Britain's national sperm bank is launching a recruitment drive to boost donations after it emerged only nine men were registered as donors.
The bank, based at Birmingham Women's Hospital, now plans to appeal to male pride to boost donations.
"If I advertised saying 'Men, prove your worth, show me how good you are', then I would get hundreds of donors," chief executive Laura Witjens told the Guardian.
"That's the way the Danish do it. They proudly say, this is the Viking invasion, exports from Denmark are beer, Lego and sperm. It's a source of pride," she said.
The bank had received a 77,000-pound grant from the UK Department of Health to get up and running, but it will now be funded independently of the government. It was created to help tackle the shortage of donors which often drives patients overseas or to unregistered services.
It is also the first UK clinic to give people from ethnic minorities the chance to choose from a range of culturally matched donors. It will start shipping its first batches of sperm to clinics nationwide from January 2016.
Donors must have strong sperm to qualify, and Witjens said many men were either put off or rejected after coming forward.
Men need to attend the clinic twice a week for three or four months and have a wide range of tests before being registered.
"Then the crux is having your sperm frozen and then tested, and that's where most men fail - about 80 to 90 per cent," Witjens said.
All children born as the result of sperm donation in the UK since 2005 will have the right to know the identity of their father when they turn 18.
However, a donor is not the legal parent and is not named on the birth certificate.
