The health and well-being implications of emotion work undertaken by gay sperm donors.” Feminism

As reproductive health clinics both within Australia and internationally continue to face a shortfall in the number of available sperm donors, so there exists a growing demand for men willing to donate to clinics. At the same time, and where an increasing number of countries move toward legislating for the release of identifying information about donors to children conceived of their sperm, fewer men report a willingness to act as donors. This article suggests that this is at least in part caused by the considerable ‘emotion work’ involved in sperm donation. Drawing on 21 interviews conducted with gay Australian sperm donors, the article provides a thematic analysis of instances of such emotion work and explores the implications of this for the health and well-being of gay men who donate sperm both to clinics and in private arrangements. Key Words: gay sperm donors, emotion work, health and well-being, heterosexism, the-matic analysis As reproductive health clinics across Australia face an ever-growing demand for services (particularly in regard to male infertility), so comes with this problems associated with shortages in the number of available sperm donors. Australian media reports suggest that such shortages are considered so extreme that donors are being recruited from countries such as Canada and paid to fly to Australia to donate (Beauchamp, 2004). The ‘business ’ of sperm donation thus represents a considerable public health concern in Australia where clinics, and the individuals they provide services to, are very much constrained by the availability of donor sperm. Previous Australian and international research has found that the availabil-ity of donor sperm in clinics has been significantly affected by changing legisla-tion relating to the collection and release of information about donors to children conceived of their sperm. Recent research conducted in Western Australia on potential attitudes towards sperm donation amongst a sample of men found tha