How coronavirus vaccination anxiety is forcing some women to re-think potential sperm donors

The term “future proof” has taken on a new context with vaccine anxiety forcing some women to think about which man they choose to help make their family dream come true. A poll on a closed group online has revealed more than 15 per cent of Australians will avoid using a sperm donor who has been vaccinated against COVID-19. “When picking a sperm donor, is it important to you if he has been recently vaccinated?” the question on the poll on the Sperm Donation Australia Facebook page read. Just over 80 per cent of voters said they did not care what a sperm donor’s vaccination status was, while 4 per cent indicated they would only use a vaccinated donor. But 15.2 per cent said they would not use a donor who had received a COVID jab. One participant told The Sunday Times she believed there was not enough research on possible fertility implications after having the vaccine, and that she did not want to jeopardise her chances of starting a family. “I have good fertility, everything’s going well but I don’t want anything to hinder that,” Clover Cross said. “I’m very cautious about the COVID vaccine. There’s no long-term studies that I have been able to read yet. “I’ve gone in and spoken to doctors and they can’t give me a direct answer on whether it’s going to affect my chances. I believe every-one should have a choice if they want the vaccine or not and I’m not going to be coerced.” Ms Cross and her partner Anastasia Wittman are in the process of choosing a sperm donor but are finding it challenging to attend a fertility clinic with parts of the country going in and out of lockdowns. This has pushed the same-sex couple to join sperm donor pages online to explore other avenues to fulfil their dream of being pregnant by the end of the year. “Lockdowns are definitely making it difficult and it’s upsetting for people who want to have a child and are ready to have a child,” the 33-year-old said. “I haven’t been able to go into a clinic because they have been shut so that’s why we have been joining pages to see if there are other ways of doing it. “On the pages, you can see a man’s characteristics and you can get to know him, whereas through the clinic they give you the health history but you don’t see what they look like.” Thousands of Australian men donate sperm every year to help single women, same-sex couples, and couples struggling to conceive, to have a baby. In Australia, donors cannot be paid for their sperm and those who choose to be de-identified — keeping their personal identity private — can help up to five or 10 families, depending on what State or Territory they live in. In WA, it is five. Perth’s Richard Alexander is a sperm donor who has helped five families in WA to have eight children. He also voted on the Sperm Donation Australia Facebook page poll and said he was concerned the COVID vaccine could increase defects in unborn children, referring to a female hormone estrogen medicine called Diethylstillbestrol, which was prescribed to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage and pregnancy complications in the Netherlands between 1947 and 1976. Up to 378,000 pregnant women used the drug — also known as DES — with many of their children born with defects, developmental abnormalities and an increased risk of having cancer. “There was a 200 per cent increase in defects when it came to growth in the womb,” the 36-year-old told The Sunday Times. “In my case, I’m happy and healthy and if I ever got COVID, I’d probably be sick for a few weeks but it wouldn’t affect me much. “What is the chance of me actually dying of it or having other adverse effects for something that is too unknown? For me, I’m going to wait at least two years before considering taking the vaccine.” One of Australia’s leading fertility providers said it was going through a sperm shortage with COVID restrictions making it difficult for men to attend clinics to go through the donation process. “For a man to be a sperm donor, it involves quite intense preparation including visits to the clinic to be seen by a specialist, having blood tests done and banking sperm samples, as well as going through the very important process of counselling,” IVF Australia medical director Dr Peter Illingworth said. “The lockdown has made it harder and as a consequence, our number of sperm donors has halved since 2019 — the last COVID-free year. Many families cannot have children unless men are willing to come forward and be sperm donors. We will do everything we can including Telehealth and limiting the travel to make the process safe.” Dr Illingworth said sperm recipients should not let the vaccine put them off from choosing a donor. “The vaccine’s been used quite extensively in pregnant women and there’s no evidence that the vaccine crosses the placenta and does any harm to babies,” he said. “The effect on a man’s fertility has also been tested and there’s no evidence it actually does any harm to a man’s fertility or to the DNA in their sperm. The advice to all of our patients is to get vaccinated.” Australian National University Medical School Obstetrics and Gynaecology Professor Steve Robson said any sperm currently being used at clinics was most likely frozen before the vaccine was rolled out. “What people don’t realise is that the COVID vaccines are now the most studied vaccines in human history and how they work is by creating an immune response in somebody’s system that attacks the virus the minute the body encounters it,” Professor Robson said. “When fertilisation happens for sperm, the only bit of the sperm that gets into the egg is the DNA so it cannot possibly have any effect.”