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A real IVF pioneer (?)
| One of the first IVF Clinics in London, the Barton Clinic was well known in the 1940′s as a pioneering centre for infertility. Now, genetic testing has revealed just to what extent the ‘pioneering’ nature of their work extended.
It is suggested that up to 600 of the babies conceived in the clinic were effectively fathered by IVF pioneer Bertold Weisner, the owner. This by clandestine sperm donation. Dr Weisner died in the 1970′s, but recently several of the children conceived in the clinic were found to be genetically related to him, hence the estimate. Obviously, in this modern era regulations are in place to limit bulk donation and obviously the clandestine sort, but we can’t help wondering how many risks were taken in the early days to help couples conceive… |
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Free Sperm Donors
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Donated for love?? |
The risks of using free sperm donors
In the UK, current convictions over the usage of ‘free sperm donors’ operating through the internet and without a license have again brought to light the hazards of this practice.
A website called ‘fertility 1st’ was shut down and two males convicted for running the web site. Basically, the web site supplied ‘fresh’ semen at home picked from a list of free sperm donors for a cost, stated to be to deal with ‘expenditures’.
We have reviewed the advantages and disadvantages of free sperm donors in this blog site. We want to help remind everyone that wishes to get pregnant of the hazards of this, and similar practices:
1) From 2007, it is illegal to obtain, test or circulate gametes (i.e. semen or eggs) from donors in the UK without a licence from the HFEA. This does not suggest that patients will certainly go to prison, they are considered the sufferers. If you utilize semen samples from ‘unlicensed’ donors, you are running the risk of infection with venereal diseases (STD’s) including HIV. The explanation the legislation was introduced is not to secure the semen banks, IVF centres or specialists, but to secure YOU, the customer.
2) Sperm donors registered with licensed centres are normally checked for STD’s two times; prior to producing the sample AND 6 months after the donation. Consequently, there is a dual check that no infection has developed prior to release of the samples for usage.
3) The same risk of genetic disease exists in both free sperm donation AND cryopreserved semen samples. Nevertheless, some of the most frequent genetic illness (Cystic Fibrosis for instance) are checked in potential semen donors. Please ask yourself– does an unlicensed donor go through these examinations?
4) Even if you have an agreement with the free sperm donor in which he relinquishes being a parent; will such an agreement, stemmed from an outlawed practice, stand?
The essence of the account is that regulations are put in place to secure the customers that are normally be open to exploitation. You might find that ‘free sperm donation’ comes to be anything but ‘cost-free’ without appropriate regulations.
I need egg donation.
| If your doctor has told you that you need egg donation, you will certainly have received the news with shock. Unfortunately this can occur because some people just can’t have a baby with their own eggs, sperm or both. This could be because they just don’t produce any eggs or sperm, or simply that the quality of their own gametes is too low to give a good chance of achieving pregnancy.
Although you might feel desperate on hearing this news, don’t worry because you are not alone in the world. Plenty of other people know how you feel and there are an increasing number of people willing to donate some of their eggs to help you achieve your dream of having a family. |
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| Receiving eggs from another person for your family is a psychologically testing subject, and counselling is certainly recommended before embarking on this type of treatment. However, as a procedure it is actually quite simple. | |
| The process of egg donation starts with the search for a suitable donor. The egg donor is matched to your physical characteristics (i.e. eye colour, hair colour, height etc)and blood group. This can be done through an IVF centre, however these centres often have long waiting times due to the lack of egg donors. Many centres state that you should find your own egg donor in order to avoid the waiting list, and that is where egg donation agencies such as IVFAgent can assist.This is because we have potential egg donors throughout the country as opposed to a few egg donors in the region of the IVF clinic. You can choose a potential egg donor from our online database of potential egg and sperm donors and we will start the process for you. |
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| Initially, all egg donation cycles were anonymous i.e. the recipient could not trace donor or vice versa. Now, several countries such as the UK have imposed a law of ‘traceability’ i.e. the offspring born through donation have the legal right to trace the egg or sperm donor. This is called non-anonymous donation. This means you as a recipient cannot contact the egg donor, however your child will have that right, after reaching 18 years of age. | |
| Human sperm is easily cryopreserved and so sperm banks are widely available with almost any characteristic you may require. Donors of sperm samples are rigorously tested and must be negative for infective diseases such as HIV, hepatitis B and C, venereal diseases and so on both prior to, and 6 months after the donation, before samples can be released for general use. | How does egg donation actually occur? Your menstrual cycle will be synchronised with that of the egg donor, so that you can receive embryos when your uterus is receptive to pregnancy. Basically, the donor is prepared with a hormonal therapy to produce several eggs instead of the single egg per cycle as in nature. These eggs are then aspirated from the donor and fertilised with your husbands’ sperm. Egg donation then can be achieved in two ways: either the donor gives all her eggs to a recipient, or the two ‘share’ a proportion of the eggs (termed ‘egg sharing’). Full egg donation is then when the donor is prepared especially for you, whereas with egg sharing the donor is also a patient.Because human eggs are at present still relatively difficult to cryopreserve, egg donation is currently performed with non-cryopreserved eggs. However, embryo donation may be achieved with fresh, or cryopreserved embryos. |
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Because egg and sperm donation is an emotionally charged field of medicine with many ethical and moral considerations, the law on donation varies between countries.
Discover the law on gamete donation in your country below:
Please, select country and donation type.
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| Give the gift of life!. IVFAgent.com needs Sperm donors and Egg donors for patients in need. You will be compensated for your generous act! | |
Search for an IVF specialist offering egg donation in your area:
Search for an IVF specialist in your area:
Free Sperm Donors?? Buyer beware!!!!!
Danger!!! Free sperm donors!!!!
Donor gametes are available throughout the world where this is not banned. Obviously, the storage, administration and processing of this material is expensive. This means prospective recipients have to pay sometimes hefty sums to receive a few gametes and a chance of getting pregnant (one small survey of IVFAgent.com found donor eggs available for $22000).
We practitioners of IVF understand that this is a high price to pay, and to many it is not affordable.
However, prospective patients must understand that this price comes with some assurances:
1) The donation is anonymous, at least in countries where this is permitted.
2) The material is free of STD’s.
3) The material is free of the most common genetic disorders (i.e. Cystic Fibrosis)
Recently, it has come to our attention that a growing field of ‘free sperm donors’ exists.
What does this mean? The donor comes to your home, gives you some semen and leaves. Two methods are available, ‘insemination’ (where you place the semen in your Cervical Cap and hope for the best) or ‘natural insemination’ (we leave it to you to work this one out!).
While IVFAgent.com does not condemn the efforts of people to achieve their desires in any way they find suitable, we feel you should be aware of the following:
1) You are ‘inviting’ a complete stranger into your home in a pseudo-sexual context. Please before you do this think – would you attempt such a thing with someone you met on the metro? You are risking a lot, even in a legal context.
2) Donor sperm is considered safe because donors must undergo blood tests for common genetic diseases, and of course STD’s before donation and 6 months after donation. In the case of a positive result, the semen cannot be used. Your ‘free’ donor may bring exams (which you cannot verify), but you do not have the second control. Furthermore – do you have any data on the genetic make-up of the donor?
Since there are many people that ‘enjoy’ spreading STD’s, beware!!
3) Although free sperm donors exist – we could not find ANY free egg donors on the internet, which suggests the practice is male-orientated.
The essence of the story is – please remember that donor gametes from a storage facility are as safe as practitioners of assisted reproduction can make them, the whole process is under the control of a specialized practitioner and you recipient have a series of legal safeguards that come with the service. This has a cost which becomes entirely reasonable when you consider the service. Does ‘free sperm donation’ provide you with the same safeguards?