World’s biggest sperm bank turning down redheads

Sperm banks say there is little demand for redheads. Photo by Thinkstock
Sperm banks say there is little demand for redheads. Photo by Thinkstock

Red hair might be popular in Hollywood, but only one to two percent of the world's population are natural redheads. With that in mind, the world's largest sperm bank, Cryos International, ships to over 65 countries, and said they have more than enough semen from ginger-haired donors to meet the low demand and are turning away redheads at the door.

The recession may be leading more men to the sperm bank, since donors to Cryos receive up to $500. But the Daily Telegraph is reporting that Cyros is now being more selective about donors and ensuring they have the sperm that meets the needs of their recipients.

"There are too many redheads in relation to demand," Ole Schou, Cryos's director, told Danish newspaper Ekstrabladet. Schou said Cyros's locations have maxed out with roughly 18.5 gallons of redhead sperm, and already have a waiting list of 600 donors. "I do not think you chose a redhead, unless the partner - for example, the sterile male - has red hair, or because the lone woman has a preference for redheads. And that's perhaps not so many, especially in the latter case."

One location with a high demand for ginger sperm is Ireland. Schou says it sells to the Irish "like hot cakes." We'd imagine Scotland would have a similar demand since they have the highest proportion of redheads at 13%. In general he said sperm from the most popular sperm comes from men with dark hair and brown eyes, largely due to their strong customer base in Spain, Italy, in Greece. He said Indian sperm is hard to come by since India does now allow sperm or eggs to be exported from the country.

A little web surfing lead us to a few other specialized sperm banks. California Cryobank has an entire department for celebrity look-a-like babies. Now you can pretend Paul Rudd was your baby daddy (they currently have 287 partial matches) as the program searches the sperm bank based on ethnicity, ancestry, hair color, eye color, height, and weight.

If you were getting semen from a sperm bank, would you be selective about hair color or any other physical traits?

Related links:

The right red hair for you: how to get Hollywood's hottest trend
Hollywood redheads and how to get the look! (video)
Three tricks to choose the best shade of red hair