Sperm banks running empty

A family planning official in Guangdong Province encouraged college students and office workers to make sperm donation as the province's sperm bank cannot keep up with demand for its services.

Luo Zhiwen, director of the provincial population and family planning commission, was quoted by the news portal gmw.cn as saying that the infertility rate in the province has reached 14 percent.

Seven provincial sperm banks on the Chinese mainland contacted by the Global Times also said their stocks of sperm has hit rock bottom, and couples wanting to use their services are being forced to wait up to three years.

"All sperm banks in the country face the same situation," Jiang Xianglong, director of the Jiangxi Province Human Sperm Bank, told the Global Times. "While infertile couples are lining up at the registration desk, the banks simply cannot get men to donate."

Part of the problem may be that many men in China consider donating sperm somewhat shameful.

"I would never tell my parents or my girlfriend," a Beijing college student and sperm donor told the Global Times, adding that he did it for the 3,000-yuan ($472.5) fee and a free medical check-up.

"I was embarrassed by the whole thing," he added.

"Creating your own progeny is a sensitive matter for Chinese people, and letting someone raise a child who has your genes goes against tradition," said Jiang.

There are 22 sperm banks on the Chinese mainland, not nearly enough to meet the demand of couples who cannot conceive. "Over 10 percent of couples in the country are infertile," said Jiang.

Other than a genetic fault, drinking, smoking, staying up late and stress are the major causes of infertility in men, said a doctor from the Beijing service center for family planning and reproductive health.

Stocks are so low at Beijing's sperm bank that couples have to wait one to two years.

Jiang said a donor's sperm can be used to make at most five women pregnant, to avoid the possibility that the closely related offspring may intermarry.

Donors are required to sign a letter of consent giving up their right to know the identity of the children their sperm may create.

Hospitals and sperm banks have set up a confidential system that allows families to identify their child's donors without naming him.

Luo Zhiwen also said the sperm donation is "absolutely safe" and dying from an ejaculation "is impossible."

Luo was responding to a lawsuit by the parents of a man in Wuhan, Hubei Province, who died shortly after making a donation in February last year.

"To suggest that donating sperm is bad for a man's health is ridiculous," said Jiangxi's sperm bank director Jiang, echoing what sexually active men already know.