How do you feel about men donating their sperm multiple times.?

[jim_slim]

I donate my blood, not my sperm. They wouldn’t get any babies from mine anyway.

 

[Lilac]

I was thinking about what my husband had to go through to have gastric bypass surgery. For 6+ months he had to talk to numerous doctors, dieticians & take psych tests to make sure he was a candidate for this. It wasn't until the last minute they told him he was a candidate & they were going to schedule his surgery. He jumped through the hoops & it was a long road.

I wonder if these sperm banks bother to do any type of a background & psych tests on the donator? God only know what you may end up with & you sure can't send it back telling the bank this "product" is defective.

 

[MACKTEXAS]

I was thinking about what my husband had to go through to have gastric bypass surgery. For 6+ months he had to talk to numerous doctors, dieticians & take psych tests to make sure he was a candidate for this. It wasn't until the last minute they told him he was a candidate & they were going to schedule his surgery. He jumped through the hoops & it was a long road.

I wonder if these sperm banks bother to do any type of a background & psych tests on the donator? God only know what you may end up with & you sure can't send it back telling the bank this "product" is defective.

I think they do psychological testing, but the question I had was more toward infectious diseases.

I read this: "The donor is tested for HIV and infectious diseases. Then sperm samples are taken, and quarantined for a minimum of six months. Then the donor is retested, and if the second test is negative, the samples can be released for use."

 

[January]

I wonder if these sperm banks bother to do any type of a background & psych tests on the donator? God only know what you may end up with & you sure can't send it back telling the bank this "product" is defective.

psych tests perhaps for the donor's sake - or more likely some sort of counselling or discussion so they fully understand about child contacting them in adulthood etc
and ruling out obvious medical risk factors like carriers for cystic fibrosis and infectious diseases, as mentioned above

But no different to getting a child natural way - you may end up with a child with a birth defect - but no reason this is any more likely with donor sperm

in Australia there is a limit to how many children one donor can create ( I assume this applies to women donating eggs too) - sure there is remote possibility of unknowingly meeting up with your biological half sibling later - but no more than for adoptions, or children whose fathers are unknown/not told honestly, from natural 'wild oats ' behaviour
I would also assume location of donor would be kept separate from location of reciprient - ie both would not live in same small country town - to further reduce that possibility.

 

[Warrigal]

I saw an article in our Sunday Telegraph newspaper, and it said that "A donor conceived Australian woman who has 77 confirmed siblings, has called for the urgent creation of a national framework to regulate the fertility industry that allowed her biological father to donate more than 325 times, but files were lost". Just imagine
if she suddenly learned that her husband was in fact her 1/2 brother.?

Better not to know.

 

[Lilac]

psych tests perhaps for the donor's sake - or more likely some sort of counselling or discussion so they fully understand about child contacting them in adulthood etc
and ruling out obvious medical risk factors like carriers for cystic fibrosis and infectious diseases, as mentioned above

But no different to getting a child natural way - you may end up with a child with a birth defect - but no reason this is any more likely with donor sperm

in Australia there is a limit to how many children one donor can create ( I assume this applies to women donating eggs too) - sure there is remote possibility of unknowingly meeting up with your biological half sibling later - but no more than for adoptions, or children whose fathers are unknown/not told honestly, from natural 'wild oats ' behaviour
I would also assume location of donor would be kept separate from location of reciprient - ie both would not live in same small country town - to further reduce that possibility.

I'm looking it from a different viewpoint ... not if half-siblings meet up later or if the donor gets a visit (which should be expected), but from a possible mental health problem for the offspring.

Yes, a married couple could have a child with physical/mental problems. But when your getting sperm at a bank, you getting the proverbial
"pig in a poke". Your assuming the bank has done their due diligence as far as screenings, but you may not know what those include like do they include a background check (criminal/financial/mental health) or do they rely on what info the donor gives. In some cases the sperm was from a doctor who worked there was used & not from the donor you thought it was coming from. We really don't know how it's handled.

There is no test for potential mental issues as far as I know. The reason I think of the mental problems is what a couple of ours that we've known for years son went through with a child his wife had before they met. It was the old-fashion sowing wild oats way & I have no idea how long she was with the father.

Long story short, the son wanted to adopt the 5-year-old when out of the blue she started to have serious mental problems. During treatment, they found out the biological father's mom & sister were in a mental facility for the same thing. He also had five other kids by different women & three (the girls) have the same issue.

I believe he knew about the mental issues, but didn't say a word while he was out impregnating females. It sounds like a hereditary issue that appears in the females in the family. I wonder if the two boys can pass this along to their offspring.

 

[January]

Yes, a married couple could have a child with physical/mental problems. But when your getting sperm at a bank, you getting the proverbial
"pig in a poke". Your assuming the bank has done their due diligence as far as screenings, but you may not know what those include like do they include a background check (criminal/financial/mental health) or do they rely on what info the donor gives. In some cases the sperm was from a doctor who worked there was used & not from the donor you thought it was coming from. We really don't know how it's handled.

Yes I have trust in medical system in Australia and I have trust that they screen for medical issues as far as can reasonably be expected.

Which of course is more than most people do when having a baby - I sure didn't screen my husband for such and nor would anyone be likely to do that unless they knew of a genetic carrier risk like cystic fibrosis or Huntington disease.

No idea why you think they should screen for things like financial background.

Yes there are a few horror stories but, like most such things, they would be few and far between.