Dr Victoria Sephton, Chief Medical Officer at Care Fertility, comments on the risks of sperm donation via social media:  

“The rise of sperm donation through social media highlights the demand for alternative family-building options, but this unregulated space carries significant risks. Without the safeguards provided by a clinic licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) recipients face potential medical, legal, and ethical issues.   

Informal donors are often not screened for infectious diseases like HIV or genetic conditions. The protection of the law ensures that donors registered with the HFEA won’t have parental rights. There also are restrictions on the number of families a HFEA registered donor may create but these restrictions do not apply in informal donation.    

There is no guarantee of an informal donor’s own fertility which may lead to exploitation or misrepresentation. When treatment is with the sperm of a HFEA registered donor, a donor-conceived child can access health or genetic information that may be important to them later in life. They can also access information about the identity of their donor when they reach age 18 and information about any genetically related siblings. None of this information may be available in informal donations.  

So, to ensure safety and peace of mind, we would always recommend individuals use a HFEA licensed fertility clinic like Care Fertility to access treatment with donor sperm.   

There is sometimes a misconception that it’s very complicated to get a sperm donor and people don’t want to have to jump through lots of hoops. In reality, it’s actually straightforward and licensed clinics are there to provide safe treatment and offer support to those trying to conceive. “