• The Biomedicine Agency has increased its budget fivefold for its new campaign on gamete donation, which is launched this Thursday.

  • It must be said that the Bioethics law of August 2, 2021 made two major changes: the opening of assisted reproduction to couples of women and single women, and the creation of a right of access to origins.

  • As the demand for sperm donation will increase and the egg donation deficit is still glaring, the Agency hopes, with this campaign, to recruit new donors.

A pregnancy test that does not display one or two lines, but a "thank you". From this Thursday, posters and videos reveal heterosexual couples, a couple of women or a single woman displaying a big smile and gratitude. The sign that a new era is opening. A major awareness campaign has in fact been launched by the Biomedicine Agency. And with a budget multiplied by five, initiatives on several platforms affecting young people (Brut, Deezer, Instagram, podcasts ...) on television, in the cinema and in the street, she hopes for a large mobilization.

Why this urgency to inform?

Since the Bioethics Law of August 2, 2021, medically assisted procreation (ART) has undergone two major developments, which affect people who will be able to receive donated spermatozoa and oocytes, but also donors.

Increased need for sperm donation

Side receivers, shortages are pointing their nose.

In 2019, only 317 men donated sperm, and 987 children were born thanks to donations.

However, since September 28, 2021, couples of women and single women have access to assisted reproduction in France.

This will obviously create an additional demand for sperm straws, estimated by the Biomedicine Agency at 3,500 sperm needs in 2021. A monitoring committee, which will meet in mid-November, should refine this figure, which seems more high according to the first feedback from the field ...

On the side of oocyte donations, the deficit is already glaring.

“We are just in time: the oocytes collected are often donated the same day, which is why we have no stock, warns Claire De Vienne, gynecologist at the Biomedicine Agency.

The deadlines can range from one year to two and a half years.

“At the end of 2019, 4,000 couples were waiting for an egg donation.

This is why the campaign is aimed at both men and women.

All the more so as it pursues a second objective: to increase the variety of donor profiles.

“Today, couples from diverse backgrounds wait longer than others,” regrets Emmanuelle Cortot-Boucher, Director General of the Biomedicine Agency.

"It is an act of solidarity, free and freely consented," recalls Philippe Jonveaux, geneticist.

Very limited anonymity waiver

But from September 1, 2022, an additional condition will be required: that the donor accepts that a possible child discovers their identity. Clearly, children born from a gamete donation will be able, if they wish and from the age of 18, to request information from an

ad hoc

committee

. “The identity of the donor, but also their age at the time of the donation, the family and professional situation, the motivation for the donation, the country of birth and the physical characteristics”, lists Claire De Vienne. “The principle of anonymity will be maintained for anyone other than the child born from the donation,” recalls Philippe Jonveaux.

A second part of the Biomedicine Agency's campaign therefore aims to explain this new right of access to origins, created by the Bioethics Law.

By insisting on the fact that it does not change anything in filiation: “Today, I am not looking for a parent;

but answers ”, assure the three faces on the posters.

As of September 1, 2022, therefore, all donors will have to sign a document to give their consent regarding access to origins.

What about donations prior to September 2022?

If a child resulting from their donation wishes it, they will be contacted by the

ad hoc committee

and will choose or not to reveal their identity to him.

What to do, moreover, after September 1, 2022, with frozen sperm donations (the stock in 2019 was 107,000 straws) that did not get this green light?

They will be destroyed, on a date that is not yet specified.

"Donation centers will have to respond to new demand, and stocks must be renewed due to the destruction of certain gametes, so we must mobilize", concludes the director of the Biomedicine Agency.

80% of French people are in favor of donating gametes

But will the young French people be up for it? Yes, if we are to believe the 2021 Barometer on the French and the donation of gametes *. "Public opinion seems clearly in favor of gamete donation: 80% are for and 55% of French people of age to donate would be ready to do so," said Amandine Messina, from Viavoice. But this will is based on conviction and not on knowledge of the law. “In fact, 82% of these French people say they are little or badly informed. To fight against this ignorance and the stereotypes which result from it, the Agency offers two sites: dondovocytes.fr and dondespermatozoides.fr for the general public. And will offer midwives, general practitioners and gynecologists brochures and short distance training on vidal.fr to support people with assisted reproduction as well as potential future donors.

Are wider access to assisted reproduction and access to origins likely to chill some of them?

“No, that doesn't change their opinion.

And for a quarter of the French, these developments even encourage them to give, ”reveals Amandine Messina, without there being a big difference between men and women.

On the other hand, the study points to the differences between genders concerning the brakes.

A third of the men cite the fact that their identity can be revealed, while half of the women evoke the constraints of egg donation (much heavier than sperm donation…).

* Barometer conducted by Viavoice, from September 10 to 22, 2021, among a thousand French people.

Health

PMA for all: The decrees are finally published ... but the centers of PMA are already crumbling under the demands

Health

PMA for all: "This law is far from being applicable" ... Single women and lesbians face significant delays

Age limit

This campaign is aimed particularly at young people, since only healthy men aged 18 to 45 can donate sperm, and healthy women aged 18 to 37.

  • PMA

  • Sperm donation

  • Parents

  • Health

  • Bioethics law