Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics

, Volume 35, Issue 1, pp 107–118 | Cite as

Non-donors’ attitudes towards sperm donation and their willingness to donate

  • Veerle ProvoostEmail author
  • Florence Van Rompuy
  • Guido Pennings
Assisted Reproduction Technologies



The aim of this article is to study attitudes about sperm donation and willingness to donate sperm in students who have never shown an interest in sperm donation.


The method used in this study is an electronic survey of 1012 male students.


Only one third of the respondents (34.3%) would consider donating sperm. Overall, 85.7% indicated a positive attitude towards sperm donation while 14.3% indicated a neutral or negative attitude. The highest scored barriers to donating were the lack of practical information and the fear that the partner would not agree. Almost 40% of the respondents feared that the donation might have a negative impact on their current or future relationship. The majority (83.6%) of those who considered donating thought donors should receive a financial compensation. Money was also one of the main motivators.


About 85% of the students thought positively about sperm donation but several factors such as perceived negative views by the social environment, especially the partner, may deter students from donating. This study indicates that the effect of strong incentives, for instance in monetary terms, on a donor pool consisting of students could be limited and that relational factors and donor’s perceptions of the views of the wider social network should be taken into account when recruiting donors.


Attitude Donor conception Intention Sperm donation Students 



The project was funded by the Research Fund of Ghent University, Belgium.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval



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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Bioethics Institute Ghent, Department of Philosophy and Moral SciencesGhent UniversityGhentBelgium
  2. 2.Department of Reproductive MedicineAZ Jan Palfijn HospitalGhentBelgium

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