Couples turn to 'fertility tourism' as crisis hits IVF

Published on 31/12/2004 00:19

DESPERATE couples could be forced to seek fertility treatment abroad as new rules lead to a dramatic drop in egg and sperm donations in the UK, say experts.

From April, egg and sperm donors will lose their right to anonymity, meaning that any offspring they help produce can find out their identity once they are 18.

With many clinics already reporting severe shortages of donors, doctors fear that the situation can only get worse.

Experts are now warning that "fertility tourism", where women go to countries such as Spain for treatment, could become the norm.

There are also concerns that backstreet measures such as home inseminations could become more common.

Dr Alan Pacey, a member of the British Fertility Society (BFS) and a lecturer at Sheffield University, said the number of egg and sperm donors had dropped dramatically since the early 1990s as talk of removing anonymity emerged.

"We are definitely going to see more people going abroad for treatment," he added. "I think people will choose with their feet, but it will be the rich people choosing with their feet and I think that is a terrible inequity."

Dr Pacey, who has run a sperm donation clinic in Sheffield for ten years, said that if people could not get treatment from clinics, they would find donors themselves, which could be dangerous as the sperm would not face the same screening process.

He added that he was concerned the government had not given enough consideration to what would happen 18 years on when offspring were contacting their donors.

"It would be good to tell potential donors that a system of some kind was in place in the future to provide mediation and counselling, even if it was just a general framework," said Dr Pacey.

Dr Gillian Lockwood, the medical director of Midland Fertility Services, agreed that the supply of sperm and eggs was "dwindling rapidly".

She said: "I’d be very sad to think we’d got these fertility tourists, but couples who are desperate for a child will do whatever they feel they have to.

"The waiting list for donor eggs has gone in my clinic from about six months to 18 months to two years. If you’re 39 and you know that your only chance of having a baby is by using donor eggs, what are you going to do? Wait two years or go to Spain?"

Dr Lockwood, who is chair of the BFS ethics committee, said she had experienced donors asking for their stored donations to be destroyed because they were worried that the legislation would be made retrospective, meaning they could be identified.

Dr Lars Hamberger, a professor at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said he was surprised the UK had decided to lift anonymity.

The law in Sweden was changed in 1985 to allow the identification of donors, leading to a drop in donations.

"I couldn’t understand it, because if you read what happened in our country I see no real advantages," he said.