Despite only being in my mid-thirties, I have nine biological children.
Of these, four I fathered as a sperm donor, the first of whom I fathered at age 18 or 19. Three I fathered from my first marriage, which failed. And two I father in out-of-wedlock relationships with women I was not married to. This makes me somewhat of an outlier as far as reproduction is concerned in Western millennial men such as myself.
I’m not breaking any real records here, mind you — there are men out there who have three or four times more children than I do. There are even sperm donors out there who have fathered hundreds of children in their lifetimes. My own output is, admittedly, rather minimal in the face of such reproductive giants. That said, my donation was all to the same woman, who wanted my genes but not my involvement. Those four aren’t “test tube” babies but were created in a more… ahem… organic manner.
In a society where many men my age are just about to have their first child, I am two kids shy of a football team. I know there are others like me but I also know it’s fairly rare for a European man of my age cohort.