Older sperm donors just as likely to conceive children
The findings dispel the myth that a woman’s chances of IVF success are lowered if she has to rely on sperm from an older man.
By encouraging more men to come forward as donors, they could help alleviate the sperm shortage faced by fertility clinics. But researchers warned that older men in the general population should not assume they are also as fertile as their younger peers.
This is because all men who get through the stringent donor screening process, almost by definition, have high quality sperm.
Dr Navdeep Ghuman, from Newcastle Fertility Centre, who took part in the study of more than 230,000 sperm donation treatments, said: “What’s reassuring is that there’s no decline observed with increasing age of the men.
“The scary idea in the media and women’s minds that older sperm means less chance of conceiving wasn’t seen. We wanted to answer the question, does the age of a sperm donor matter? The short answer is no, it doesn’t.
“The take-home message is that live birth rate does not decline with the age of male donors up to the age of 45.
“Hopefully this study will give women a message that their chances will not be compromised if they have to choose an older donor.”
Using data stored by the fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, researchers analysed the success of sperm donations from men aged 20 and under to 45.
They found that live birth rate fell with the increasing age of women, dropping from 29% for those aged 18 to 34 to just 14% for the over-37 age group.
However, within each of these groups, the age of the sperm donor had no impact. In fact, a slightly — non significant — greater proportion of sperm donors aged 41 to 45 fathered children than did those in their 20s.
The findings are to be presented at the annual meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology taking place this week in Munich.
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