Informal sperm donation is on the rise in Australia. So are the risks

The Age

22-07-2025

The decision to find a sperm donor online and to conceive a child with a donor is a practice that's not only entirely unregulated, but also becoming increasingly common.
It's also one that carries huge risks. Without urgent changes, governments are sleepwalking into a public health crisis.
The story of a 32-year-old Melbourne man donating his sperm to 15 women (resulting in 27 half-siblings) highlights the scale of problems associated with informal sperm donation. In Victoria, the limit is a maximum of 10 families, and lower in other states.
It's estimated that as many as 4000 children have been born via informal sperm donation in the past decade, but one private Facebook group that connects informal donors and women says they recorded 692 births in 2022 alone.
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In large part, this practice – where sperm donors and those hoping to conceive connect through informal channels like Facebook or donor apps – is growing in popularity due to the prohibitive costs, wait times and lack of donor diversity available via IVF clinics.
While many sperm donors may be altruistic and have good intentions, anecdotal evidence and research suggests that others are acting unscrupulously – for example, donating in order to have sex with women under the false implication that natural insemination has a higher success rate than IVF or artificial insemination (where sperm is placed into a cup before being injected with a syringe). As The Age previously reported, one woman alleged she was sexually assaulted by an informal donor, while others reported feeling that their vulnerability and desperation for a child was played upon by informal donors, and used as a way to coerce them into sex.
Because of the informal nature of these arrangements, there is little oversight and even less data. But my research suggests these experiences are underreported. Whatever the exact numbers, no woman should have to go through this kind of trauma in the pursuit of parenthood.
While a rapid review has been announced in Victoria, this issue requires in-depth exploration nationwide to understand how many people are choosing informal donation, how many donations have resulted in live births, and how to track donor children.