Changes in American A.I.D. practice during the past decade.

ABSTRACT

We conducted a survey of donor artificial insemination (AID) practices within the United States. The survey document was sent to 360 practitioners listed by national infertility organizations as performing AID. In addition, we queried 100 practices that had responded to a similar survey in 1978. AID was actually performed during the survey year by 167 of the 282 respondents. Relatively few practices (23%) inseminated more than 10 patients per month. Donor payments increased from a mean of $25 to $40 over that period. A significant increase in the use of frozen semen was found. A majority of practices (52%) used a combination of basal body temperature and urinary LH to time inseminations. The fraction of practitioners who inseminated unmarried women increased substantially since the previous survey. The maximum number of pregnancies resulting from a single donor has not changed over the decade. However, on the average, a single donor is fathering fewer children. The percentage (39%) of practices that inseminate women because of genetic disease in the husband's family has remained about the same. Records of donors and AID children were maintained by 40% of the respondents, representing no change from the previous survey. Our data suggest that as many as 23,400 infants may have resulted from AID conceptions during the survey year. Further changes in the practice of AID can be expected as a result of the 1988 federal recommendations that all donor inseminations be undertaken with cryopreserved, quarantined semen.