mothers) and single and coupled lesbians to have children. For some clinics lesbian couples and single women may amount to 70% of those who receive fertility treatment. 

Sperm donation is commonly undertaken at a sperm bank or fertility clinic, however home insemination is becoming an increasing common option for many infertile or lesbian couples using a known sperm donor or for single people wishing to co-parent. Single women looking for a sperm donor are not recommend to conceive at home due to the fact that the sperm donor would be considered the legal parent. Alternatively single women should take their sperm donor along to a fertility clinic for fertility treatment.

The main risk of sperm donation is that of acquiring an infection, particularly if using a known donor who may not have undergone extensive infection screening. Ensuring that the donor has undergone the proper infection testing will significantly reduce this risk. Advice regarding infection screening can be gained from your local GP or through a fertility clinic. 

Along with the physical risks the other concern when using a known donor is the legal responsibility. Known donors may be seen as the child’s legal father unless legal donor agreements have been drawn up by fertility lawyers. 

Other concerns include the issue of relationship problems. Not all couples will feel comfortable with the prospect of bringing up a child who they are not biologically related to. For this reason it important to discuss matters with your partner at length, raising any concerns before taking things further. Using a counsellor may be worth considering to clear up any issues before proceeding, this is particularly important when using a known donor. 

Success rates for pregnancy using sperm donation are dependent on many factors including the age and health of the recipient. For this reason giving an accurate estimation of success can be misleading.

Generally, it is 10 to 15% per menstrual cycle using ICI, and 15-20% per cycle for IUI. In IUI, about 60 to 70% have achieved pregnancy after 6 cycles. 

As seen on graph below, pregnancy rate also depends on the total sperm count, or, more specifically, the total motile sperm count (TMSC), used in a cycle. It increases with increasing TMSC, but only up to a certain count, when other factors become limiting to success. This shows the importance of the donor semen having a high sperm count and can be checked using a male sperm count test such as the Fertilcount male fertility test. 





For those using IUI and IVF at a fertility clinic, the following information gives data for success rates within the UK for the year 2003-2004:

3158 women underwent a total of 7,350 cycles of treatment using donor sperm. (HFEA) Of these, 782 women went on to have a successful birth, resulting in a total of 825 children born as a result of DI that year. 

The success rate depends on the age of the woman if she is using her own eggs. Statistics show that for women under the age of 35 the success rate is about 14 per cent, falling to 8 to 9 per cent for women aged between 35 and 39, and to 4 to 5 per cent for women aged between 40 and 42 (HFEA). 

Although IVF is one of the most successful treatment procedures for those unable of becoming pregnant on their own, one crucial consideration to be made is the cost of the process. On average, it costs £1000 to £4000 per treatment cycle in the United Kingdom. This may vary from centre to centre and depends on a lot of factors, such as the number of IVF cycles performed; whether ICSI was used; if the couple is considering embryo freezing; and the cost of drugs. 

Sperm donation via private donors using home insemination is the cheapest option. Sperm donors may however request resonable expenses, such as travelling and time off work. Home insemination is only recommend following sexual health screening and legal advice.

Using a free sperm donor for sperm donation can certainly reduce treatment costs. A known donor may be used, this may be a friend or member of your extended family. However many women are increasingly looking for sperm donors willing to donate sperm by private arrangement. Using internet connection services such as Pride Angel provides an ideal safe environment to communicate through our internal messaging system. Once a known donor is found, fertility treatment can be undertaken at a regulated fertility clinic. However some women may choose to use home insemination as a method of conception especially in co-parenting arrangements. It is important that the correct advice is sought regarding health screening and legal agreements.