Thorough screening of donors
There are strict requirements for comprehensive screening before a sperm donor can be approved. Before sperm can be sent to a fertility clinic, donors are screened, tested and approved by the sperm bank. Among other requirements, donors must be healthy, they must be screened for serious genetic conditions and they must be tested for infectious diseases. Only donors who meet all requirements can be approved by the sperm bank.
The sperm bank must continuously ensure that donors live up the requirements. The sperm bank may only supply sperm to a fertility clinic if the donor is still approved and the sperm remains safe for use.
The regulation for screening, testing and approval of donors helps minimize the risk that children of donors inherit serious genetic conditions or carrier status for hereditary diseases from the donor.
Sperm is not screened for all known genetic diseases. It is mandatory to screen for diseases that are prevalent in the donor's ethnic background.
If there are doubts about safety
If the sperm bank suspects that a donor's sperm is not safe for use, the sperm bank must immediately inform the Danish Patient Safety Authority and the relevant fertility clinics.
If the sperm bank cannot rule out a significantly increased risk of transmitting a disease or carrier state, the sperm bank must immediately quarantine the donor's sperm. They must also inform the fertility clinics that have acquired the sperm that they are not allowed to use it until it has been determined whether or not the sperm is safe for use.
The sperm bank's clinical geneticist must make a documented risk assessment of whether or not the sperm can be used. If the risk assessment shows that there is a significantly increased risk of transmitting a genetic disease or carrier state, the sperm bank must immediately introduce a permanent ban on the use of the donor's sperm. The sperm bank must immediately inform the Danish Patient Safety Authority and the fertility clinics that have received sperm from the donor that a permanent ban has been introduced.
Notification of affected families
Sperm banks must also notify affected families who have sperm in storage.
According to law, fertility clinics must notify women whom they have treated with assisted reproduction if they receive an alert from the sperm bank about a permanent ban on the use of sperm from the donor whose sperm was used in the treatment.
If you have become pregnant after treatment with sperm from a donor who is later banned permanently, the fertility clinic is obliged to contact you as soon as possible. The clinic must inform you of the permanent ban on use of the sperm and of the reason why the sperm may no longer be used. The fertility clinic must also inform you of any measures or examinations that may be relevant for your child.
If you have not heard from your fertility clinic
As a rule, if you have not received a notification from your fertility clinic, it means that no circumstances regarding your donor that require contact have been identified.
If you are still concerned or if you suspect that you have not been notified by mistake, you can always contact the fertility clinic where you were treated.
The Danish Patient Safety Authority does not have any information about specific donors or fertility treatments, and therefore we cannot answer any questions about specific treatments.
However, if you were treated in Denmark, and the fertility clinic where you were treated has closed, we can help you with information about which clinic has taken over your data.