Why so few AA donors?

OnlyPositiveVibesOnlyPositiveVibes Posts: 7
in Ask California Cryobank
CCB,
I am having a hard time understanding why there are only a handful of African American and even mixed donors available? I'm aware that its the same situation at the other 2 cryobanks. I cannot believe how limited I am to choosing a donor that may possibly be able to give me a child that will at all look like he/she came from my husband and I. Shouldn't the list of donors be somewhat reflective of the US population? I would expect there to be at least 10% AA's. Do they not meet the criteria more of the time? Are they not recruited? Or just a segment of the population not as willing to donate sperm as other races? Just really curious...

Thanks!!!

Comments

  • cryo-admincryo-admin Posts: 4,547
    Hi O -

    In general, it's difficult for an applicant to be accepted into our donor program. We accept less than 1% of applicants. Specimen quality is one of the biggest factors, as we are looking for a certain quality that is only in the top 15-20% of the male population.

    Here's some info and a video on our screening process:
    https://cryobank.com/How-It-Works/Donor-Qualification/

    We recruit donors in major metropolitan areas that have diverse populations such as Los Angeles, New York City, Cambridge, Palo Alto, and Houston. Our locations are conveniently located to college campuses, since we only accept donors that are enrolled in a 4-year university or already have a Bachelor's degree.

    We have tried different tactics to recruit more African American donors and even reached out to college student groups. Some of the feedback that we received was that they weren't open to the idea of sperm donation.

    Views on sperm donation have changed quite a bit since we first opened our donors in 1977 and things are moving in a positive direction, but there are still some social groups that are hesitant to accept this process.

    We currently have 23 African American/Black donors on our catalog, which is a larger number than we had in years past. We have 5 donors listed as "Mixed or Multi-Ethnic". Please note that this category includes specific ancestries like Dominican, Jamaican, etc. (If a donor were African American and German, he would not be listed in that category.)

    We routinely have new donors added to our catalog and we also have sold out donors reappear if we have additional vials to release. You can save a search with criteria that you are looking for and check back to see if any different donors appear in your saved search.

    Another factor to consider is that our vials sell out because we limit the number of family units per donor. We can't simply collect more vials of sought after donors.

    If you're interested in doing donor matching to find a donor that resembles your husband, please feel free to contact La'Trice at x1140. She's helped many couples find donors that resemble their husbands!

    Regards,

    Nicole
    CCB
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