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Sweden is facing a sperm donation shortage as potential donors are avoiding hospitals because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ann Thurin Kjellberg, head of the reproduction unit at Gothenburg’s University Hospital, told Reuters, “We’re running out of sperm. We’ve never had so few donors as during the last year.”
Thurin revealed that it’s a national phenomenon, adding that “we’ve run out in Gothenburg and Malmo, they will soon run out in Stockholm.” The three are the most populous cities in Sweden.
The shortage means that those looking at assisted pregnancy will have to wait much longer for treatments. Margareta Kitlinski, a senior consultant at the Centre of Reproductive Medicine at the Skane University Hospital in Malmo, told Euronews, “the waiting list was three months to one year maximum and now we have a waiting list for two years. I do think the last year has doubled the waiting list.”
She adds, “So, over the last three months we have had to take a pulse and [right now], we don’t do any IVF treatment with donor sperms because we simply don’t have any.”
The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology reports that Sweden has one of the highest assisted conception rates in the world.
The country has both public and private reproduction units. Those looking to get treatments at a private clinic may have to pay up to 100,000 Swedish crowns (roughly P572,032), while public treatments are free.
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