A technician prepares sperm straws frozen in liquid nitrogen at the Center for the Study and Conservation of Human Eggs and Sperm (CECOS) at Rennes University Hospital, March 12, 2024 (Damien MEYER)
With the increase in requests for donations for medically assisted procreations (PMA) and the lifting of donor anonymity, a “solidarity operation” is being organized between sperm banks, the first taking place on Wednesday between Rennes and Lille, to “optimize” stocks.
At Cecos (Center for the Study and Conservation of Human Eggs and Sperm) in Rennes, in an annex of the University Hospital, biologist Ségolène Veau scans a room where around ten large aluminum tanks purr. “There are at least a billion sperm,” she exclaims.
All must be used before March 31, 2025, the date on which a law allows any person conceived by gamete donation to know the identity of the donor while anonymity was until then the rule, she points out.
However, the Cecos of Rennes, “first in France in terms of quantity of straw” – these fine sticks preserved in nitrogen and which each contain between 0.5 and 15 million spermatozoa – is “surplus” in donations.
Beyond March 31, 2025, if they are not used, Cecos de Rennes will have to destroy them because they will no longer comply with the law, being from anonymous donors.
In order to avoid this “waste”, the Cecos of Rennes, under the supervision of the Biomedicine Agency, will therefore give 1,100 straws to the Cecos of Lille, which is “in deficit”, explains Professor Marc-Antoine Belaud- Rotureau, head of the cytogenetics department at Rennes University Hospital.
This transfer, the first in France, foreshadows “national management: donations are very precious (…) we make sure to optimize donations in order to care for as many patients as possible” within the framework of PMA, he elaborates.
This is “a solidarity operation” during which the Cecos of Rennes will send 8,000 straws to other deficit centers such as Brest, Nantes or even Nancy, argues Véronique Anatole-Touzet, director of the Rennes University Hospital.
Read more
“We absolutely must have sperm donations (…) We talk about blood and organ donations but we talk less about sperm donation, even though there is a considerable medical and societal demand “, insists Ms. Anatole-Touzet.
– Find donors –
Next to Dr. Veau, a colleague in a white coat carefully opens one of the aluminum tanks from which a cloud of liquid nitrogen escapes. Equipped with pliers, he grabs a cup filled with a hundred cryogenic straws and delicately places them in two small tanks.
The size of a gasoline can but very heavy and filled with this potentially fatal gas for humans, they will leave for Lille on Wednesday, by truck.
Even if Cecos de Rennes is the best-off in France in terms of donations, these are not sufficient to meet the demand for PMA, point out Dr Veau and Professor Belaud-Rotureau.
While infertility is growing in France, the bioethics law of August 2, 2021 now also allows couples of women or single women to use assisted reproduction.
“An unprecedented development”, estimates the Biomedicine Agency, in a press release.
PMA requests have increased seven-fold nationally and eight-fold in Rennes, according to professionals at Cecos de Rennes.
Donations have only doubled, returning to their level before the Covid pandemic, i.e. “30 to 40 donations” per year. Impossible, therefore, to satisfy the demand for PMAs: each insemination requires 3 to 4 straws.
“The recruitment of donors remains an extremely sensitive subject (…) because gametes cannot be made, they depend solely on an act of generosity,” recalls Dr. Veau.
With the 1,100 straws donated by Rennes, between 300 and 400 women will be able to benefit from PMA from Cecos de Lille, professionals report. And, in the meantime, this center will be able to collect more sperm donations and strengthen its stock of straw.
all-mcl/mb/dlm
2024-03-14 02:27:32
#Solidarity #operation #Lille #Rennes #optimize #sperm #donations
