The emotions, concerns and reactions of sperm donor candidates to their rejection by a sperm bank

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the emotions, concerns and reactions of sperm donor candidates to their rejection by the sperm bank.

Methods: An online questionnaire was administered at Cryos International in the USA and Denmark to sperm donor candidates who had received notification that they were ineligible to donate.

Results: A total of 101 rejected donor candidates completed the questionnaire. The majority were disappointed and surprised by the rejection but only a relatively small group had concerns about their health, fertility or manhood. More than half of them (54.5%) were satisfied with the way they were informed of their ineligibility while 17.8% were neutral, and 27.7% were dissatisfied. Approximately half (47.5%) thought that the information provided to them was sufficient while 24.8% were neutral and one in four (27.8%) considered it as insufficient. The most frequent suggestions for improvement were to provide an information leaflet specific to the reason of rejection, offer personal counselling and explain better what the implications are for them.

Conclusion: There is room for improvement in the information provided to donor candidates about the reason for their rejection. Although some information is already currently provided, a minority of donor candidates considered this to be insufficient. However, rejected candidates do not request more information on their own initiative. Routine provision of an information sheet specific to each reason for rejection may improve the experience of these men.

Keywords: Candidate sperm donor; Donor screening; Gamete donation; Information provision; Rejection; Sperm bank.