Cryos, the largest international sperm and egg bank headquartered in Denmark, announced Monday  the official launch of the first independent donor gamete bank in Nicosia.

The bank said it had been authorised by the health ministry to carry out sperm and egg donation, procurement, testing, processing, storage, distribution, import and export.

“As an international company with extensive experience and know-how in cryopreservation, Cryos aims to boost assisted reproduction in the country, collaborating with all stakeholders to offer services such as sperm and egg donation,” a news release said.

Cryos International began operations as a Sperm Bank in 1987 and gradually expanded its operations to four locations in Denmark and one location in the US. Over the past five years, it has expanded its services to also offer donor eggs and social/medical egg freezing.

Its mission, it said, is to provide high quality donor sperm and eggs from selected and screened donors of all ethnicities and phenotypes.

It also said that the Guinness Book of World Records has documented that Cryos has the largest donor base in the world. with over 1000 anonymous and non-anonymous donors. Cryos supplies frozen donor sperm and eggs to more than 100 countries and has achieved the highest pregnancies worldwide.

The organisation said that the specialised Cryos team in Cyprus comprises of experienced professionals, who follow all internationally recognised practices applied by the company worldwide, assisting donors every step of the way throughout the process of sperm and egg donation.

The Nicosia clinic, it added meets all of the quality and safety standards as recommended by both Cyprus regulations and the European Union Tissue and Cells Directives (EUTCD).

Commenting on the expansion οf the company in Cyprus, Cryos Director of European Operations, Saghar Kasiri, said: “Cryos’ vision is to help childless families and make their dreams of having children come true. Following the successful establishment of Cryos’ U.S. egg and sperm bank, we took the opportunity to embark on further expansion, in order to meet the demand for good quality donor sperm and eggs in Europe. Cyprus was selected not only because it has the right infrastructure and regulations for assisted reproduction technologies in place – in line with the EU Tissue and Cells Directives – but also, because of its convenient geographical location connecting East and West. We hope that with our presence here and the high quality donor sperm and eggs we provide, we can attract more international patients to the country and make Cyprus a ‘fertility haven’ for families needing assisted reproduction treatments”.

Source: Cyprus Mail