Multicentre approaches to donor insemination in the French CECOS Federation: nationwide evaluation, donor matching, screening for genetic diseases and consanguinity. Centre d'Etudes et de Conservation des Oeufs et du Sperme humain.

The French CECOS Federation collates the results of its 22 sperm banks and provides annual reports on their activity. These records allow studies on many different aspects; annual nationwide evaluation, matching of donors and recipients, follow-up of pregnancies, research into artificial procreation, and natural fertility. Risk of transmitted hereditary disease is minimised by genetic screening which establishes the genealogy of donor candidates and includes karyotyping and other biological investigations when a particular risk is suspected. The real risk of consanguinity is very small. Limiting the number of children born from a given sperm donor can be defined at the local level.