Bad lifestyles squeeze Shanghai sperm stocks

SHANGHAI, Sep 11 (Reuters) China's booming financial capital Shanghai has slammed the door on in vitro fertilisation applicants until 2009, citing a shortage of high quality donated sperm, local media reported today.

The Renji Hospital-affiliated Shanghai Sperm Bank, the city's only such facility, was no longer taking bookings for IVF treatment, the China Daily said.

''We won't accept new patients until 2009 as we don't have sufficient supply of high-quality sperm to meet demand,'' the paper quoted an employee surnamed Ye at Renji Hospital as saying.

Sperm bank officials blamed the shortage on high screening standards and more young men leading unhealthy lifestyles.

Only 700 of the 5,000 mainly university student donors had made the grade, the paper said.

''People now are eating too much and exercising less, and they have lots of bad habits, such as smoking, drinking and staying up late,'' the paper quoted Li Zheng, the sperm bank's director, as saying.

About 10 per cent of Shanghai's 3 million couples of childbearing age were unable to have children due to infertility, with 30 to 50 per cent due to male infertility, the paper said.

Shanghai's sperm bank managed to collect just 6,000 samples in two years and many of those were of ''poor quality'', the Shanghai Daily said back in 2005.

China imposes strict family planning rules that typically allow couples to have just one child. But those have eased over the years as it faces an estimated 300 billion dollar shortfall in its pension system while its populace rapidly ages.

REUTERS PJ KP0915