The decision to find a sperm donor online and to conceive a child with a donor is a practice that’s not only entirely unregulated, but also becoming increasingly common.

It’s also one that carries huge risks. Without urgent changes, governments are sleepwalking into a public health crisis.

The high cost of IVF is driving people to informal sperm donation.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

The story of a 32-year-old Melbourne man donating his sperm to 15 women (resulting in 27 half-siblings) highlights the scale of problems associated with informal sperm donation. In Victoria, the limit is a maximum of 10 families, and lower in other states.

It’s estimated that as many as 4000 children have been born via informal sperm donation in the past decade, but one private Facebook group that connects informal donors and women says they recorded 692 births in 2022 alone.

In large part, this practice – where sperm donors and those hoping to conceive connect through informal channels like Facebook or donor apps – is growing in popularity due to the prohibitive costs, wait times and lack of donor diversity available via IVF clinics.

While many sperm........

© The Sydney Morning Herald