[Attitude and considerations of sperm donors in relation to insemination]

The object of the study was to examine sperm donors' motivations and emotional reactions to the role as donors and to measure their willingness to provide information about themselves to recipients and offspring. It was designed as a prospective trial in which 26 subjects who were actively functioning as sperm donors at our fertility clinic at the time of investigation were asked to fill in a questionnaire and return it anonymously and voluntarily. Eight percent of the donors stated purely altruistic motivation, 32% purely financial and 60% a combination of both. The acceptance rate for providing non-identifying, phenotypic, descriptive information to recipients is 76%, for providing medical information it is 60% and the provision of psychosocial information is accepted by 28% to 40% depending on the item. Twenty percent of donors are willing to continue donation if the present rules of anonymity are revoked, 20% were undecided. In conclusion, most donors do not seem to feel any close relationship to donor offspring and at least 60% found anonymity to be essential for their continued functioning as donors.

Psychosocial aspects of donor insemination. Attitudes and opinions of Danish and Swedish donor insemination patients to psychosocial information being supplied to offspring and relatives

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the attitudes and opinions among donor insemination recipient couples with respect to the informing of offspring and relatives, the effects of donor insemination on sexual life and marital status, and their concerns about the risk of getting a sexually transmitted disease.

METHODS

A questionnaire study design. Three hundred and sixteen (194 Danish and 122 Swedish) couples were included.

RESULTS

Answering rate among the Danish couples was 89% and among the Swedes 75%, (p < 0.01). Fifty percent of the Danish couples and 66% of the Swedes were of the opinion that the treatments should be kept secret from good friends, (p < 0.05). Sixty-seven percent of the Danes and 87% of the Swedes found it important that knowledge about the inseminations was not made common knowledge to all interested parties, (p < 0.005). Parameters in which there were no differences between Danes and Swedes: Fifty-one percent of the couples would withhold information about the insemination from the child even when it was old enough to understand this information. Seventy percent of the couples would prefer not to know themselves, whether they had been conceived by donor insemination. Nineteen percent of the Danish couples would not have accepted donor insemination if the legislation guaranteeing donor anonymity had not been in existence. Eighty percent thought that their sexual life was unaffected during the course of the treatment. When asked, 95% were still married to the same partner with whom they began the treatment. Eighty-five percent of the couples were worried about getting a sexually transmitted disease through the treatment.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that secrecy about the treatment and donor anonymity have a high priority among Danish and Swedish recipient couples, irrespective of the different legislation in the two countries.

Psychosocial aspects of donor insemination. Sperm donors--their motivations and attitudes to artificial insemination

STUDY OBJECTIVES

To examine sperm donors' motivations and emotional reactions to the role of donors and to measure their willingness to provide information about themselves to recipients and offspring.

DESIGN

A prospective trial in which the 26 subjects who were actively functioning as sperm donors in our fertility clinic at the time of investigation were asked to fill in a questionnaire and return it anonymously and voluntarily.

MAIN RESULTS

8% of the donors stated purely altruistic motivation, 32% purely financial and 60% a combination of both. The acceptance rate for providing non-identifying, phenotypic, descriptive information to recipients is 76%, for providing medical information it is 60% and the provision of psychosocial information is accepted by 28% to 40%, depending on the item. 20% of donors are willing to continue donation if the present rules of anonymity are revoked.

CONCLUSIONS

Most donors do not seem to feel any close relationship to donor offspring and at least 60% found anonymity to be essential for their further functioning as donors.

Epidemiology of infrequent voiding and associated symptoms

In an attempt to study the epidemiology of infrequent voiding and its associated symptoms, 1613 women aged 20-25, 30-35 or 40-45 years randomly selected among the ordinary female population in Northern Jutland in Denmark were sent a questionnaire. It was to be answered anonymously. The women were asked about voiding frequency, frequency of nocturnal voidings, urinary infections, problems in initiating voiding and urinary leaking symptoms. The response rate was 65.0%. Overall, 7.7% of the women in the 3 groups had a voiding frequency of 3 or less per day. We found that women aged 20-25 had a higher rate of this low voiding frequency than women in the two older groups, (p < 0.001). Women aged 40-45 had a higher rate of urinary leaking symptoms than the two younger groups, (p < 0.02). In all 3 groups, women who voided 3 times or less per day had significantly more urinary infections than those with 4 or more voidings per day, (p < 0.01). The investigation has given some impression of the frequency of the infrequent voiding and the frequency of its associated symptoms.