TYSON Young is an ordinary guy who has chosen to do something pretty extraordinary — with his sperm.
First published by news.com.au on March 16, 2017.
He’s a gay 25-year-old commercial manager living in Sydney who has donated his “little swimmers” to IVF Australia to help others achieve their dream of having a baby.
“I’ve got a lot of lesbian friends that wanted to have children and it just got me thinking about donating sperm because I absolutely adore children,” he says.
“And I do definitely want some of my own some day but if I could help someone have that joy a lot sooner than me, why not?”
Tyson is a rare breed, with many Australian fertility clinics currently struggling with a significant shortage of donors.
Australian donors can’t be paid for samples, says Associate Professor Peter Illingworth from IVF Australia. It’s actually illegal. “None of the donors that we use are paid for their donations.
“What is allowed is to reimburse legitimate expenses.”
Meanwhile, he says that 10-15 per cent of their patients require sperm donation to conceive, with a mixture of heterosexual couples, women in same-sex relationships and single women needing it.
WHAT IT TAKES TO BECOME SPERM DONOR
Donors must be aged between 21-45 years, in good health and without certain hereditary conditions and predispositions. “If a man approaches us and says he’s interested in considering sperm donation, he’ll then meet one of our doctors for a thorough examination, a full medical history and a counselling session,” Associate Professor Illingworth says.
The donor provides a detailed profile for patients to review when deciding on a sperm donor. “You fill out a character profile, which includes age, height, job, music, heritage, hobbies along with basic information about your family like parents and siblings’ weight, height, age and characteristics,” Tyson says.
“You donate straight after the counselling sessions and that donation is frozen for six months and put into quarantine. Then they unfreeze it and test the sperm again because some men’s sperm doesn’t survive the freezing process,” Tyson explains.
“Mine was all good so after that they rescheduled three more donor sessions, which was all I needed to produce enough sperm.”
By law, sperm donors are only able to contribute to the creation of a specific number of families, determined by the legislation of each state or territory.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE EQUATION
Alana’s son, KP*, was born via IVF in 2016 with the help of a sperm donor. She says she’d always wanted to have a baby but unfortunately it just hadn’t happened for her.
Alana and baby KP.Source:Supplied
Just shy of her 40th birthday, Alana decided to have a baby and, with the support of her family, chose to go it alone through a fertility clinic. Initially she opted for Intrauterine insemination (IUI), which involves a fertility specialist inserting donor sperm into the uterus during ovulation.
“Not as many men are eligible to be IUI donors because their sperm has to be pretty strong to survive the freezing process and then find its way to the egg,” she explains.
“I went on the sperm donor waiting list in the July and eventually chose my donor the following April.”
When the IUI proved unsuccessful, Alana opted to do IVF and fell pregnant in the first round. “KP is a beautiful child, he’s so loved and we’re all so grateful … the donor should be very proud of what he’s done,” she says.
“These donors make such an enormous difference in people’s lives … the thought of someone so selflessly donating to give life and make someone’s dream come true is the most amazing thing in the world.”
THE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A SPERM DONOR
Associate Professor Illingworth says counselling plays a fundamental role in the sperm donation process. “Donors spend a lot of time with our counsellors because babies born from their donation will one day have the opportunity to find out their identity so they need to consider the personal implications of that.”
Anonymous sperm donation is banned in Australia, however, donor-conceived children must wait until they’re 18 years of age to find out the identity of their donor in all states and territories except Victoria, where identifying information can be made available at any time.
Associate Professor Illingworth says the likelihood of legal issues resulting from sperm donation in a clinic is slim. “There has never been a case in Australia or indeed internationally where someone who has given sperm in a clinic has been required to have any parental responsibilities, including financial,” he says.
As for Tyson, he’s open to meeting the children born from his sperm donation in the future. “I really do hope that they get in touch one day, I’d be more than happy to meet them,” he says. “I just don’t want to be involved in their lives because, while I want to help people have a family, it’s not my family. I was just a tool in that process.”
IVF Australia is currently seeking guys to join their league of ‘Everyday Heroes’. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be a sperm donor or for further information visit IVF Australia.
* Names withheld at the request of the interviewee.
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