Women can now find a sperm donor Tinder-style

A London sperm bank has turned to dating apps for inspiration

Here are a few things to know:

1. Women can search for donors based on different characteristics

According to this article in the Palm Beach Post:

The London Sperm Bank has come up with a new way for women looking for a donors: they can filter through candidates like people do on Tinder.

Quartz reports the “Tinder-esque mobile app” allows woman to find potential sperm donors and narrow them by qualities such as ethnicity, occupation, personality type, eye color, and more. The app does not name the men, but does allow women to create a “wish list” with the qualities and traits they are looking for, and the app sends a notification when someone that matches their choices enters the system.

2. Not everyone thinks it’s such a good idea

According to this article in Bustle:

Not everyone approves of the idea of choosing a sperm donor with a smartphone app. ‘How much further can we go in the trivialization of parenthood?’ Josephine Quintavalle, cofounder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, asked The Times. ‘This is reproduction via the mobile phone. It’s digital dads. Choose Daddy. This is the ultimate denigration of fatherhood.’ In a press statement, the London Sperm Bank said, ‘Ordering sperm from an online catalogue or an app does not trivialize treatment, and every step meets the requirements of the HFEA [the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, an agency that regulates fertility clinics in the UK].’

3. Women can put together wish lists

According to this article in Quartz:

The first-of-its-kind app, released on Sept. 21, also gives women the option to create “wish list” alerts for possible surrogate fathers if they already know what they want and aren’t interested in browsing. It will notify them when a donor with their preferred characteristics becomes available. Then, the selected sample will be sent to the fertility specialist where the woman is undergoing treatment once a £950 (about $1200) payment is made through the app. London Sperm Bank, the UK’s largest with over 10,000 vials of sperm, charges the same amount if you were to order from their catalog instead of the app.