More should be done to encourage egg and sperm donors

Professor Lisa Jardine, chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said more needed to be done to raise public awareness of donation to help couples struggling to conceive.

Launching a UK-wide strategy to raise awareness and improve the care of donors, she said evidence suggested women undergoing IVF are not always encouraged to think about donating any spare eggs.

Men and women coming forward to be donors are also not treated well by some clinics.

“We think some patients in centres are not being encouraged - let’s put it no stronger than that - encouraged that they might donate,” she said.

“Women going through treatment will probably be stimulated to produce more eggs than they use themselves.

“Now some of them choose to freeze those for further attempts but there may well be more eggs than that, in which case donating them to another woman who doesn’t have viable eggs of her own is the most extraordinary gift.”

She said there were issues to consider, including the fact people can no longer donate anonymously. This means any child produced from treatment can try to trace the donor when they reach adulthood.

Donated eggs may also produce a successful birth whereas the woman who donated may be unsuccessful in her own treatment.

Prof Jardine said other donors were not always made to feel welcome.

“We have some evidence - but we want to know more - that donors are not particularly welcomed at clinics.

“Clinics are more and more busy, donors are a kind of a side issue in the clinic but they have to be dealt with in the clinic.

“We’ve heard their phone calls are not returned, they don’t even get a cup of tea.”

Prof Jardine said later she would resist saying clinics were being deliberately unhelpful but some were too stretched to be dealing with egg donation and could do more.

One option was to set up “centres of excellence” where donation is carried out.