It is advertised as "more fun than giving blood", but Canberra's single women and other childless couples are still relying on American donors for 80 per cent of their sperm options, a specialist said.
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Canberra Fertility Centre's scientific director Chris Copeland said they're not alone, with Australian men generally – renown for their virility in US popular culture – not coming anywhere close to meeting national donor sperm demand.
"I think a lot of it is cultural, Australians are not good donors across the board – how many times do you hear the Red Cross putting up their hand, and we are one of the poorer organ donors," he said.
"I think most women would prefer a local donor, but at the end of the day they have to take what's there."
While the location of the donor was an issue for some women, other characteristics were generally more important, he said.
Recipients could find out height, hair and eye colour, complexion and origins, with occupation optional.
The centre obtained a large amount of its sperm from Denmark prior to a change of donor guidelines in 2004, when the National Health and Medical Research Council said children born from donor semen had a right to know their father's identity, if they chose to.
Dr Copeland said most US donor banks complied with the requirement, unlike many European clinics. The changes had also had a negative impact on Australian and ACT donation levels, which was understandable, he said.
"Often the man's partner is against it," he said.
"You're not just convincing him, you're often having to convince her, and if they are in a couple relationship we actually make sure that she knows about it."
The centre, the capital's largest provider of fertility services, had a demand from "several hundred" women each year for sperm donations, with demand steady in the last five years. The vast majority of calls were from those in same-sex relationships or who are single, he said.
Professor Steve Robson, a specialist with Canberra's Genea clinic, said the change in Australian guidelines had been a "huge disincentive" to potential donors, but there were other factors.
"Sperm donation is not a simple one-off thing, what you want is someone who give regular donations ideally over several years, and they have to be regularly tested," he said.
Insemination, for example, would often require 13 straws of thawed semen to be confident of success, with less for IVF treatments.
The Genea clinic uses mostly donors known to the recipients, as well as some local and overseas unknown donors.
But Professor Robson said men should not think they had to look like Aussie stars Hugh Jackman or Chris Hemsworth to meet recipients' criteria.
"I've been impressed over 20 years about the qualities that women tend to look for – one might expect they look for a tall, handsome kind of guy, but in fact most people look for a man who does a lot of volunteer work, or is musical, or loves his mum," he said.
Quick facts
*Sperm donation in Australia must be altruistic, with donors only receiving reimbursement for expenses, such as medical costs and travel.
*Donors have no legal responsibilities or rights to offspring conceived from their donated semen.
*A maximum of five women can use a donor's sperm.
*Any of these five families can use a donor's sperm again after a successful birth, if it's available.
