Female Sperm

Female sperm can be either 1) a sperm that contains an X chromosome, produced in the usual way by a male, referring to the fact that when such a sperm fertilizes an egg, a female child is born, or 2) sperm containing genetic material from a female. This article focuses on the second definition.

Since the late 1980s, scientists have explored how to produce sperm where all of the chromosomes come from a female donor. In the late 1990s, this concept became a partial reality when scientists in Japan developed chicken female sperm by injecting bone marrow stem cells from a female chicken into a rooster's testicles. This technique proved to fall below expectations, however, and has not yet been successfully adapted for use on humans.