The UK is facing a critical shortage of sperm donors, and needs a radical new approach, claim two fertility experts on BMJ.com today.
Mark Hamilton, who chairs the British Fertility Society, and its secretary Allan Pacey, say that many clinics have long waiting lists or have been forced to stop providing services altogether.
The removal of donor anonymity in 2005 may have contributed to the crisis, they suggest.
At least 500 new donors are needed every year to meet demand, But in 2006 there were only 307 new registrations.
The current UK legal limit is for 10 pregnancies from a single donor, to prevent siblings born from one donor later inadvertently having children together.
But the authors argue that this figure is not evidence based, and a more flexible approach is needed.
They point out that the size of the UK population allows for a large safety margin in this respect, and that in the Netherlands, which has a smaller population than the UK, the upper limit is 25 offspring per donor, while in France it is five.
The British Fertility Society has called for major changes in the organisation of recruitment services to increase the number of new donors.
These include a new national service framework for sperm donation, with large regional centres providing the bulk of donor management and smaller local centres providing services for recipients.
Currently, up to 35% of potential donors are lost after their first enquiry and never assessed. Making services more accessible and efficient could also encourage more men to participate, say the authors.
Another option would be sperm sharing schemes along the lines of existing egg sharing programmes, whereby fertile male partners of women who need IVF could become donors and have their fertility treatment partly funded by sperm donation.
But the British Fertility Society does not recommend increasing the age limit of donors from the present 40 years or lowering the acceptable levels of semen quality, on the grounds that this may compromise outcomes.
Bmj.com doi:10.1136/bmj.a2318