BY BLATHNAID HEALY from Mashable

LONDON — The world’s first national sperm bank opened its doors in Britain [in October 2014] calling for “very special men” to help reduce the shortage of sperm donations in the UK and address the reliance on donations from abroad.

Based in Birmingham, the National Sperm Bank, will be a collaboration between the National Gamete Donation Trust and Birmingham Women’s Hospital that, among other things, aims to “change the face” of sperm donations.

“We actually want sperm donors to be very proud about what they do,” said Laura Witjens, Chief Executive of the National Gamete Donation Trust, on the BBC 4 Today programme.

Until now, people living in London, Birmingham or Manchester could get sperm donations as part of fertility treatments with the aid of the National Health Service.

Elsewhere in the country, however, those seeking a donation had to buy sperm from abroad or use a private clinic, Witjens said. In particular, there has been a shortage of donations among some ethnic minorities.

Although the quality of sperm from abroad was generally good, it did result in situations where the same donor’s sperm was being used up to 10 times in multiple countries in Europe, Witjens said, meaning that someone conceived through a sperm donation could end up having 50 or 60 genetic half siblings across the continent.

There’s an increasing need for sperm donations in the UK because there are more same sex couples having children and because people in general are waiting until they’re older before starting a family, Dr. Allan Pacey, Chairman of the British Fertility Society, told Mashable.

The National Sperm Bank, however, should not be been as a magic bullet solution for fertility problems, and education about fertility still needs improvement, Pacey said, adding that when the topic comes up, people in the UK “still giggle.”

Currently, sperm donations are used in approximately 10 percent of fertility treatments in the UK.

In the UK, a sperm donor is not considered the legal father of the child, though someone born after April 1, 2005, conceived using a sperm donation has the right to find out identifying information about the donor.

IMAGE: Spermdonati.4ad6b Goal to reduce reliance on sperm donations from overseas IMAGE: RICHARD DREW/ASSOCIATED PRESS

For more on this story go to: http://mashable.com/2014/10/30/uk-sperm-bank-opens/?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher#sAPZZA3YwOqo