Am Yisrael Chai: More than two years of a hard war have brought many changes to our daily lives in Israel. One of them comes specifically from the Rambam sperm bank, where reports indicate an increase in demand for sperm donations from IDF soldiers—a criterion that has become important among women using the bank’s services, alongside physical characteristics such as height, eye and hair color, and level of education.
“If we are used to receiving inquiries based on physical characteristics such as a tall candidate, skin tone, eyes and hair, ethnic origin, health profile, and level of education, recently there is a parameter of military service in a combat unit that is becoming increasingly significant in women’s choices,” says Dr. Gal Bachar, senior physician at the sperm bank and deputy head of the IVF unit. “When women choose a candidate for sperm donation, they create an ideal profile of who will be the biological father of their child, and perhaps this person will influence some traits that will help shape the children later,” she explains the motivation behind the trend. “In the past two years, we all live alongside extensive exposure to the activities of our soldiers, their character traits and abilities, and figures that connect to the ideal Israeli and what is good in us as a people. The wave of patriotism sweeping us now is also reflected in women’s choices at the sperm bank.”
At the Rambam sperm bank, it is reported that all currently registered donors served in the IDF, with 70% having served in combat units. Each month, about 15 new patients contact the Rambam sperm bank seeking sperm donations, with the trend of demand for donors from a combat military background becoming increasingly significant in the selection of the leading criteria for a donor—a trend that was negligible a decade ago but is gaining momentum year after year.
Biological, technological, and economic—the challenges on the way to becoming a “mother”
In the sperm donation process, men who meet the threshold criteria in terms of age, health, and family status donate sperm on a regular basis for artificial insemination for women or couples who cannot conceive naturally. Candidates who approach the sperm bank to become regular donors undergo rigorous medical and genetic tests, as well as personal evaluations. After the screening process, they may become regular donors, with their donations preserved at the sperm bank for future use in insemination and fertilization procedures.
In recent decades, there has been a significant decline in sperm quality among men worldwide, including in Israel, due to changes in diet, lifestyle, environmental factors, and more. This has led to an increasing number of women relying on sperm donation, but also to fewer and fewer men qualifying as potential donors.
“Only about ten percent of applicants are found suitable for donation at the end of the screening process,” notes Prof. Ofer Fainaru, head of the IVF unit and sperm bank at Rambam. “There is a constant need to recruit additional donors to allow all women contacting the sperm bank to realize their dream of motherhood. This is a nationwide issue faced by all sperm banks. Alongside technological and laboratory capabilities that did not exist in the past, today it is possible to achieve high success rates in fertilization processes and overcome challenges and obstacles along the way,” he says, emphasizing, “Another essential component in this process is the economic aspect. We see making sperm donations accessible to the entire population as no less than a mission, given the high prices of sperm samples at private banks in Israel and abroad, without compromising on the quality of the samples, the genetic tests performed, the health of the donors, or the quality of the sperm offered to women undergoing this process.”
At the Rambam Hospital sperm bank, healthy young men aged 21 to 32 are invited to come and donate sperm at a frequency of once or twice a month for one year, in exchange for a financial compensation of NIS 600. Details at Tel. 04-7772507.