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Australian women requiring donor sperm to conceive will need to compete for a “dramatically reduced” number of donors and pay huge price increases for sperm because of what experts say was a snap government decision.
Fertility specialists say a new interpretation of NSW law means women will be forced to travel interstate to find donors, worsening a long-standing “sperm drought” in Victoria and causing distressing delays beyond the existing one to two years.
Clinicians, including Fertility First medical director Dr Anne Clark, say donor sperm supplies in NSW clinics are running out, especially from caucasian donors (which many clients require), after the state government unexpectedly hardened its stance on how many women each donor’s sperm can inseminate.
The industry previously understood that five women could be inseminated per donor (including the donor’s family) in NSW. However, the government says the rule actually refers to five women globally, meaning far fewer donors to go around in NSW.
Prices for imported sperm have since increased from about $1000-$2000 to tens of thousands of dollars.
Some women are already turning to online groups in which men have been reported coercing women for sex, says consumer advocates. They warn that online groups offer no genetic or STI testing or caps on family numbers.
‘We have no interest in what an interstate ART provider does in their own state.’
Peter Robinson, of the NSW Ministry of Health, in an email to Fertility First asking about exporting gametes beyond the NSW five-family per donor limit.
Assisted Reproductive Technology Families Australia chair Michelle Galea, whose Sydney clinic is part of the national Genea group, said fertility chains relied on long-standing specialist legal advice that the “five women per sperm donor rule” in NSW legislation meant five in the state.
Given the Australia-wide shortage of local donors, this understanding allows imported sperm to be used in other countries or Australian states, which has been the case in practice. States and territories have inconsistent donor-limits, but eastern states other than NSW allow 10.
Clark said NSW Health determined with no notice last September that the law, which does not spell out if the context is statewide or worldwide, applied globally.
This threw treatment into chaos as women were told existing embryos could not be implanted (before they were eventually exempted), and caused prices from world sperm banks to hike.
Donor limits in each state or territory
- ACT: Five families in the ACT or 10 families Australia-wide
- NSW: Five women
- Northern Territory: No limit
- Queensland: 10 families (from mid to late 2026)
- South Australia: 10 families
- Tasmania: No limit
- Victoria: 10 women (women in same-sex relationships can use the same donor for genetic siblings, and existing families can use more than one surrogate for genetic siblings)
- Western Australia: Five families
“It has essentially meant all [fertility] units had run out of donors before December, unless women are prepared to pay $35,000-$65,000, or use a donor that did not match their ethnicity, a few of those are still available,” she said.
“So the options are to remain childless, be on a long waiting list while fertility, and the chance of having the family size they wanted, is significantly reduced, go to another state for treatment … Or use one of the online unregulated social media sites.”
Victorian women are also affected “because the donor supply there is so limited, some [used to] elect to come to NSW to have treatment in a more timely way”, said Clark.
NSW Health took action late last year against Monash IVF for using sperm a donor for a patient in Victoria and four in NSW, which according to legal advice provided by fertility lawyer Stephen Page is within the law.
Page says nothing in the legislation or its speeches specifies a global donor limit.
This appears to be supported by a 2021 email exchange – seen by this masthead – between Fertility First laboratory manager Tracie Jacobs and Peter Robinson, from the regulation and compliance unit in NSW Health’s legal and regulatory services branch.
Jacobs asks Robinson if two patients whose embryos were created using donor sperm can legally give embryos to families at another clinic in another state given the donors had reached the NSW five-family limit.
Robinson replies: “I assume that you are intending to facilitate the export of gametes or embryos from NSW to another jurisdiction which has their own requirement about ART [assisted reproductive technology] treatment.
“We have no interest in what an interstate ART provider does in their own state.”
Clark said all IVF providers in NSW have notified the department for years about the donor identity, including overseas donors whose sperm was used here and internationally, of every baby and that “we all took independent legal opinion, and all of us were operating under the same concept [five per donor in NSW] since the law came in in 2016”.
But a spokesperson for NSW Health said it took action last year because it became aware that “one clinic [Monash] had incorrectly interpreted the ‘five women limit’ … as only applying within NSW, rather than a limit that applied worldwide”.
“As a result, some women were informed by that ART provider that their treatment would be temporarily paused while a review of donor allocations and patient records was conducted to identify affected patients. NSW Health has consistently and openly stated that the limit in section 27 is a worldwide limit.”
This is on its website, and “ART providers in NSW have been reminded they must not provide ART treatment to a woman if the treatment is likely to result in offspring of the donor being born to more than five women whether in NSW or elsewhere, including overseas”.
Its action coincided with national scrutiny of the industry after Monash IVF mixed up two embryos, resulting in one woman giving birth to a stranger’s baby.
This followed revelations in 2024 that donor limits had been so badly policed by IVF providers in the 1980s that one woman conceived by donor sperm had hundreds of half-siblings.
Michelle Galea, also a member of the Victorian government’s Donor Conceived Advisory Group, said the NSW action was likely to push waiting times from one to two years to up to four.
“This is going to force people to the unregulated market, these bad Facebook groups [with members] who are coercing women and grooming them sexually,” said Galea.
“We will start seeing IVF tourism coming to Victoria because it will be cheaper and the wait list in NSW is going to go through the roof.”
Dr Petra Wale, president of the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand, said this highlighted the need for national, unified laws on donor limits, which it suggested in its 10-Year Fertility Roadmap, penned in 2024 by former health minister Greg Hunt.
“We were already very clearly calling for a national, consistent approach to fertility care, including donor conception,” Wale said.
“When access is restricted at a state level, the predictable outcome is going to be longer wait times; tighter allocation pressures aren’t combined to one state – they will affect availability and wait times across Australia.”
Prominent Melbourne fertility specialist Lynn Burmeister said “there is a sperm drought in Victoria and I would say now in NSW as well”, and that registered donors should be paid nominally to boost incentive.
“The Australian Law Reform Commission has suggested there should be payments for surrogates, a minimal amount, and that should also happen for sperm and egg donors,” Burmeister said.
“Most people are not coming forward donating sperm because there’s no financial incentive: they have to have a blood test, counselling, go to clinic, and it does take time and is a big investment.”
Patient Belinda Murray has been on the sperm donor waiting list in Victoria for two years and said even before the current shortage, finding a suitable donor through clinics was competitive and uncertain.
When she reached the top of the list at the original clinic where she froze eggs in 2019, choice was limited and decisions had to be made almost instantaneously to avoid losing donors.
“I missed out a few times; if you left it more than 24 hours wanting to think about it to make sure you made the right choice [that donor] was gone, and you would need to wait for a new influx of donors to become available,” she said.
She froze more eggs with a new IVF provider, whom she says offers far more personal service and updates her about her progress on the list.
Though hopeful she will still have the chance to become a mother, Murray is realistic: “When you’re told there’s no timeframe on sperm availability, and you’re ageing, you kind of do give up.”
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Wendy Tuohy is a senior writer focusing on social issues and those impacting women and girls.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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