Artificial insemination (AI) is a fertility treatment by which sperm is inserted into a woman's reproductive tract for the purpose of impregnating the female by using means other than sexual intercourse. The woman is the gestational and genetic mother of the child produced, and the sperm donor is the genetic or biological father of the child. Increasingly this technique is being used to enable women without a male partner (i.e. single women and lesbians) to become pregnant and to produce children by using sperm provided by a sperm donor.