Medically assisted procreation: a first interregional transfer of straws between Rennes University Hospital and Lille University Hospital orchestrated by the Agence de la biomédecine (French Biomedicine Agency)

Since the enactment of the French Bioethics Act, the activity of medically assisted procreation with sperm donation has seen unprecedented growth. In the space of 23 months, sperm donation centers have registered 30,000 requests from female couples and unmarried women. Demand from male/female couples remained stable at around 2,000 per year.

Since September 2022, all new gamete donations have been made within a framework allowing access to origins: donors register their identity, in the event that the person born thanks to their donation would like to know his or her origins. Stocks built up in the past under the anonymity regime will therefore no longer be used after March 31, 2025. During this transitional period and until that date, donation centers may still use old stocks of sperm flakes from anonymous donors.

Heterogeneities exist across the country, both in terms of the quality and number of sperm straws held by donation centers, and the disparity in the physical characteristics of donors.

At the request of the French Ministry of Health, the Agence de la biomédecine has undertaken to manage the pooling of existing stocks of straws, in order to limit the impact of this change and contribute to greater equity of care across the country.

The Agency identified centers with stocks that could be shared out, and centers with less abundant stocks of spermatozoid straws. It supported the centers in their mission (support from a medical biologist in the validation of files, modeling of the financial support to be provided to the teams) and participated, in liaison with the General Health Directorate, in drawing up an agreement for the transfer of spermatozoid straws between donation centers. In this context, the first transfers of straws will take place between the donation centers of Rennes University Hospital and Lille University Hospital, which have mobilized their medical-technical teams throughout the steering and implementation process. Further transfers of straws will take place throughout the region in the first half of 2024.

This strategy of redistributing sperm straws is all the more important as it enables donation centers to build up their stock of "new regime" donor straws. This operation is based on a logic of solidarity between gamete donation centers, the impact of which will be assessed, and which could eventually become the rule in gamete donation.

The number of new donors has not risen as quickly as the number of requests for treatment, despite major communication campaigns and strong public support for the new law. New recruitment campaigns are planned for 2024 to massively increase the number of donors.

Gamete donation is open to all men aged 18 to 44 and all women aged 18 to 37. It is anonymous and free of charge. However, information about the donor may be provided, upon reaching the age of majority, to persons born of a MAP who so request.

For more information or to make a donation: www.dondegametes.fr

Press contacts

Lille University Hospital: Audrey STANEK, 03 20 44 49 23, audrey.stanek@chu-lille.fr

CHU de Rennes: Anne-Catherine BELLIOT, 02 99 28 84 24, anne-catherine.belliot@chu-rennes.fr Agence de la biomédecine: Hélène DUGUET, 01 55 93 69 43, helene.duguet@biomedecine.fr