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Health professionals in Sweden are sounding the alarm over concerns of a sperm donation shortage spurred by the coronavirus pandemic.
With sperm donors deterred from travelling to hospitals during the pandemic, doctors at public fertility clinics say the worsening shortage could result in years-long delays for assisted pregnancy treatments. Because of the pandemic, many [men] won t come to the hospital because we have social restrictions in place, Margareta Kitlinski, a senior consultant at the Centre of Reproductive Medicine at the Skane University Hospital in Malmo, told Euronews on Thursday. So, over the last three months we have had to take a pulse and [right now], we don t do any IVF treatment with donor sperms because we simply don t have any, she said.
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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden is facing an acute shortage of sperm for assisted pregnancy as would-be donors avoid hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic, halting inseminations in large parts of the healthcare system and driving up waiting times by years.
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“We’re running out of sperm. We’ve never had so few donors as during the last year,” said Ann Thurin Kjellberg, head of the reproduction unit at Gothenburg’s University Hospital.
The shortage has meant waiting times for assisted pregnancy have shot up from around six months to an estimated 30 months in the past year, possibly longer, doctors familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Under Swedish law, a sperm sample can only be used by a maximum of 6 women.
Sweden is facing an acute shortage of sperm for assisted pregnancy as would-be donors avoid hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic, halting inseminations in large parts of the healthcare system and driving up waiting times by years. We re running out of sperm. We ve never had so few donors as during the last year, said Ann Thurin Kjellberg, head of the reproduction unit at Gothenburg s University Hospital.
The shortage has meant waiting times for assisted pregnancy have shot up from around six months to an estimated 30 months in the past year, possibly longer, doctors familiar with the matter told Reuters.