Sperm donors needed to help single women and lesbian couples in Canada

TORONTO - 3246 plays the trumpet, enjoys judo and was a nationally rated chess player in university.

But perhaps the most important detail on his five-page bio is this: “3246 is a proven fertile donor.”

“I donate to share the joy of becoming a parent — a gift from my family to yours! I’m a husband and father of three with two boys and a baby girl,” he writes in an essay obtained by the Herald.

3246 is a Canadian sperm donor, but he’s also an endangered species.

Currently, there is only one national sperm bank in Canada. And that bank — nestled within ReproMed: The Toronto Institute for Reproductive Medicine — only had 51 active donors, including donor 3246.

Two clinics in Quebec do maintain a handful of donors, bringing the country’s total number of anonymous sperm donors to around 60, but those clinics restrict sales to their own patients while ReproMed sells coast-to-coast.

By some estimates, there is a need for donor sperm for more than 5,500 inseminations per year in Canada, and 3,000 of those are for lesbian couples.