• The Biomedicine Agency has launched a major awareness campaign to encourage sperm donation and hope to fill the donation shortage.

  • "20 Minutes" wanted to know if its readers had been or were potential candidates for the donation.

  • Results: some regret never having done so for lack of time or for lack of information when others would be ready to give back (which is not possible), even abroad (which is prohibited).

“I donated my sperm when I was 23. I had already made several donations of blood and plasma and was on the list of bone marrow donors. So donating sperm seemed like the next logical step. "Four years later Tanguy does not regret his gesture" made out of altruism ", in response to his" desire to be useful to others ". Like Tanguy, many readers responded to our call for testimonials, relayed on Twitter by the association Dons de gametes solidaires. Among them, young men, aged 20 to 30, "united", like Arnaud, 28, "struggles of struggling couples", whether they are "straight or gay". But also men, often older, who regret never having given, "out of laziness, negligence and for a lot of other bad reasons", like Valérie, 55 years old.And others who felt candidates for donation but that the opening of Medically Assisted Procreation (PMA) to all women or the recent lifting of anonymity [from September 2022, children born of a donation will be able to to have information on their donor when they come of age] "now rejects".

“Donors should not worry, nothing will be done in the opinion and agreement of all. This is the spirit of the bioethical law. This is why this new campaign from the Biomedicine Agency is necessary, it should allow us to raise awareness among candidates about donation and, above all, to reassure former donors ”, suggests Catherine Guillemain, president of the French Federation of Study Centers and of human egg and sperm conservation (Cecos) and head of the reproductive biology laboratory at Marseille University Hospital.

A #gamete donation means giving men and women a chance to become #parents💝


As part of its new awareness campaign, the Agency is sharing its film on the hope & joy of a # pregnancy 🤰 #dondovocytes #dondespermatozoides #thank you https://t.co/CH9In96GfA

- Biomedicine Agency (@ag_biomedecine) October 26, 2021

The Biomedicine Agency has indeed launched a major awareness campaign to encourage the donation of sperm and oocytes.

With a budget multiplied by five, the agency hopes to be able to fill the shortage of donations.

Because since September 28, 2021, female couples and single women also have access to assisted reproduction and the demand for sperm straws is exploding.

Seven donations "which all went very well"

The Biomedicine Agency thus estimated the sperm needs at 3,500 in 2021. However, in 2019, only 317 men made a donation. The urgency is felt. Still, according to Catherine Guillemain, "over the past two years, the successful candidates were far from being moved by the change in the framework" of donations. Not wrong, if we are to believe Arnaud: “PMA for all or the lifting of anonymity should not change anything. To give is to give and everyone has the right to have a child. Whether you are a couple of women or a heterosexual couple, it does not change anything as long as you give love to this child. "" After the birth of my niece, Capucine, I saw the joy that the birth of a child brought to a family. And the opening of the assisted reproduction to couples of women would not change anything in my approach.I have absolutely no doubts about their ability to love and raise a child, ”abounds Hadrien, who tries“ as much as possible ”to inform“ his friends and educate them ”. The 22-year-old turned to the Cecos de Rouen when he wanted to donate his sperm at the age of 19. The result: seven donations over six months “which all went very well” and gametes “today preserved in Rouen ready to make families happy”.

"You have to be a player"

Many of our readers, however, are not as quick to give as Hadrian. Their enthusiasm was dampened by the lifting of their anonymity. "I donated my blood but donating my sperm is totally out of the question: between the politicized PMA against a background of speudo-equality and the risk of being awarded paternity recognition in the teeth 18 years: you have to be a player … ”, Says the man who calls himself Plopi. “I still think about making a donation for a long time, but what really hinders me is the loss of the right to be an anonymous donor. I don't want a child to come see me later, ”adds 30-year-old Kevin. To these, Damien, 35, replies that he waits especially "September 2022 to perform" his good deed, the date on which the children from his "donation will be able to access" his "personal data".This father of two children aged 5 and 8 explains: “Children will be born, become adults, will have children in their turn. It is not just cells knowing that these adults may wish to know where they came from. "

Follow those who "are still waiting" for a positive response from a Cecos like Damien, 40, who had "two children without difficulty and wants to help those who are not so lucky". Those who have taken the plunge lately, such as François 27, and who stress about being "refused on arrival". Those wonder if they are not "too old", and those who judge that the donation requires "too much time", generates "too many costs" or that the centers too few, sometimes based "more than 2h30 from route ”from home. Finally, there are those who regret, like 38-year-old Omar, not having been able to carry out their process "to the end". "A case of autism in my family has penalized my file", says the one who admits that the course is "constraining or even borderline discouraging sometimes".

Give "live" in order to be "sure that the child will be in a good family"

Matthieu did without the Cecos and the “obstacle course”.

At 34, our reader donated his sperm “unofficially, through a site connecting donors and women applicants”.

And will continue to give "live" in order to be "sure that the child will be in a good family".

Our dossier on assisted reproduction

Same on Eric's side: since I was old enough to donate I have always given everything: blood, skin, marrow and therefore sperm.

For me, it is something natural that comes from solidarity, with a hint of self-sacrifice: we give knowing that we will not receive anything in return ”, explains our 48-year-old reader, who offered his sperm to a lesbian friend.

Finally, let's not forget Philippe who, after prostate cancer in 2007, at over 50, reported to Cecos who kept his gametes that he "simply donated them for procreation".

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