Sperm: the new white gold?

MADRID – Spain has become a major exporter of human semen. It has to do with a number of things, not least of which are that it is not illegal in this country to donate sperm. This is why, for instance, Spain recently began exporting it to Portugal, where donations are not allowed, and nor are artificial insemination of lesbian couples or single mothers. People flock to Spain for artificial insemination, principally, from other less progressive European countries and from around the world. //The fact is, too, that the quality of sperm, in the developed world at least, has been decreasing over the years.  The reasons behind this are diverse: alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, fast foods in terms of nutrition, stress, fashion dictates in tight clothing, some sports such as cycling (which puts pressure on the testicles) and an increase in obesity in developed nations. There are more but these are the most common.

According to research carried out by the Department of Growth and Reproduction at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, using scientific studies of those years, the average sperm count descended alarmingly between 1940 and 1990. From 113 million spermatozoa per millilitre to 66 million, almost half.

Another study, published in HumanReproduction magazine, confirms the downward spiral. Between 1989 and 2005, the sperm count per millilitre is now a mere 49 million. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) does not see this count as alarming, as the established minimum is 15 million, as it asserts in a manual they publish on the subject.

Single mothers and homosexual couples are 60% of the business

In the meantime, sperm banks have arisen like mushrooms. Ole Schou, who founded the world’s largest, Cryos, based in Denmark, agrees that tendencies and attitudes are changing rapidly. He adds that only 40% of his clientele is heterosexual couples; the rest are single mothers and homosexual couples. Cryos exports to 70 countries, which they can do in 24 hours. “Since our foundation in 1991, we have helped in the conception of some 30,000 babies, about 2,000 a year.” This, he says, is due to the company’s strict quality controls and in part to Danish law.

Having begun with university students as donors, and having expanded exponentially, Cryos exploits the international market with profits at the 80% mark. The number of donors is a “state secret” according to Schou. He is at present studying the possibility of opening offices in other countries, including Spain, in order to offer different kinds of donors – different specifications.

The law in this country forbids payment for donations but allows compensation ‘for the trouble’. Men in Spain can make an extra €1200 in six months, according to local sources. Many sperm banks, not just here, have an open clause in their donor contracts that says that at age 18, the children resulting from a donation, are allowed to contact the donor.

(Source: www.quo.es)