Reuters AlertNet Lite - Bad lifestyles squeeze Shanghai sperm stocks

Reuters AlertNet Full site

NEWSDESK

Bad lifestyles squeeze Shanghai sperm stocks

11 Sep 2007 02:58:23 GMT
Source: Reuters

SHANGHAI, Sept 11 (Reuters) - China's booming financial capital Shanghai has slammed the door on in vitro fertilisation applicants until 2009, citing a shortage of high quality donated sperm, local media reported on Tuesday.

The Renji Hospital-affiliated Shanghai Sperm Bank, the city's only such facility, was no longer taking bookings for IVF treatment, the China Daily said.

"We won't accept new patients until 2009 as we don't have sufficient supply of high-quality sperm to meet demand," the paper quoted an employee surnamed Ye at Renji Hospital as saying.

Sperm bank officials blamed the shortage on high screening standards and more young men leading unhealthy lifestyles.

Only 700 of the 5,000 mainly university student donors had made the grade, the paper said.

"People now are eating too much and exercising less, and they have lots of bad habits, such as smoking, drinking and staying up late," the paper quoted Li Zheng, the sperm bank's director, as saying.

About 10 percent of Shanghai's 3 million couples of childbearing age were unable to have children due to infertility, with 30 to 50 percent due to male infertility, the paper said.

Shanghai's sperm bank managed to collect just 6,000 samples in two years and many of those were of "poor quality", the Shanghai Daily said back in 2005.

China imposes strict family planning rules that typically allow couples to have just one child. But those have eased over the years as it faces an estimated $300 billion shortfall in its pension system while its populace rapidly ages.

AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article Send comments

Countries

Small country map
© 2004 Europa Technologies Ltd.

Reset map

• China profile
· View map

MORE >>

NGO latest

• China floods test efforts to narrow urban-rural divide
IFRC - Switzerland

• ACT Dateline: ACT members increase support to flood-affected communities in Asia
ACT - Switzerland

• ACT Dateline: ACT members continue flood responses in Asia
ACT - Switzerland

• SOUTHEAST ASIA FLOODSURGENT BULLETIN
ADRA - Canada

• ADRA Expands Response to Flooding Across Southern Asia
ADRA - International

MORE >>

Latest news

• Bad lifestyles squeeze Shanghai sperm stocks

• More Chinese women than men commit suicide - media

• Olympics-Terrorism seen as biggest threat to Beijing Games

• US panel urges 'smarter' tracking of risky imports

• FACTBOX-WHO figures for bird flu cases in humans

MORE >>

Last updated:Tue Sep 11 02:59:33 2007