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Demand for sperm is far outstripping supply in the increasingly lucrative global market for semen, with American sperm in particular having become one of the hottest commodities.
While the buyer’s market has increased globally, American sperm is preferred because of the many regulations that mandate rigorous testing of sperm for communicable diseases as well as greater variety.
The US also has no limit to how many families a man can donate to, though the number is usually capped at 10 per donor in most countries. This means more frequent donations, and seeing as how sperm donors in the US can be paid for their contributions, there is no shortage of donors.
According to Arthur Caplan, a professor at NYU and head of medical ethics at the Grossman School, in the US, “you can just pay for what you want.”
As such, US sperm has become one of the country’s most lucrative resources. How lucrative? Well, by weight, super premium semen (priced at about $4,000 per gram) now costs more than Beluga caviar (at about $3 per gram for roe).
According to The Financial Times, this sperm-boom is a global phenomenon, and the estimated worldwide market was valued at $5 billion in 2022.
But the high price for sperm is now changing the donor landscape. Large banks like California CyoBank have been trading in semen since 1977 but recently have capitalised on top swimmers.
Their online databases are now becoming more nuanced with their offering, with donors being scrutinised according to their height and eye or hair color (including whether it’s straight or curly) to hobbies and personal statements like “I pride myself on being a good friend.”
Top donors are even being given Marvel hero-style nicknames, and you can now choose from options like “Happy Hockey Yogi,” “Marathon Man,” and “A Scholar and a B-Baller.”
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“If you’re after Robert Redford’s looks but Einstein’s brain, it’s going to be challenging – those are the donors who fetch higher prices,” says Dr Rafat Abbasi, a fertility specialist in Washington, DC. At the highest end of the market, “a sperm donor could earn up to $20,000” for their contribution.
However, the US sperm pipeline is struggling to keep up with supply, partly because of the stringent regulations, as well as the standard requirement such as celibacy beforehand, and no alcohol or drugs. The strict requirements are also affecting the number of top donors coming in to make a deposit.
“We’re using couch potatoes, because what young Goldman Sachs analyst or Harvard law student has the time to go to the clinic before it closes at 5 PM?”
Commercial DNA-tracking services such as ancestry searches are also making anonymity difficult to guarantee. While legal paperwork might keep your identity a secret, there’s no way of knowing whether a kid will knock on your door one day after sending his DNA off to a lab for testing.
“The loss of anonymity due to genetic tracing technology, and that shift in the legal climate away from ‘anonymity first’, means men have backed away from voluntary donation.”
The industry now hopes to encourage men to bank on ‘reserves’ by donating at their sexual peak, with the sperm then being frozen and stored for later use. At a cost of roughly $100 per year, a young man can freeze his sperm for decades, and perhaps even die before his offspring is introduced back into the world.
One such company is Legacy, which has the frozen assets of close to 30,000 donors – with more than one-third of them Fortune 100 CEOs, 35% of whom have a master’s degree or higher.
Considering the value and exclusivity of the modern sperm market, it’ll probably be a matter of time before luxury brands like Balenciaga or Rolls Royce enter the semen market. Why not? Then you can have a Rolls Royce owner’s child without having to date an aging billionaire.
[Source: Financial Times]
