Come, ye children! Six months ago, starting a family became easier for female couples. Marriage for all was enacted – and sperm donation for lesbian couples was legalized at the same time.
Big rush on sperm donation
In the case of the fertility clinics, requests in advance increased. “However, we were surprised that so many people made the decision right away,” says Dr. Peter Fehr from the OVA IVF clinic Zurich. The crowds have been so great in recent months that donor sperm has become scarce. In the meantime, they should have been looking for significantly more new sperm donors than in previous years, says Fehr.
On the one hand because of the high demand from same-sex couples, on the other hand also because of the demands of these married couples, the doctor explains. About half of lesbian couples want both women to have a child from the same donor.
Other advancements
This is logistically complicated for the clinic. Because there are strict rules: “A maximum of eight children may be born from one donor. In addition, the donations are only released for five years. A donor can extend it, but many decide not to.”
What is not obligatory for lesbian couples: the so-called «matching». In heterosexual couples, a donor should be chosen who has the same hair color, eye color, build and blood group as the father.
Heterosexual couples redundant
Same-sex couples can choose which characteristics the donor should have. But in the end, the clinic decides. “The couples have to trust us,” says Fehr. Anyone who wants to vote or even see a picture of the donor, whose position and level of education he wants to know, has to go abroad anyway.
Demand is also high at Fertisuisse in Olten. Although lesbian couples only account for five to ten percent of all inseminations, the trend is increasing, says Dr. Anna Raggi (49), responsible for sperm donation at the clinic. “In the case of sperm donation inseminations, same-sex couples have even overtaken heterosexual couples, in whom male infertility exists.”
Partnership becomes marriage
The officials of some civil registry offices have also had more to do than usual in the past six months. Immediately after the change, the request was noticeably higher than normal, according to the authorities contacted. Marriage for all allows couples to convert their registered partnership into a marriage. Some, but by no means all couples took advantage of this opportunity.
Of the 1,400 registered partnerships in the city of Zurich, only about 250 couples decided to take the plunge – less than a fifth. To date, 93 couples in Basel have converted their registered partnership into marriage, 37 in Lucerne and 26 in St. Gallen.
Many weddings in St. Gallen and Lucerne
In Zurich, about 50 gay or lesbian couples remarried, which corresponds to the registered partnerships entered into during the same period. Things are different in Lucerne: since the summer, just as many same-sex couples have gone to the registry office as last year. And in St. Gallen, nearly twice as many couples tied the knot in the first half of the year as there were registered partnerships last year.
Whatever marriage makes possible for everyone, gay and lesbian couples can now adopt children and benefit from easier naturalization for spouses. There are no figures for this yet. The adoption process usually takes longer than half a year. The facilitated naturalizations of same-sex couples, on the other hand, are not registered separately.