PMA: “We need sperm and egg donors to prepare for the future” – Le Monde

Should France expect a shortage of gametes? With l’initiation of medically assisted procreation (MAP) to lesbian couples and single women in September, requests are pouring in – 3,500 additional cases this year, according to the health ministry. In response, the Biomedicine Agency is launching a campaign on Thursday October 21 to encourage sperm and egg donation. “This campaign aims to increase the number of annual donations in order to meet the needs of recipients, in all their diversity”, explained the agency, the structure that oversees gamete donation and assisted reproduction, in a press release.

According to the latest figures available to the Agency, 317 men donated their sperm in 2019 (i.e. 18% less than in 2018) and 836 women donated oocytes (7.5% more than in 2018 ). However, “The sperm stocks are sufficient to meet the demands” current couples, while it would still be necessary “Increase considerably” the number of egg donations, explains Emmanuelle Cortot-Boucher, director of the Biomedicine Agency.

The Biomedicine Agency launches a campaign to recruit new donors, is it because you are worried about the stocks of gametes while the opening of the PMA to all women increases the number of requests for help to procreation with donation?

Emmanuelle Cortot-Boucher: For now, the sperm stocks allow us to meet all requests. At the end of 2019, the stock was around 107,000 straws [les tubes de plusieurs millilitres dans lesquels est conservé le sperme] while we used 6,900 in one year. Even if the stock fell to 100,000 straws at the end of 2020 due to the interruption of reception in donation centers during the first containment, stocks remain sufficient to meet not only demand. which existed before the implementation of the law opening up assisted reproduction to all women, but also to the new demand emanating from couples of women and single women, even if it is dynamic.

But we need gamete donors, because the Law of 2 August 2021 modified the legal regime of donation by creating a right of access to origins. From 1^er September 2022, donors will only be able to donate if they agree to transmit their identity, as well as a certain number of non-identifying data concerning them to the person resulting from their donation, who may request access to it at his majority. This change in the legal regime will force us, in the years to come, to destroy the current stock of gametes, even if we do not yet know when. It is therefore important to start preparing for the future, to inform future donors of this change, and to mobilize new volunteers to rebuild the stock.

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