What motivates men to offer sperm donation via the internet?

To investigate why men offer sperm donation via the internet, a questionnaire was disseminated via 39 Dutch-language websites thought to be visited by potential sperm donors. Nine internet donors completed the survey, men who typically knew the women they were donating to. Their responses were compared with those of a control group of 35 general sperm bank donors who were recruited using flyers in Dutch sperm banks, and who were typically unaware of the identity of the eventual recipients. The findings shed light on the motives and attitudes of internet donors. Both groups of donors indicated that their primary motivation for donating was altruism (>80% of all respondents). However, internet donors had a more pronounced desire to procreate than sperm bank donors (6 out of 9, i.e. 66 vs. 22%, respectively) and more often felt that they had good genes they wished to pass on (5 out of 9, i.e. 55 vs. 31%, respectively). The main reason internet donors gave for donating via the internet was that they wanted to know the prospective parents and be kept up to date on the progress of the offspring conceived from their donations. This distinguishes them significantly from sperm bank donors. A further finding was that they were not prompted to avoid the formal donation circuit for which, by law in the Netherlands, pregnancies resulting from donations have to be registered in a central database. This study is subject to several, in some cases inevitable, limitations, but it provides an interesting starting point that future studies can seek to confirm and extend.     

The Meaning of the Sperm Donor for Heterosexual Couples: Confirming the Position of the Father

In the literature, relatively little attention has been paid to the meaning of donor involvement in the intimate couple dyad. The current study aimed to enrich our understanding of couples' meaning‐making regarding the anonymous sperm donor and how they dealt with the donor involvement. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with nine couples, who had at least one child conceived through sperm donation. Our thematic analysis showed that the donor conception was seen as a different path to create a normal family. Once the family was formed, most couples avoided talking about the donor because it was perceived as disrupting men's growing confidence in their position as father. Participants tried to confirm the position of the father to protect the family relationships. Uncertainties about how they were perceived as parents showed the continuing dominance of genetic ties within our social discourse. Participants also dealt with reminders of the donor in their daily life. Overall, they tried to manage the space taken up by the donor and to protect the position of the father. We relate our findings to literature on topic avoidance and shared obliviousness in families. For counseling practice, it could be useful to explore couples' meaning‐making about the donor as this seemed to serve family functioning.     

Adaptation to Sperm Competition in Humans

ABSTRACT— With the recognition, afforded by recent evolutionary science, that female infidelity was a recurrent feature of modern humans' evolutionary history has come the development of a unique area in the study of human mating: sperm competition. A form of male–male postcopulatory competition, sperm competition occurs when the sperm of two or more males concurrently occupy the reproductive tract of a female and compete to fertilize her ova. Males must compete for mates, but if two or more males have copulated with a female within a sufficiently short period of time, sperm will compete for fertilizations. Psychological, behavioral, physiological, and anatomical evidence indicates that men have evolved solutions to combat the adaptive problem of sperm competition, but research has only just begun to uncover these adaptations.     

Perception of intensity of sperm competition on the part of males

Preferences for certain pornographic themes are hypothesized to have been influenced by our evolutionary history, where sperm competition could play a significant role. The mating system in our australopithecine ancestors, as well as in modern human societies, however, suggests that polygyny (characterized by low risk of sperm competition) has predominated over multi-male multi-female mating systems where high sperm competition is expected. In this study, a sample of men (N = 96) was investigated for their preferences for sexually explicit material showing low (sexual interaction with three women), moderate (one man and one woman) and high intensity of sperm competition (one woman and two men). The participants showed a strong and highly consistent preference for pictures showing moderate and low intensity of sperm competition. These preferences were not influenced by sociosexuality, pornography consumption or attitudes toward pornography. It is suggested that these preferences may mirror psychological adaptations for sperm competition which are activated when the risk of cuckoldry is high. Certain circumstances, where preferences for cues associated with high intensity of sperm competition would be adaptive, are discussed.     

睾丸微石症和成年男性精子质量关系探究

探讨睾丸微石症及其不同类型（CTM／LTM）和成年男性精子质量之间的关系,分析其相关性,为临床诊疗提供参考。回顾性分析接受精液常规检查并发现精子的41例睾丸微石症患者,并分为经典型睾丸微石症（CTM）和限制型睾丸微石症（LTM）两组进行对比。结果显示,在精子总数、精子总活力、前向运动精子率和不活动精子率方面,两组比较差异有统计学意义（P〈0．05）。相比LTM,CTM对精子质量的影响更明显。不同类型睾丸微石症和成年男性精子质量之间有关联,呈现出负相关。     

人类精子库伦理管理的困惑与对策

建立人类精子库主要用于解决不孕不育问题,在一定程度上解决了男性不育的难题,拓展了生殖医学及发育生物学领域,为许多不孕不育夫妇带来了福音,具有广泛的科学及社会学意义。但是,冷冻精子的使用所涉及的医学、人文、法律、伦理、道德等问题已成为严肃的值得深思熟虑的社会问题。如不加以规范和管理,必将对人类及整个社会造成危害。     

The role of emotions in predicting sperm and egg donation

Sperm and egg donation allows people who cannot have children naturally to become parents. However, in many countries there is a shortage of donors. Therefore, it is important to assess the factors that influence donation. Across two studies, we assessed the role of social‐cognitive and emotional factors in promoting and deterring sperm and egg donation. Study 1 (N = 138 men) found that feeling anxiety toward discovering a fertility problem and pride positively predicted sperm donation intention and information seeking behavior. By contrast, feeling anxiety toward the process of donation negatively predicted sperm donation intention and information seeking behavior. Study 2 (N = 193 women) found that pride positively and the anxiety toward the process negatively predicted egg donation intentions, but not information seeking behavior. These results suggest that it is important to consider the role of emotions in motivating and deterring people from becoming a sperm and egg donor.     

Community-based Research and Technoscience Activism: A Report on the Living Knowledge 3 Conference

New medical imaging technologies enable the production of photos of human cells that are magnified to make them visible to the eye. Such cellular images have gained aesthetic as well as dramatic appeal, as they have moved out of the laboratories and become available for the public. At this stage, they are refashioned to reveal matters more clearly and pedagogically. Organic matter that might be confusing to the audience is removed and colours added to distinguish various aspects—but despite such manipulations, the result appears as images of real human cells, making them different from drawings and models. One example of this is the website of a Norwegian governmental organization for information on biotechnology and bioethics which displays images of egg and sperm cells related to techniques of assisted reproduction. These images represent cells as autonomous and independent of human gendered bodies. The process whereby cells culturally become detached and disassociated from human bodies is here referred to as a process of entification whereby the cells reappear as detachable, usable entities.     

Experimental examination of women's selection criteria for sperm donors versus life partners

To evaluate factors shaping mate‐selection decisions, 2 age groups of women were randomly assigned to hypothetical scenarios wherein they sought a sperm donor or life partner. Respondents were asked to (a) construct an ideal man and (b) rate and rank the importance of traits associated with good genes, parenting ability, partner potential, and economic resources. Women seeking donors valued good genes more and partner potential less than women seeking partners. Younger women sought greater degree of physical resemblance to donors than to partners. Older women showed greater desire to be similar to partners than donors on sociocultural characteristics. The findings suggest women adjust their selection criteria as a function of context and that mate preferences may change as women mature.     

Widening Choices in Motherhood of The Future

The new biomedical techniques of reproduction either currently available or being researched, such as sex predetermination of offspring, sperm banking, test tube conception with embryo transplant, development of artificial wombs and human cloning, allow greatly expanded choices in methods of procreation. A survey of attitudes among 2,138 adults, most of whom are in the early to middle stages of reproductive decision making, shows varying levels of acceptance towards the use of such techniques and towards priority values they would assign to ongoing research to perfect specific technorogies. Male-female variation in response patterns are analyzed along with racial and religious differences. Possible and probable impacts that widespread use of these new alternatives might have on the future of women in particular and on various aspects of society in general are discussed.     

Absence makes the adaptations grow fonder: proportion of time apart from partner, male sexual psychology, and sperm competition in humans (Homo sapiens)

Sperm competition occurs when the sperm of multiple males concurrently occupy the reproductive tract of a female and compete to fertilize an egg. We used a questionnaire to investigate psychological responses to the risk of sperm competition for 237 men in committed, sexual relationships. As predicted, a man who spends a greater (relative to a man who spends a lesser) proportion of time apart from his partner since the couple's last copulation reported (a) greater sexual interest in his partner, (b) greater distress in response to his partner's sexual rejection, and (c) greater sexual persistence in response to his partner's sexual rejection. All effects were independent of total time since the couple's last copulation and the man's relationship satisfaction. Discussion addresses limitations of the current research and situates the current results within the broader comparative literature on adaptation to sperm competition.     

男性监控配偶、配偶不贞与精子竞争的关系

精子竞争是指同一女性产道中两个或两个以上男人的精子相互竞争卵子的过程。女性得到社会承认的性伙伴可能因精子竞争失败而损失惨重,因为女性私通可能引起男性投资于不携带自己基因的后代。过去研究表明进化而来的男性配偶监控策略可以防止女性不贞,减少精子竞争失败的危险。当前研究发现男性与配偶进行性行为后离别时间越久,男性就越采取出其不意地打电话、独占配偶时间、威胁对配偶感兴趣的男性等手段来监控配偶     

Comparative evolutionary psychology of sperm competition

A comparative evolutionary psychological perspective predicts that species that recurrently faced similar adaptive problems may have evolved similar psychological mechanisms to solve these problems. Sperm competition provides an arena in which to assess the heuristic value of such a comparative evolutionary perspective. The sperm competition that results from female infidelity and polyandry presents a similar class of adaptive problems for individuals across many species. The authors first describe mechanisms of sperm competition in insects and in birds. They suggest that the adaptive problems and evolved solutions in these species provide insight into human anatomy, physiology, psychology, and behavior. The authors then review recent theoretical and empirical arguments for the existence of sperm competition in humans and discuss proposed adaptations in humans that have analogs in insects or birds. The authors conclude by highlighting the heuristic value of a comparative evolutionary psychological approach in this field.     

From ‘Virgin Births’ to ‘Octomom’: Representations of Single Motherhood via Sperm Donation in the UK News

The use of sperm donation by single women has provoked public, professional and political debate. Newspapers serve as a critical means of both broadcasting this debate and effecting a representation of this user group within the public sphere. This study uses the theory of social representations to examine how single motherhood by sperm donation has been represented in the UK news over time. The study sampled news coverage on this topic in eight British newspapers during three 4‐year periods between the years 1988 and 2012. The dataset of news reports (n = 406) was analysed using a qualitative approach. Findings indicated that UK media reports of single women using donor sperm are underpinned by conventional categories of the ‘personal’, the ‘traditional’ and the ‘natural’ that when paired with their corollaries produce a representation of this user group as the social ‘other’. The amount of coverage on this topic over time was found to vary according to the political orientation of different media sources. Using key concepts from social representations theory, this article discusses the relationship between themata and anchoring in the maintenance of representations of the social ‘other’ in mass mediated communication. Findings are explained in relation to theoretical conceptions of the mass media and its position within the public sphere. It is argued that the use of personal narratives in news reports of single mothers by sperm donation may have significant implications for public understandings of this social group. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Comment on Wagner,Elejabarrieta and Lahnsteiner (1995): From sperm and ovum to gender stereotypes

Wagner, Elejabarrieta and Lahnsteiner (1995) conclude that people use gender-stereotypic attributes and sexual metaphors in describing the sperm and the ovum. The conclusion is criticized on the basis of two arguments: (1) the sperm is, in actuality, more active than the ovum and this difference is reflected in subjects' judgements; (2) in their study, the researchers themselves induced (a) the person metaphor and (b) gender categories. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perceived risk of female infidelity moderates the relationship between objective risk of female infidelity and sexual coercion in humans (Homo sapiens)

Female extrapair copulation (EPC) can be costly to a woman's long-term romantic partner. If a woman has copulated recently with a man other than her long-term partner, her reproductive tract may contain the sperm of both men, initiating sperm competition (whereby sperm from multiple males compete to fertilize an egg). Should the woman become pregnant, her long-term partner is at risk of cuckoldry-investing unwittingly in offspring to whom he is not genetically related. Previous research in humans (Homo sapiens) and in nonhuman animals suggests that males have evolved tactics such as partner-directed sexual coercion that reduce the risk of cuckoldry. The current research provides preliminary evidence that mated men (n = 223) at greater risk of partner EPC, measured as having spent a greater proportion of time apart from their partner since the couple's last in-pair copulation, more frequently perform partner-directed sexually coercive behaviors. This relationship is moderated, however, by men's perceived risk of partner EPC, such that the correlation between the proportion of time spent apart since last in-pair copulation and sexually coercive behaviors remains significant only for those men who perceive themselves to be at some risk of partner EPC. Discussion addresses limitations of this research and highlights directions for future research investigating the relationship between female EPC and men's partner-directed sexual coercion.     

The Adaptive Significance of Sexual Conditioning: Pavlovian Control of Sperm Release

Male quail received Pavlovian conditioning trials that consisted of placement in a distinctive experimental chamber (the conditioned stimulus) paired with the opportunity to copulate with a female (the unconditioned stimulus). For control subjects, exposures to the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli were unpaired. After four and six trials, each subject was placed in the experimental chamber with a probe stimulus that included some of the visual cues of a female's head and neck. Pavlovian conditioning increased how much time subjects spent near the probe stimulus. Conditioned subjects also released greater volumes of semen and greater numbers of spermatozoa than the control subjects. Significant differences were not obtained in serum testosterone levels or in other measures of sperm quality. These results demonstrate that sexual Pavlovian conditioning can affect reflexes involved in sperm release and thereby modulate reproductive fitness.     

Oral sex as infidelity-detection

An evolutionary history of human female infidelity and consequent sperm competition may have caused the evolution of male counter-adaptations. The infidelity-detection hypothesis for oral sex proposes that men perform oral sex to gather information about their partner’s recent sexual history. We tested this hypothesis with data secured from 231 men in committed, sexual, heterosexual relationships. We found support for two derivative predictions: men at a greater recurrent risk of sperm competition expressed greater interest in, and spent more time performing, oral sex on their partner, even after controlling statistically for relationship length, relationship satisfaction, and sexual intercourse duration. The discussion addresses limitations of this research and highlights directions for future research, including distinguishing empirically the infidelity-detection hypothesis from alternative hypotheses for oral sex.     

Ejaculate disruption in two species of voles (Microtus): on the PEI matching law.

We permitted male prairie and montane voles (Microtus ochrogaster and M. montanus) five thrusts, without ejaculation, with a female at variable times after a 1st male ejaculated. In both prairie and montane voles, there were fewer sperm, in relation to control conditions, in the female's tract 1 hr after ejaculation if the female received thrusts immediately or 15 min after the ejaculate. There was no such effect after a 50-min delay. There was no significant decrease in litter production in prairie voles caused by thrusts delivered either immediately or after a 15-min delay. Sperm transport in these species is susceptible to disruption for a longer period than in deer mice or rats. The proposal that the postejaculatory interval protects a male from disrupting its own sperm transport (the PEI matching law) appears not to hold for these species.     

Male–Female Reactions to Variations in Sexual Explicitness in Pornography: An Empirical Test of Predictions of Intra- and Inter-gender Differences

Previous research has established that men and women respond differently to distinctive characteristics of mediated sexual portrayals. The current study experimentally tests a series of predictions derived from both sperm competition, and minimal parental investment perspectives about between- and within-gender responses to content manipulations of sexually explicit videos. Results indicate that men experienced greater post-exposure arousal and less negative affect after viewing sexually explicit videos than did women. Further, men who viewed more explicit sexual depictions tended to report greater post-exposure arousal than those who saw less explicit depictions. No within-gender differences were found for women in terms of content explicitness. Also, regardless of degree of explicitness, women reported lower levels of post-exposure arousal in response to content depicting male ejaculation than content that does not. Men, though expressing greater post-exposure arousal to less explicit content depicting male sexual climax than that which does not, showed no difference in arousal response when they saw more intensely explicit depictions, whether or not male ejaculation was shown. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for future application of evolutionary theory in studies of mediated sexual content.