Couples are being offered a free cycle of IVF treatment worth £3,000 if the man donates a sperm sample.
The fertility clinic chain, Care, says sperm stocks have fallen to an all-time low, with only 12 new volunteers registering each month.
Experts blame the crisis on the removal last year of donor anonymity. Now children born from donated sperm can trace their biological fathers once they reach 18. Under Care's 'sperm sharing' scheme a man whose partner is undergoing IVF treatment can claim a free cycle if he donates a sample which can be frozen and used by other couples.
In many cases where couples seek IVF, the man has no fertility problem and has healthy sperm.
Care, which has ten clinics across the UK, says the scheme will help couples who cannot afford private IVF but don't qualify for treatment on the NHS. It will also help to cut the queues of single women, couples where the man is infertile and lesbian couples who cannot find a suitable donor.
The clinic already operates an 'egg sharing' scheme where women who donate eggs are given cut-price IVF treatment. About 500 egg donations were made this way last year. Dr Glenn Atkinson, medical director of Care in Manchester, admitted couples might be deterred from taking part because men who failed to conceive with their wife or partner might be traced by children born by sperm donation.
'Any couple thinking about this are offered counselling about the implications of children they did not know they had turning up on their doorstep out of the blue many years later,' he said.
November 2006
| 
Doctor Must Pay Maintenance For Unwanted Baby
