The tidy amount you'll get for donating sperm as payment amount rises

Britain's fertility regulator has raised sperm donation compensation amid a nationwide shortage of samples. 

Men were previously paid up to £35 per clinic visit to cover expenses such as travel. It is illegal to pay to donate sperm. 

But as of today, donors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will now receive £45. 

In the UK, men are permitted to help father 10 families overall — meaning they could stand to make hundreds of pounds over the course of their appointments. 

Health leaders have long feared the nationwide donor shortage may be forcing women to buy samples from rogue online banks. 

Experts however said it is not due to a 'lack of applicants' in the UK, but 'the lack in the quality of the applicants'.

Sperm donation is used to help people start families when they can't have children of their own naturally – if, for example, a male partner is infertile, if both parents are women, or if the mother is single.

In the UK it is regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

Under these rules, all donors are screened for STIs and inheritable medical conditions, such as debilitating asthma, clubfoot and haemophilia.

The HFEA said the compensation rise was partly due to inflation being high in recent years, but it warned against donating solely for the money.

It is the first time compensation for both sperm and egg donors in all three nations has risen since 2011. 

Egg donor compensation has today also increased from £750 to £986.

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A HFEA spokesperson said: 'Choosing to become a donor is a complex decision, with implications for the donor and their wider family, the recipient, and any child born as a result.

'Donors will go through rigorous medical screening and must be comfortable with the fact that any children born from their donation can contact them when they turn 18.'

To tackle the shortage, British couples can import sperm in the UK through any licensed fertility clinic at a cost of close to £950 a dose.

Some 3,000 samples are brought in from Denmark and 4,000 from the US each year, statistics suggest.

Another option is online websites, where people can arrange a donation privately but HFEA warns there are 'very real risks and consequences' of obtaining sperm this way.

Nicole Nel, operations and laboratory manager at the London Sperm Bank, however believes the shortage is not due to a 'lack of applicants' in the UK, but 'the lack in the quality of the applicants'.

She also told the BBC that the way people live their lives may be affecting the quality of their sperm. 

Ms Nel also believes the narrative is changing surrounding the typical sperm donor.

'Maybe 20 years ago it was students but I think now it's a very healthy combination of people because infertility has become a more widely discussed topic and awareness has been increased around it,' she said.

'I think the type of person that actually ends up becoming a donor is someone that is more aware of what they're doing, it's not your typical student just looking for an easy way to make money.'

The HFEA said UK sperm donors commonly visit a clinic 'once a week for between three and six months'.

One of these visits will involve ejaculating into a sterilised cup and the sperm is then frozen and stored.

It is not possible to donate anonymously and all donors are made aware that any child born can contact them once they turn 18.  

In the UK, current rules also mean a single sperm donor can only create ten families in this country, with each family potentially including multiple siblings. 

But there is no regulation limiting the number of families that donors can create overseas.

Some foreign centres allow sperm donations from the same person to be used to create a 1,000 or more separate families.

Experts warn the issue is becoming pressing because more than half of donated sperm used in Britain is imported from abroad – and demand for sperm donors is growing due to an increase in single women and same-sex female couples having children.

The number of same-sex female couples having IVF jumped by 33 per cent between 2019 and 2021, according to fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

Last year, Professor Jackson Kirkman-Brown, chair of the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists, warned it could be 'psychological harmful' for children to discover they have hundreds or even thousands of half-siblings.

He said: 'If you've always thought you're an incredibly special gift, suddenly finding there are 300 people who share 50 per cent of your DNA is a very difficult concept to get your head around.'

Research also suggests people who are donor-conceived often feel pressure to keep in touch with dozens of half-siblings but this can be 'almost an impossibility' which can cause great stress. 

In July, Netflix premiered an explosive documentary 'The Man with 1,000 kids' investigating Jonathan Meijer who defrauded dozens of parents across the globe.

Women told how they felt 'betrayed' and 'angry' after discovering how many other children the now 43-year-old musician has fathered.