Is sperm donor karyotype analysis necessary?

A case study involving four female patients inseminated with sperm samples from the same donor is reported. Routine amniocentesis of one of the patients revealed that the fetus is a carrier of a balanced reciprocal translocation, 46,XY,t(1;10)(q12;q11.2), which was subsequently detected in the donor. Counselled amniocentesis in the three remaining patients led to the detection of an additional translocation carrier fetus. All four pregnancies resulted in live births. Fluorescence in-situ hybridization was applied to identify normal, balanced or imbalanced sperm cells of the donor. Accordingly, routine karyotype analysis of sperm donors was introduced, and is now recommended in the authors' unit.