Characteristics, attitudes and personalities of AI donors

The first 50 men recruited to an artificial insemination by donor (AID) programme have been assessed for their attitudes and characteristics using a basic questionnaire and a standard well evaluated personality inventory. The results have shown that donors can be characterized as stable and moderately extroverted people who come from a wide range of occupations. Their marital and parental status had no particular relationship to their desire to donate and most of them volunteered for altruistic reasons, financial remuneration being a poor inducement. Most subjects lived within the close environs of the Westmead Centre and preferred to donate during normal working hours. The inconvenience of donating appeared to be the most important factor in considering new approaches to recruiting semen donors.