WHAT IS SPERM DONATION
In some situation there may be a need to rely on sperm from a sperm donor rather than from the male partner. This situation include cases than no sperm can be found following surgical sperm retrieval on in rare cases when sperm form the male partner an incapable of fertilizing eggs (even when injected using ICSI) or in rare cases when the male partner`s sperm may fertilized eggs but cannot create embryos with appropriate development or appropriate chromosome numbers.
Frozen sperm samples from international sperm banks are safe, and they can be chosen by matching the donor’s features to your partner’s or to those that you desire, such as stature (height and weight), color of eyes and hair, and by education background and blood group.
HOW ARE SPERM DONORS SELECTED?
Donors undergo a complex and multiphase process covering both medical (general medical, urologic, genetic) and psychological examinations. All donor sperm samples are frozen and quarantine (not used) for at least 6 months. After the quarantine period, the donor undergoes further testing to assure that he is free of infectious diseases. Diseases that could be transmitted to you or your child include: AIDS, syphilis, and hepatitis, because these diseases are reliably identifiable only months after exposure. Minimization of risks of transmitting infectious diseases is one of the main reasons why donors are examined/tested repeatedly. In addition, According to international law, the number of pregnancies achieved with the help of one given donor is limited in order to minimize the chances that the resulting babies from any donor will meet, marry and suffer the consequences of close-kin marriages.
Consequently, international sperm banks scrupulously register/document pregnancies achieved with their samples and, after a certain period, cooperation with donors is terminated
DONORS ARE SELECTED BY INTERNATIONAL SPERM BANKS BY THE FOLLOWING PARAMETERS:
- Sperm quality;
- Age;
- Personal characteristics;
- Education;
- Family medical history going back 4 generations.
LABORATORY TESTS:
- Semen analysis (spermogram);
- Complete Blood Count;
- Urinalysis;
- ABO-Rh Blood typing;
- HIV (the virus causing AIDS);
- HTLV I/II – Human T-cell lymphotropic virus types I and II (HTLV-I and HTLV-II);
- Hepatitis B Surface Antigen;
- Hepatitis B Core Antibody;
- Hepatitis C Viral Antibody
- Syphilis (RPR);
- CMV IgG/IgM;
- Chlamydia;
- Gonorrhea.
GENETIC TESTS:
- 3-4 generation family medical history, which is reviewed by atrained genetic specialist or a medical doctor (all donors)
- Cystic Fibrosis screening for 139 mutations in the Cystic Fibrosis gene (all Caucasian donors);
- Chromosome analysis (all donors);
- SMA (spinal muscular atrophy) – all donors from January 2015;
- Thalassemia (all donors). An HPLC analysis is done to detect this indirectly;
- Canavan disease disease (donors with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry);
- Familial Dysautonomia (donors with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry);
- Fanconi Anemia type C (donors with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry);
- Gaucher disease (donors with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry);
- Niemann-Pick type A disease (donors with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry);
- Sickle Cell Disease (donors with African ancestry are genetically screened). For all donors an HPLC analysis is done to detect this indirectly.
It is impossible to rule out genetic disease with 100% certainty since it is not possible to test for all inheritable diseases.