A doctor extracting semen specimen at a laboratory in the Beijing Perfect Family Hospital, which specialises in fertility treatments. - Reuters
BEIJING (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): While some young people in China have taken to “lying flat” and dropping out of the rat race and cut-throat environment in the country, one tournament has reignited the competitive spirits of some university students – a sperm quality competition.
To encourage more sperm donations, the free-for-entry competition will be receiving samples over 50 days and also be compensating donors up to 6,100 yuan (S$1,150) each for their efforts, the Henan Province Human Sperm Bank said on Sunday.
The contest is open to university students residing in Zhengzhou, capital of the middle-eastern province Henan. The donation and testing process could take up to 50 days.
They would be compensated based on expenses incurred, including transport costs and the number of donations made, with the limit set at 20 times for this contest.
Semen samples will be evaluated across at least four categories to unveil the most “invincible contender”: sperm concentration, volume, structure and motility, or how fast their sperm moves.
The sperm bank is targeting university students because they have “high quality” sperm, an employee at the facility told Chinese media.
Would-be donors have to meet certain prerequisites listed on the sperm bank’s WeChat page. They must be aged between 20 and 45, and be at least 1.65m tall. They should not be smokers, alcoholics, habitual drug users or have same-sex or promiscuous sexual histories.
Men would also have to refrain from sexual activity for five-seven days before the day of donation, and maintain personal hygiene, including by “taking a shower” before visiting the health facility.
Sprightly university students who meet the bar were recommended to make appointments to avoid wasted trips due to “limited slots”.
The sperm bank, which operates out of a hospital affiliated to Zhengzhou University, announced the competition on social media, headlined with a Chinese idiom about desiring greatness from excellence that is also a pun on jingzi, Mandarin for sperm.
Winners of the competition will be revealed anonymously as “nameless heroes”, the organiser said, but that did not stop some demonstrations of male chest-beating bravado on social media.
Some users on micro-blogging platform Weibo responded to the ad with their real names. One proclaimed he would donate as many millilitres as the likes he received on his comment, while another pledged to donate 20 times in a day.
Another social media user said he could forego the compensation, but requested for his name to be announced throughout China if his sperm finished first in the contest.
The fertility rate in China is on a decline, dropping to a record low of 1.09 in 2022.
Sperm banks in China have been facing difficulties in attracting donors due to high rejection rates, according to a 2021 study involving the Henan Human Sperm Bank organising the competition.
Married men with children and higher education levels were also more likely to have their sperm accepted.
But even after meeting health and education level criteria, the most observed reasons for rejection were suboptimal sperm quality including malformations, donors having sexually transmitted infections and chromosomal abnormalities.
