Redheaded donors are being turned away at sperm bank

By Laura Bleakley for BBC News

21 September 2011

Redheads might have more fun but it seems there is an overabundance of them. That is if one goes by the view of the world's largest sperm bank, Cryos International, in Denmark. It has announced that it is turning away red-haired donors because there is a lack of demand for their "product". Its director, Ole Schou, has said no to all Scandinavian types, not just the redheads "because we simply have too much in our stock. We are overloaded with donor sperm from these groups so we have had to stop

requesting them," he said.

Apparently Ireland is still one of the places requesting red-haired donors along with Denmark and Germany. However, as many of Cryos clients are in Spain, Italy and Greece, there is a need for more brown-eyed Scandinavians, Mediterraneans and men of other ethnicities as donors. Mr Schou said his company had already got 600 red-headed donors on a waiting list should children of this hair colour become more fashionable. "We are very happy with redheads and what hair colour people have, but our job is to supply all races, all hair colours and all eye colours and our problem is that we are located in this part of Northern Europe," he said. "We supply worldwide so we need more of non-typical Danish characteristics in our crops."

Award-winning writer and comedian Owen O'Neill is a proud redhead. "I've used my ginger hair adversity throughout my life to a good-end," he said. "If I wasn't ginger, I would have to lose at least 20 minutes of material for my act - so I'm quite happy with the jibes - it has made me who I am and I like my ginger hair.

[It might be my Irish or possible Viking ancestry but I do have a definite ‘thing’ for red-heads. I know that for some bizarre reason they divide opinion quite a bit – I know of some people who really don’t like them – but honestly, what’s not to like? Demand, however, appears to be low. Go figure….]