Hi,
I have been a donor in the past and during that time i agreed with my recipient that i would make myself available when they wanted siblings...They have recently been in touch to arrange this.
Unfortunately around two months ago i found i had caught HPV/genital warts from my girlfriend who i've been dating for a year.
I can't seem to get good medical advice as to whether there is a chance of passing this on too the recipient if i were to donate in the coming months? (AI of course - so no contact)
If anyone here can help with advice i'd really appreciate it?
Is there a chance of passing it in this way? If so, must i permanently retire from donating?
Thanks
[FQ, moderator: HPV CAN be transferred by sperm donation. There are reports of women who haven't been engaged in intercourse, but had clinic AI donation, and as a result, transformed from HPV-negative to HP-positive. The main risk of HPV is that in a small number of cases, women who are infected will develop cervical or vulval cancer. The overall risk of that happening is small, but not negligeable. So the recipient would need to make an informed decision, whether she would like to take the risk, and have a full sibling, or not.
Moderating issues:
(A) Even if she decides against, and to use a different donor, because HPV is so prevalent, it wouldn't guarantee that she wouldn't be able to catch it otherwise.
(B) She may already have HPV infection from some other source...
(C) Sperm banks do not check for HPV. This is how, one occasionally hears about HPV cases occuring through clinic sperm donation.
(D) If money is not a problem, one could use washed sperm (procedure frequently used in S Africa, because of the HIV prevalence) - this would reduce risk, or to go for IVF - this would remove the risk]
