Sperm donors
The donation of semen or sperm is an anonymous, voluntary and altruistic act to help other people fulfill their dream of becoming parents. The donors are young men who undergo a “Donor Screening“, a rigorous medical and psychological control to guarantee the highest quality and safety in the treatments.
“The law 14/2006, of May 26, on assisted human reproduction techniques establishes that the donation must be anonymous, voluntary, informed and unpaid”
What is the donation of semen or sperm?
In assisted reproduction treatments it may be necessary to use semen from an anonymous donor. The most common situations are:
- Women without a male partner.
- Women with a male partner whose semen is not viable for treatment.
Donors must be carefully evaluated in order to avoid unsatisfactory results, ruling out the possible presence of the most common hereditary diseases that could be transmitted to the future baby.
In order to offer assisted reproduction treatments of the highest quality, safety and guarantee, CEIFER, the sperm donor bank used by VITA Reproductive Medicine, carries out a strict and exhaustive study of all its donors.
What are the requirements to be a sperm donor?
To be a semen donor, according to the Spanish legislation on donations, one must meet some requirements:
- Be between 18 and 35 years old.
- Be in good mental and physical health.
- Possess good semen quality according to the WHO criteria.
- Not suffer from any genetic or sexually transmitted disease.
In Spain, sperm donation is an altruistic and anonymous act. The identity of the donor is protected.
What is the process for donating semen?
VITA uses the CEIFER sperm donor bank, whose donors go through a strict and exhaustive study in order to guarantee the quality of the treatments. The donor will undergo several tests and studies:
- Evaluation of diseases, family history and personal habits
- Phenotypic characteristics.
- Psychological test.
- Seminal quality.
- Semen freezing test to verify that the sample resists this process.
- Blood test for genetic study and study of infectious diseases (AIDS, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B and Syphilis).
- Urine sample for analysis of other sexually transmitted diseases.
- Donor screening.
Donor Screening
All sperm donors go through the “Donor Screening“, a Study of Carriers of Autosomal Recessive Genetic Disorders. Through this test it is possible to detect the most common autosomal recessive genetic disorders in our Mediterranean area, ruling out those candidates who are carriers of any of these disorders:
- Cystic fibrosis.
- Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
- Autosomal Recessive Hearing Loss Type 1A
- Alpha Thalassaemia
- Beta Thalassaemia
- Familial Mediterranean Fever
- Phenylketonuria
- Pompe disease
- Alport syndrome
- Glucose 6 Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6PD) Deficiency
- Smith-Lemli-Opitz síndrome (SLOS)
- Tay Sachs disease
Genetic Matching
Among the novelties included in this “sperm bank”, it is worth highlighting the “Genetic Matching” protocol, a protocol of assignment of donor whose objective is to reduce the risk of transmission of these autosomal recessive genetic disorders. Through this test, carried out on the sperm donor as well as on the future recipient woman, the gene carriers of said disorders are studied by comparison of the results. The ideal sperm donor is then selected so that the donor and the recipient woman do not share mutations in the same genes.
Undoubtedly, it is one of the most demanding selection protocols among sperm banks worldwide. Not only are the tests required by the Spanish regulation carried out, but they are complemented by rigorous studies in accordance with the recommendations of national and international scientific societies.
Sperm donors, in addition to undergoing the aforementioned genetic study to detect hereditary diseases, also undergo a psychological evaluation that includes a personal interview to find out both the family and personal medical history. The candidate undergoes a physical examination to ensure good general health, as well as a study of the seminal values of the sample and an examination to detect sexually transmitted diseases.
