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Updated: May 16, 2026

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Published on: April 21, 2022
A taxonomy of possible reasons for and against sperm donation
Ercolie R Bossema1, Pim M W Janssens, Frieda Landwehr
1Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands. e.r.bossema@uu.nl
Objective:
Various reasons may guide the decision of men to become a sperm donor. Our aim was to identify a comprehensive set of possible reasons for and against sperm donation.
Design:
Concept mapping.
Setting:
Assisted reproduction clinics.
Sample:
Nine sperm donors and seven non-sperm donors.
Methods:
Interviews to obtain statements for and against sperm donation, card-sorting tasks to categorize these statements according to similarity, and hierarchical cluster analysis to structure these categorizations.
Main Outcome Measures:
Hierarchical structure with reasons for and against sperm donation.
Results:
The hierarchical structure with 91 reasons comprised selfishness (including narcissism and procreation), psychosocial drives (including altruism, detached procreation, and sexual/financial satisfaction), and psychosocial barriers (including normative and moral barriers related to oneself, one's spouse, the donor child, and society).
Conclusions:
The identified hierarchical overview of reasons for and against sperm donation may help potential sperm donors when considering becoming a sperm donor, enable more systematic counseling of potential sperm donors, and guide further research on reasons for and against sperm donation.
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