Is My Sperm Donor's Blood Type Important?

Blood type should be something you pay attention to when you're searching for a sperm donor if:

1) You want your child’s blood type to match your own or your partner's

2) You're Rh-negative, meaning you have a blood type of A-, O-, B- or AB-

Every blood type is either positive or negative, which is a reference to the Rhesus factor (Rh) of the blood. The Rhesus factor refers to an antigen present in the blood, and people with this antigen in their blood are considered RH+( O+, A+, B+, AB+)

More than 85% of people are Rh-positive. People without this antigen in their blood are Rh-negative ( O-, A-, B-, AB-).

Rh type is really important with regards to pregnancy because an Rh-positive child born to an Rh-negative mother risks developing Rh disease.

Fact: Only Rh- women risk having children with the Rhesus factor disease; Rh+ women do not.

For an Rh-negative woman to c0nceive an Rh-positive child, she must have done so with an Rh-positive father; the father, being Rh-positive, would have had a 50% chance of passing on his Rh-positive blood type to the child.

Preventative measures to protect against the Rhesus factor disease and their devastating effects are available.

Before you choose a sperm donor, you should get tested for your blood type if you don't already know it. If you already know you're Rh-, take this into consideration when searching for a sperm donor.

Fun fact: People with blood type O- are universal donors-they can donate to anyone. People with blood type AB+ are universal acceptors – they can receive blood from anyone.