“Find your donor.” While surfing quietly on Instagram a few days ago, Lisa, 28, came across an unexpected advertisement concerning… sperm donation. “I wondered why I was in the target of this campaign, knowing that I have never done any research on this subject and that I am relatively young”, she explains. On the post, a blond man with azure eyes smiles against a blue background. Around him, six pellets specify: “weight”, “eye color”, “hair color”, “origin”, “ethnicity”, “height”. Description: “Create an account and get started today.” “In your search for a donor, you can use filters such as ethnicity, hair color and size,” says our user. Lisa takes a screenshot and wonders: “This advertisement really surprised me, especially since it mentions the person’s ethnicity and origin. I didn’t know it was possible in France.”
international cryos
© / international cryos
It is not. In France, medically assisted procreation (AMP) – also called medically assisted procreation (PMA) – does not allow the physical appearance of the sperm donor to be chosen “from the catalogue” nor their ethnic origin. In France, “sperm flakes” – a volume allowing small doses of frozen sperm to be stored – cannot be ordered over the Internet and depend on the thirty Centers for the Study and Conservation of Human Eggs and Sperm (Cecos ) ) left for the territory. The company which broadcasts this advertisement, and which trades in the famous sequins, is not French. Cryos International, founded in 1987 in Aarhus, Denmark, is regularly dubbed “the Amazon of sperm”. For a long time now, the largest sperm bank in the world has been sending male gametes to different countries, including France.
Information meetings organized in France
However, “France is one of the countries in which sperm donation is the most regulated, remarks Mᵉ Antoine Chéron, of the firm ACBM lawyers. The sale and purchase of gametes are strictly prohibited, as they contravene the principle of free access required by the bioethics law of 2004 amended in 2011 and 2021”. An illegal practice, but which does not prevent the company from observing France carefully. The extension of access to medically assisted procreation to lesbian couples and single women in 2021 has opened up new prospects for her. “In December 2022, 5,500 women were on the Cecos waiting lists, underlines Vibeke Weinreich, Belgium and France regional manager of Cryos. Since the opening of the PMA for all, France constitutes a considerable market. If the company refuses to give the number of French customers, it notes that “five advisers” accompany them in their journey. On May 11, Cryos even organizes an “information meeting” in Lyon. In September, the brand will be present at the Wish for a Baby show in Paris, which “is aimed at all those who wish to start or expand their family”.
Læticia*, 38, turned to Cryos after several failures in the French course. “My husband being sterile, we have been trying to have a child through AMP since 2017, she says. I did four inseminations and two in vitro fertilizations.” Almost 40 years old, she recently chose to go to the Cryos site to try her luck. “I had an answer in less than twenty-four hours to my request for information, she recalls. They are very responsive.”
The “lengths” of the French procedure
From a free registration on the Cryos site, Læticia was able to browse part of the company’s database, which provides information for potential sperm and egg donors. Filters make it possible to specify one’s request at will: it is possible to choose donors whose identity is revealed – or not –, to access photos of them as children or adults. Cryos also offers other functionalities, allowing them to choose their origin (more than sixty nationalities are available), their “ethnicity” (African, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic or Middle Eastern), the color of their hair and their eyes, their height, their weight, their blood type… Cryos does not stop there: the company offers its customers the opportunity to discover the voice of potential candidates, their handwriting, and even their score on the emotional intelligence test. “There is also a donor sperm motility index! Laeticia exclaims. In all, you can filter nearly a hundred criteria to find the person you want.
This customization is not free. Because Cryos, which highlights its values as a “family company” eager “to help women realize their childhood dreams”, remains a business. Access to photos of a donor as an adult “for three months” costs “200 euros excluding VAT”, specifies the company’s website. The so-called category of “genetic matching”, a test which makes it possible to know whether associating with a particular donor entails a risk of disease for the unborn child, is also optional. “It’s quite mercantile,” sighs Léa*. At 33, this Breton woman chose to turn to Cryos because of the “length” of the French procedure. “I started the process [auprès du Cecos] shortly after the law opened access to ART to single women, in November 2021, she reports. I was given a first appointment in August 2022, but I can’t really start until June 2023.”
A paying delivery of semen straws
Tired, Léa looked at the options abroad “on the advice of her gynecologist” in September 2022. “I thought of Spain, but they do not reveal the identity of the donor. I want my child to be able to find it if he wants to,” she continues. After a first unsuccessful insemination in a private clinic in Copenhagen, the young woman discovered the Cryos site. “I made the choice to have an open donor, whose sperm motility was high, in order to improve the chances of getting pregnant,” she says. She also chose her nationality – “Australian-Danish” – after having long hesitated over the ethnicity of the donor. “I’ve always dreamed of having a mixed-race child, but I thought he might experience racism,” she says. So I preferred to avoid.” Assessment: “For that alone, I got 1,100 euros worth of sperm, to which we had to add 600 euros for transport,” she says.
Léa could not receive the glitter directly at home, but the package was delivered to a Parisian gynecologist. “Some practitioners agree to receive sperm donations and perform ART,” reveals the young woman. The practice is illegal: according to article 511-24 of the Penal Code, gynecologists who risk it incur five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros. “But these practitioners want to help women, like Cryos, assures Vibeke Weinreich. They see the suffering of French women and the slowness of your system.
Risk taking leads to rewards. In the case of Léa, for example, the Parisian gynecologist asked her for 300 euros “under the table”, in addition to the price of the consultations. “He told me that he was giving me a price, because I work in the medical sector, recalls Léa. That he was taking a risk, and that he therefore had to make sure of my seriousness. These gynecologists are rare: Léa therefore had to go to Paris to find hers. Læticia, usually followed in Burgundy, has to drive two hours to consult the practitioner who should receive the glitter from her future donor.
French gynecologists available
To find them, the two women claim to have turned to Cryos, which suggested a few names willing to work outside the usual circuit. On the Facebook group bringing together women wishing to embark on the adventure, the services of gynecologists advised by Cryos are also widely discussed. “What do you think of Dr S., in Lyon?” one asks. “And Dr. K., in Paris?” asks another. On the Cryos side, we continue to highlight the “militant commitment” of these professionals. “Fortunately they are there, abounds Léa. Otherwise, how could we try to remedy the French expectation? The young woman, for whom the Cryos sperm donation did not work, is now waiting for her next appointment as part of her procedures with Cecos.
Neither Léa nor Læticia say they are disturbed by the commercial exchange induced by Cryos, which seems to them to be a small price to pay to fulfill their desire to be a mother. Nor by the very thorough selection of the donor offered by the platform. “I prefer this system to that of France, believes Læticia. When a Cecos practitioner told me: ‘It will be a donor from your region’, it froze my blood. I have no desire to potentially come across him in my supermarket.” Læticia insists: when she chooses her donor, she will not have fun selecting someone who looks like a celebrity, or will not aim for a particular result. “I just want him to have the same eye and hair color as my companion,” she explains.
A growing acceptance
Contrary to popular belief, a form of selection also exists in France. But it is much less pushed. “The Cecos select gametes anonymously, but still look at the biological characteristics of the donor, points out Julie Mattiussi, lecturer in private law and criminal sciences, author of a thesis on the appearance of the physical person. They ensure that the blood group is similar to that of the mother, and that there is a matching of physical resemblance. Impossible, as with Cryos, to choose à la carte what a donor might look like with the idea of influencing the physique of an unborn child.
For Jean-Hugues Déchaux, professor of sociology at the University Lumière-Lyon II, specialist in the study of family and kinship transformations, the growing attraction of French women for sperm banks like Cryos is not A suprise. “Regular polls conducted on the subject, especially in the United States, show the growing acceptance of this kind of practice by the general public, believes the sociologist. The younger generations see fewer and fewer ethical objections to it.” The sperm trade still has a bright future ahead of it.
*Names have been changed.