European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 28, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Cuddling up with a Catalogna How to guide for sperm shopping by Ellen Uzelac the Baltimore Sun when 35-year-old Roxane Helstrom was shopping Lor sperm a year ago she and her husband turned to their trusty Catalon and after some debate selected sperm donor no. 522 a a Blond Blue eyed student whose interests include filmmaking and writing. Quot Bob was absolutely looking or the closest Mirror of himself Quot mrs. Helstrom said of her Blond Blue eyed husband who is interested in filmmaking and writing. Quot i looked at it in terms of some level of intrigue Quot i was drawn to taller i was intrigued by the thought of a dark Man. I guess i wanted to play around More than he did. There was a chinese swedish . In molecular biology who sounded fascinating Quot added mrs. Helstrom a Dallas financial executive who by this time had undergone three unsuccessful insemination using her husband s sperm. Quot you think about your own physical traits and what would make an interesting blend. Its the ultimate in genetic  Welcome to sperm shopping 90s-style. The marketing of sperm for artificial insemination has become so sophisticated that Many sperm Banks routinely offer shopping Cata logs detailing the vital statistics of their Anonymous donors. Some Banks provide More comprehensive information upon request. Among the More common questions does he Wear glasses is he Bow legged is he athletic and incredibly what a his Mavorite color Quot you can choose your donor a lot More carefully than you choose your husband Quot said Steve Broder technical director of California cry Bank in los Angeles. Quot hey everything else you can Purchase by Catalon Why not a baby Quot in Fairfax va., the december Issue of Fairfax cry Bank s who s who of sperm donors lists dozens of candidates a 6-foot-2-Inch business management student of Spanish and swedish descent who likes karate painting and cars a computer Programmer of japanese and German parentage who enjoys sports and horses and an african american financial planner whose interests include sports jazz and social activism. And at the repository for germinal Choice a Bank Tor Quot High achievement donors Quot in Escondido Calit one Young donor is described As ruggedly handsome Quot with an Quot impressive  he also has a 152-plus to. He s an accomplished judo St and he played chess at the age of 4 Quot sounds like the dating game does t it7&Quot noted Jeanne c. Mowe executive director of the american association of tissue Banks a Mclean va., organization that develops Industry standards for sperm Banks. Quot i think it s pretty wild frankly. It boggles the mind. You wonder Why people bother having their own when they can have the perfect child this Way Quot some in the 20-year-old sperm Bank business which is not led Erakly regulated believe that the marketing end of the Industry has gone too Lar. Quot there Are some Banks who do marketing some i think who do too much marketing Quot said . Sherman chairman of the american association of tissue Banks reproductive Council and director of the University of Arkansas for medical sciences semen cry Bank in Little Rock. Most sperm Banks Are located near University campuses so students account for the vast majority of paid donors. Commercial donors generally Are paid Between $15 and $35 per ejaculation which is then Frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored. Quot we try to screen the donors so that they done a have real bulbous noses or anything else too outlandish. We try for run of the Mill average looking people Quot said Sheila Peterson a nurse who Heads the artificial insemination program at Ann Arbor reproductive Medicine associates m Michigan. Industry standards designed by me american association of tissue Banks a reproductive Council include rigorous screening for sexually transmitted diseases the aids virus genetic diseases and other health disorders. About a dozen Stales have enacted Laws regulating sperm Banks and the food and drug administration has begun to Craft rules that eventually will apply to the Industry. The Only National Survey Ever conducted on artificial insemination undertaken by the . Office of technology assessment in 1987, estimated that 172,000 women were inseminated in a 12-month period spanning 1986 and 1987, with a husband s sperm believed to be used in most insemination. Those insemination resulted in approximately 65,000 births. 14 a the stars and stripes a painful path to parenthood by Robert Lee Hotz Cox news service on the bookshelf in the Livni mum Between the infertility lexis end the videotapes of her Pelvic surgeries she keeps a paperback Romance novel ils binding crimped by Teeth Marks during hot Daiv hormone Mje Lions she bites it to stifle the pain it is a modern Fertility rite. For thousands of it Eizile couples the path to parenthood is punctuated by injections of expensive drugs designed to Aid Conception. Age virginity menopause and infertility Are no longer bars to pregnancy. Grandmothers can a and do give birth to their own grandchildren and through a Host of new Fertility techniques a from in Vitro fertilization and embryo surgery to surrogate Mother arrangements a thousands of babies Are born every year All conceived Wilh the Aid of Fertility drugs. They All Are heirs to a legacy of uncertainty Little has been done to Quiel misgivings about Lon term health consequences for these children when they grow up and almost nothing has been done to assess the health effects on the women who take the Fertility drugs often for years at a time infertility specialists readily acknowledge that Fertility drugs affect the eggs a woman produces and As a result the embryos that grow from those Leah lived eggs the women who take such drugs dozens of injections a month a testify firsthand to their overwhelming physical and emotional Side effects but couples trying to assess the Long term health effects of Fertility drugs find themselves in a quandary there is almost no Money for Basic research the Federal government under pressure from anti abortion groups opposed to studies involving human embryos does not provide it. And the drug companies themselves have Little incentive to underwrite research that May Only prove their products Are unsafe when they do conduct safety studies they often conduct them Only on men. Indeed until recently women of childbearing age were excluded from almost All clinical studies testing the safety and effectiveness of drugs a because Normal female hormonal changes can radically alter the effects of Many drugs and make the results too hard to interpret. Doctors have been unwilling to risk untried drugs on women of childbearing age Lor safety studies yet it is these women who Are the biggest customers of the drugs that Fertility specialists dispense Subtle Side effects might take decades to develop the cancer infertility and birth defects caused by the synthetic hormone Des Tor example appeared Only after the children of women who took the pregnancy drug reached puberty. The drug was withdrawn in 1971, after it had been widely prescribed or pregnant women for 30 years. In the absence of any Federal support or control the commercial interests of pharmaceutical companies shape the treatment of infertility and influence the direction of Basic research into human reproduction they underwrite the experiments. They Lund the professional symposiums pay for the training Semins  a Henl education Melmus Aid kind patient support groups in some eases they own the Limos Ihal set the intern, Sla Daids for propel i Atiee 1 Hoe in Villi tie textbooks yet questions hang Over several drugs administered to enhance a woman s the Utility or arrest diseases of tie reproductive tract More than 25 years Atli it was approved Tor marketing for example some researchers Are raising questions about the safety of com iphone citrate the most commonly used Ler lilith drug in the United stall s recently biologists Iron the University of Ual Tomia at san Francisco Lound evidence in Laboratory animals that com iphone which has Lxi in prescribed to millions of women since the 1960s, can interfere Wilh the Normal development of a Letus in the womb like Des com iphone is a synthetic hormone it is a synthetic esl Rogen compound Given to infertile women to stimulate release of a pituitary hormone that in turn triggers the ovary to release an egg. Of Licals at Merrell Dow pharmaceuticals one of several companies that make com iphone. Said they have monitored the drug for two decades and Lound no evidence of birth defects properly prescribed and properly administered the drug should Oiler no cause Lor concern they say Bui doctors often prescribe More of the drug and prescribe in for Lar longer than the company recommends it the drug lingers Long enough researchers say they have evidence that in May like Dos Cross the Placenta to the fetus where it could Tiave harmful elects including malformations of the Vagina uterus and fallopian lubes ii com iphone is one of the oldest Ler lilith drugs. Lupton is one of the newest. The drug at up to $190 a kit is now popular among infertility specialists because it allows them to turn a woman s hormonal system on and off like a Laucel but there has never been a systematic study of its Long term effects on women or on a pregnancy the  food and drug administration initially approved Lupton As chemotherapy for men Wilh prostrate cancer it still has not received Normal approval As a stimulant Lor the production of human eggs and last year the Fra formally censured the manufacturer Lor promoting the anti cancer Ding As an infertility treatment nonetheless it is widely used in commercial Almu s whatever risks it May pose to women who take it tie drug has a noticeable a Fleck on the embryos the women conceive according to clinical embryology Isle the Lupton embryos grow faster develop More rapidly they Are More fragile when Frozen and less Likely to survive thawing nobody knows Why or whal in Means Lor the Long term health of the woman or any resulting child infertility spec Aliss acknowledge cause Lor Caulion Robert Lee Hotz an editor end Clence writer at the Atlanta journal Constitution la the author of the Forth Corlna Book oof no on Ufa. Exploring the now front Ort of Humon Fortu Ity packet Book from which the article la adapted. Troubling questions about Fertility drugs the stars and stripes a Page 15