Aggregated News
The UK's first national sperm bank has stopped recruiting donors less than two years after its launch, it has emerged.
The National Sperm Bank said it was unable to fund further donor recruitment, having successfully only taken on seven men.
It was set up in October 2014 with a government grant to tackle the shortage of donors, particularly at NHS clinics.
The Department of Health say the NSB's demise will not affect people's access to safe sperm donation services.
A shortage of donors often drives patients overseas or to unregistered services.
Based in Birmingham, the NSB received a one-off £77,000 grant from the Department of Health to get up and running. The aim was for the bank to be financially self-sufficient within one year.
It was a joint project run by the charity the National Gamete Donation Trust and Birmingham Fertility Centre, a unit at Birmingham Women's Hospital.
In total, eight sperm donors were recruited since it launched, with one later dropping out.
But with the full donor process taking up to 18 months, the bank was unable to generate...
