Artificial procreation with frozen donor semen: experience of the French Federation CECOS

The French Federation CECOS (Centre d'Etude et de Conservation du Sperme Humain) sperm banks collate the results of its 20 centres and provides annual reports on their activity. Since its creation in 1973, ∼17 000 pregnancies have been obtained using frozen donor semen either for artificial insemination by donor (AID) or for in-vitro fertilization. The recruitment of the donors was very strict, only 62% of the 6810 donor candidates were accepted. The overall mean success rate per cycle for all women who began AID was ∼8%, and the theoretical cumulative success rate was 48% at six cycles and 66% at 12 cycles. The population of recipient patients was very heterogeneous, including fertile, sub-fertile and infertile women. Some of these female factors have been analysed.