IVF: Single women use most sperm donations in Victoria but local donors drop off

Most people using donor sperm in IVF treatment in Victoria are now single women, but a shortfall of local donors is sending some overseas, where the safeguards aren’t as stringent.

Single women are now the greatest users of donor sperm in Victoria with more than 2500 using IVF over the past five years.

Women who want to start a family without a partner account for 52 per cent of all women using donor sperm, new data from the Victorian Assisted Reproduction Treatment Authority shows.

The next biggest category is women in same-sex relationships — comprising a third of donated sperm users. Heterosexual women with infertility problems made up 15 per cent.

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Authority chief executive officer Louise Johnson said legal changes and technological advances offered women more choice than ever.

“Women are choosing to go it alone rather than form relationships that won’t stand the test of time,” Ms Johnson said.

“Women have a range of different support strategies for bringing up their child regardless of whether they are single or in a relationship.

“It’s good parenting and love and nurturing that matters the most.”

“Women are feeling empowered to go ahead and use this technology.”

Women since 2010 have been able to access assisted reproduction treatments in Victoria regardless of their relationship status.

Shannon Hardy, with newborn Ellie just before the 2017 AFL grand final, in which Shannon’s beloved Tigers broke their premiership drought. Picture: Jason Edwards

But a shortfall of local sperm donors was sending some women overseas where the safeguards were not as high.

“Clinics are telling us they need more sperm donors to come forward,” Ms Johnson said.

“Women are going overseas for treatment where they do not have the same level of protection from anonymous sperm donors and no exchange of information down the track.”

Sperm donors who had exchanged information with donor-conceived adults found the process “very rewarding”, she said.

Shannon Hardy, 32, an emergency services fire dispatcher from Edithvale, was told in 2016 that she had one shot at motherhood because of a serious illness.

“I was told that if I wanted to have children I had to go down the path of IVF regardless of the fact that I was only 30 and single,” she said.

She’s now the delighted mother of cheeky, stubborn, gorgeous Ellie, nearly 17 months.

She fell pregnant on the second transfer and was supported through her pregnancy and birth by good friend Monique, dubbed the “baby daddy”, and student midwife Hannah.

Ms Hardy is grateful to the sperm donor who made it all possible.

“I sent him a thankyou letter for giving this option to women like myself to have children,” she said.

“If Ellie wants contact with him then I wouldn’t stop her, and I’ve even written a book about her journey — there are no secrets.”

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