If you are interested in using donor sperm, you should understand CMV, or cytomegalovirus, which is a virus common in more than 60 percent of Americans. For many people who do test positive for CMV, there are no symptoms. Only about 10 percent of people with the virus show any sort of symptoms, which generally are flu-like. CMV status, however, is important for sperm banks. An active CMV infection in the mother can cause abnormalities in developing fetuses. Therefore, if the sperm tested positive for CMV, there is a chance the mother could become infected with the virus. Though only one percent of American babies are infected with CMV, the majority of those happened because of primary maternal infection – meaning the mother become infected for the first time while pregnant. Such infections can affect the fetus’ brain development, hearing and sight.
At Xytex, we check donors for both active and inactive infections. Like many other viruses, the virus remains in the body and goes dormant after the infection (this is true of chicken pox, herpes, etc.). Any donor testing positive for an active infection is not allowed to donate sperm. However, there may be some donors that have an inactive infection. Patients should always talk to their doctors about how that status may or may not affect their individual situations.
For more information on CMV, visit an earlier post:
http://www.spermbankinformation.com/2008/06/02/cmv-and-donor-selection/
Tags: american babies, brain development, chicken pox, cytomegalovirus, doctors, Embryo Storage, Fertility, herpes, Insemination, maternal infection, Sperm Bank, Sperm Bank Information, viruses, xytex
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