For many career women in Uganda the idea of bypassing a man and going straight to a fertility clinic for intra uterine insemination with donor sperm is becoming more and more popular. Single women who want babies find it easier to achieve this through a sperm bank.
They have taken the “I do not need a man to make me happy,” adage a notch higher and have joined the world of sperm buyers. It is not a thing of the movies anymore. In Uganda, a woman can go to a gynaecologist and have intra uterine insemination done, so that she can have a baby without getting sexually involved with a man.
Dr. Prakash Patel, a gynaecologist and proprietor of the Fertility Endoscopy Clinic at Kisozi Complex in Nakasero, says 10 years ago, he hardly received women requesting for donor sperm, but today, the numbers are growing.
“These women are usually aged between 35 and 45 years,” he said.
And these are no ordinary women. Patel says they are affluent, educated and independent.
He says being career-driven and independent is one of the key factors pushing women to seek sperm donors.
“A woman decides to concentrate on her career. She ‘awakes’ at 40, unmarried, with no boyfriend in sight and yet she wants a baby. Or, she has been through failed relationships over and over, but wants to have babies,” Patel explains.
He says there are also single women who want babies with specific characteristics such as particular skin tone, hair and eye colour and find it easier to achieve this through sperm donors.
Patel says before women undergo the process, they must sign documents stating that they cannot ask to know the identity of the sperm donor. The reverse applies to the donor.”
The process
Patel explains that on receiving a woman in need of donated sperm, he investigates her reproductive health. “Her fallopian tubes should be open, the uterus normal and she should have well-balanced reproductive hormones.”
The client is then presented with three to four profiles of anonymous sperm donors to choose from. For example, they can choose a sperm donor on grounds of eye colour, height, education level, profession, race and social character.
Interestingly, he says, he receives a big number of Ugandan women asking for White sperm donors.
After deciding on the donor, he embarks on the process of intra uterine insemination.
He explains that usually, a woman produces one egg per cycle. However, with intra uterine insemination, she is given medication to boost the production of up to five eggs.
“With the medication, she produces more eggs in a single cycle and of better quality than she would have done on her own, particularly if she is of advanced age,” he says.
When the eggs are ripe, medication is given for them to be released from the ovaries. The doctor then makes a calculation regarding the period at which the ovaries will release the eggs, to make them available for fertilisation and it is in that period that he inserts sperm into the uterus through the cervix.
“After 24 hours, he introduces another set of sperm from the same donor into the uterus. This is done to increase the chances of conception.”
After 14 days, the woman is checked to find out whether conception took place.
About the sperm donors
Patel says not anyone who walks into his clinic can donate sperm. He uses strict criteria to select them.
“Donors are assessed medically, physically, psychologically and socially. Their education level is also assessed.”
He explains that the international body governing fertility clinics imposes a limit of eight pregnancies per donor. For instance, if one donor had 50 children, it would be unfortunate.
“Variation in the human race has to continue. Should these children inter-marry without knowing that they are half-brothers and half-sisters, there is a high risk of developing congenital abnormalities, especially in the heart and brain,” Patel says.
‘What will you tell that child in the future?’
Joseph Musaalo, a counsellor at the Uganda Christian University, Mukono, is skeptical about the new trend in Uganda and notes that not only does it have no place in our culture, considering that the society is patrilineal, but has consequences, particularly in the future, when children start asking about their paternity.
“Today, you are looking for a child, so you settle for intra uterine insemination, but in the future, that child will be looking for its father, and what will you tell them?” Musaalo asks.
He adds that on discovering that they have no fathers, such children are likely to suffer psychologically.
“There is a high risk of breeding a generation of people with low self-esteem because they do not know where they belong,” he says.
The moment a child discovers they were conceived under such circumstances, they may have to undergo counselling.
He warns of stigmatisation should a child’s peers discover his unique roots. “Their peers might label them,” Musaalo warns.
To evade endless questions, one could lie to their child that their father passed on, but Musaalo warns against raising children under false pretense.
“You risk getting thousands of questions, and after all, the truth always comes out.”
Regardless of how one becomes a single parent, single parenthood is difficult.
‘My DAD’s Name is donor’
Sperm donation is common worldwide, especially in Korea, Canada, UK, US and India.
In the US, it is estimated that 30,000 to 60,000 children are conceived each year through sperm donation.
Many of these are now adults and are speaking out against the practice that brought them into existence and call it, “The violent act of buying and selling a child.”
To propel their plight further, a documentary, Anonymous Father’s Day, is making its rounds in the US and UK, featuring stories of children fathered by anonymous sperm donors and their challenges.
Jennifer Lahl, the director of Anonymous Father’s Day, says she created the documentary to give a voice to such children because their concerns are often overlooked.
Furthermore, ‘My Daddy’s Name is Donor,’ a report released by the Commission on Parenthood’s Future, surveyed young adults conceived through sperm donation and compared their responses to those of peers raised by adopted parents and biological parents.
The study found that 43% of donor offspring, compared to 15% of adopted children, and 6% who were raised by biological parents, agreed with the statement: “I feel confused about who is a member of my family and who is not.”
Moreover, 48% of donor offspring compared to only 19% of adopted children agreed: “When I see friends with their biological fathers and mothers, it makes me feel sad.”
Source: Vicky Wandawa New vision 19th June 2012