Together with her organic clock ticking louder and louder, and a accomplice whose want for kids had already been fulfilled, Kim, a 37-year-old girl from the Netherlands, determined in June 2020 it was time to begin significantly trying into the probabilities of satisfying her want to turn out to be a mom. 

As a result of she had by no means had any specific attachment to the “conventional” household, she ultimately up at a Dutch fertility clinic, the place she was supplied the selection between a sperm donor from a Dutch sperm financial institution or from industrial Danish sperm banks.

She opted for the latter as a result of they supplied a greater diversity of donors and extra details about them. 

“Whereas Dutch sperm banks solely will let you choose for 4 exterior traits, being hair and eye color, ethnicity and posture, Danish sperm banks offer you far more in depth profiles, together with a child image, handwriting, and voice sound,” she advised Euronews.

This altogether gave her an excellent impression of the non-public character of the sperm donor, one thing she deemed vital for her future youngster. 

“I needed my youngster to have the ability to hint again her origins and stimulate the potential curiosity for her organic background,” she stated.

After an intensive determination course of, Kim ended up selecting a sperm donor with Portuguese descent that she discovered within the database of Denmark’s Cryos Worldwide, by its personal admission the biggest sperm financial institution on this planet. 

She made the order on a Tuesday and her fertility clinic referred to as on the Thursday to tell her that three straws of deep-frozen sperm had arrived. Fairly unusually, the insemination that adopted, a few month later, was an immediate hit.

Danish dominance

Throughout the entire of Europe, ladies like Kim are pregnant or have conceived youngsters from sperm donors by way of Danish sperm banks. 

Some Dutch fertility clinics say greater than 60% of their therapies are achieved with sperm from a Danish institution. In neighbouring Belgium, 6 out of 10 youngsters born due to sperm donations reportedly have organic Danish fathers. Roughly a fifth of donated sperm accessible within the UK is imported from Denmark. The Irish Occasions even claimed that 90% of Danish sperm goes to different EU international locations. 

Danish sperm banks themselves desire to not give actual numbers on the quantity of sperm donations they export, citing strategic causes, however it’s clear that they’re dominant in Europe. Within the phrases of Martin Lasse, Chief Medical Officer at Cryos Worldwide: “If it’s a huge market in Europe, it’s a huge marketplace for us”.

The largest two Danish sperm banks are Cryos Worldwide and the European Sperm Financial institution, with headquarters in Aarhus and Copenhagen respectively. Whereas Cryos claims to have over 1,000 accessible donors, European Sperm Financial institution says it has between 800 to 900 donors able to be chosen by recipients.

Their recognition might be attributed partially to the broad choice of sperm donors, giving future moms a various palette of phenotypes to select from. Their provide is so in depth and various on account of the truth that each corporations have opened branches in different components of Europe like Cyprus, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.

Lengthy-standing custom

So why exactly has this nation gained such a foothold throughout Europe in terms of sperm donation? 

Lots might be traced again to Denmark’s long-standing custom of fertility therapy, in addition to early regulation, in 2006, that allowed single and lesbian ladies to get inseminated with donor sperm. That is at present allowed in only a dozen EU international locations. 

In response to Annemette Arndal-Lauritzen, CEO of European Sperm Financial institution, this didn’t solely open up the dialog about sperm donation but in addition set in movement a wave of newly born Danish donor youngsters.

“Immediately, multiple % of all youngsters born in Denmark are born with donor sperm. That’s the highest proportion of any European nation. The truth that so many youngsters in Denmark have been born out of donation actually took away the taboo in our nation,” she advised Euronews.

Martin Lassen additionally argued that sperm donation is so normalised in Danish tradition just because it has been round for therefore lengthy. “Our founder began the primary Danish sperm financial institution 35 years in the past. Since then the Danes have turn out to be accustomed to sperm banks promoting sperm donation. It has turn out to be a part of our tradition.”

Lasse Haldrup (23), who has been a Danish sperm donor since July final yr, additionally doesn’t really feel sperm donation is a sensitive topic in Danish society. 

“I converse fairly brazenly about it. Everyone in my environment is aware of, my household, my associates, even the woman I’m at present seeing,” he advised Euronews.

Recruitment

In contrast to in most different European international locations, Danish laws permits sperm banks to promote freely amongst Danish males. Youthful Danes, as an example, are focused by way of Instagram or Youtube advertisements. 

“We make investments rather a lot in recruiting donors,” Lassen says. “We attempt to educate them by explaining what are the professionals and cons of donating, and what it will possibly imply for others.”

In return for each sperm donation, donors obtain a price and a health subscription. This monetary reward is particularly welcome by college students like Haldrup. “I obtain €40 per donation and I donate round twice per week. For me it’s a win-win: I don’t want a facet job and I assist others get youngsters.”

The intense funding in recruitment makes many Danes apply to turn out to be sperm donors. 

“As a result of excessive variety of candidates we’ve so much to select from. It ensures that we are able to present high-quality sperm,” Arndal-Lauritzen stated. Nonetheless, quite a few well being exams are carried out, and ultimately, solely about 5% of candidates get authorized as sperm donors. 

No marvel Kim was rapidly pregnant. She welcomed her child in early February.