The Rh Negative Blog

Why are children produced via sperm banks healthier?

Please note, that I am in no way, shape or form promoting the usage of sperm banks.

The question I am raising:

What can we do to ensure that our offspring, conceived the old-fashioned way, is at least as healthy as children conceived via sperm banks?

Potential sperm donors are screened for genetic compatibility.

Medical advances have been made, but nature seems to win.

Children conceived through sperm donation have a birth defect rate of almost a fifth compared with the general population. This may be explained by the fact that sperm banks only accept donors who have good semen quality, and because of the rigorous screening procedures which they adopt.

In addition, sperm banks may try to ensure that the sperm used in a particular recipient woman comes from a donor whose blood group and genetic profile is compatible with those of the woman.

Sperm donation is also used in cases of rhesus incompatibility. This particularly occurs where a woman is rhesus negative, and her partner is rhesus positive. The woman’s body may reject a foetus if it has rhesus positive blood. Anti D injections have been developed and may be used to attempt to avoid this, and these are usually automatically given to rhesus negative women immediately after they give birth to their first child. However, in the past this was either not possible or was not always routinely undertaken where a woman had gave birth or had an abortion and she may have trouble carrying a child later in life. Furthermore, for some women, the anti D injection does not provide the entire solution, particularly where there is a medical history of complications during pregnancy which risk the woman’s blood and that of the foetus becoming mixed. In such cases, sperm from a rhesus negative donor can provide the solution and a woman may be able to conceive and carry a pregnancy to full term when otherwise this would not be possible. For this reason, sperm from rhesus negative sperm donors is often in great demand, particularly those with the O negative blood group who are universal donors.

Rh and ABO blood type compatibility are a major part of it.

Most people do not know their blood types.

My advice:

Find a partner with whom you are compatible on as many levels as possible.

Selecting a partner who can donate blood to you, can avoid blood type incompatibilitis in pregnancies.

If you register at Date by Type, search for users by blood type.

The easiest way is to find someone who shares your blood type.

If you are female, search for men by blood types compatible to donate blood to you.

If you are male, search for females with blood types that your blood type is compatible to donate blood to.

If you are already in a relationship, find out both of your blood types.

That way, even if they may indicate potential complications down the road, you will at least be prepared and have time to ensure that your physicians will properly guide you through a possible future pregnancy.

Below are the links to Date by Type where you can find a blood type compatible partner.

Homepage:

https://www.datebytype.com

Join:

https://www.datebytype.com/users/signup

Search for a potential partner by blood type:

https://www.datebytype.com/users

See also: