Help, Donor Sperm Purchase

[BleuM]

The next stage of my treatment is to select a donor, I’ve been on the European Sperm Bank website but not sure what I’m looking for, I can’t seem to find any with the same race as myself? Is this something that is recommended? I was aware of the cost per straw but there seems to be something called pregnancy slot that was unexpected, has anyone heard of this. Really confused at the moment any advice would be appreciated, as I’m paying privately not sure whether I would need to pay for advice from the clinic.

[RecipIVF]

Hi there 👋🏻 I’m in a same sex relationship and ordered donor sperm for private treatment. You will need to purchase the sperm and a pregnancy slot then be aware your clinic may charge ‘admin fees’ for receiving and storing the sperm. We used Cryos and had no issues. Do you know if you are CMV neg or pos? It’s harder to get a CMV neg donor x

[Shireen1]

Hi Bleum! I found ESB confusing and opted for Cryos instead. I think you have helpful instructions on their site regarding motility and how much you need. Now I forgot the details to be honest. If the race is important for you, you should be able to chose. Look for other sperm banks if this one doesn’t have donors you are looking for. CMV is also important if you are doing insemination. Not sure for IVF. Other than that, my advice is not to overthink. I am speaking from my experience. I read almost all profiles, making sure to pick the best for my future child. I read their emotional intelligence report, family history, all of it. None of those transfers worked and I ended up using a clinic in a country that only supports fully anonymous donors and they picked one for me. Good luck!

[AuroraXen]

I actually used donor sperm in the past and I remember finding this pregnancy slot concept very confusing. So please take this info with a pinch of salt!! Basically, as I recall, some countries make it mandatory for you to pay for this so-called pregnancy slot when you purchase the straw of sperm. It's something to do with the number of families any given donor can create (to stop one man having like 50 babies). Every country has a different law but in places like Denmark, for instance, donor Joe Bloggs (should have picked a Danish name!) may only be allowed to father children for say 4 families. I think if you purchase the pregnancy slot, and you get pregnant from that donor's sperm, it gives you the right to also use his sperm to have a sibling if you wish in future (so the idea is your children have the same biological father),even if Joe Bloggs subsequently has fathered children for another 3 women. You'd still be able to use him to father another baby down the line. It's complicated though because even though you purchase that Pregnancy Slot, it doesn't guarantee you that Jo's sperm will actually BE available (unless you buy extra straws now and keep them for later use) as he may not have donated any more. I always found it a bit confusing honestly, so many others can explain better, but the bottom line is, I think it's a mandatory charge for purchasing sperm in certain countries xx

[AuroraXen in reply to AuroraXen]

Oh and just to add you're right, the clinics tend to distance themselves from advising you too much - unless it's their own bank (which tends to have very limited donor options). Saying that, a clinic's counsellor will probably be able to help more here, and should be able to answer all your questions around legal and ethical things. But any clinic WILL of course tell you how to proceed, who does what and when. So for instance my clinic only worked with certain banks abroad. They had to have an agreement with them already in place. So I asked 'do you work with Cryos/ ESB' and they'd say yes, and then you do all your ordering and purchasing with the sperm bank directly. Your clinic will have an administration fee for arranging receipt of the biomaterial and thawing it etc, and they will ask you to pay that in advance. I just asked my clinic how much that was, confirmed with them that I could place an order with ESB, asked them when I needed to order the sperm to fit in with my treatment plans, and it was pretty straightforward from there xx

[Twiglet2]

Hi- we used ESB. Our clinic gave us a log in for them and it added what we needed and their address automatically (it also gave access to baby pics etc without need to pay). Once we had chosen they actually did the purchase for us and we sent the clinic the money. I think the pregnancy slot we did have to add actually (uk) 🤔 as it is to limit the amount of people in one country who can get pregnant with that donor.

We chose a cmv positive donor even though I was cmv negative as there was limited supply (especially if not looking for white with blonde hair and blue eyes!) we chose a donor with characteristics of my partner mostly but you can chose whatever you like really, it makes no difference to embryo success rate etc, just your potential future child’s characteristics. Our little boy looks nothing like me or the donor though lol although does look like my brother as a child! I know your clinic can’t give donor advice but they should be able to help you with the transaction part at the very least to make sure it gets to them successfully with the correct permissions! Good luck xx

[Kt8e21]

Hi. I have just purchased from ESB in the past month. You need a pregnancy slot in the UK due to only a certain amount of families been able to start a family with each donor.

Im a single female and searched for characteristics that I felt matched myself and close family members to give me a better chance of the child looking like me. I know there’s still a chance they won’t look anything like me lol

I’m CMV negative so needed a CMV negative donor but the options were limited and none were in stock so I emailed ESB regarding a few profiles I was interested in and they advised me when they would be available and I ticked the notify me when In stock box in their profile. You have to be constantly monitoring your emails as I think several people might be interested in the same donor and it’s first come first served but I was lucky and managed to purchase what I needed.

There’s other costs to factor in such as the pregnancy slot, delivery and then storage fees for when it arrives at your chosen clinic. I was asked to purchase 7 vials.. so it has ended up been quite expensive and the treatments not even started yet.

My clinic also charges for a Donor sperm nurse.. but they have sent me documents on how to order and then they just gave authorisation once I’d paid for it? Wouldn’t help with the actual picking of a donor! I found discussing the different donors with family helped and with ESB you can see baby pictures which you can then save along with a full profile so any future child can look at it.. but I believe most sperm banks do this.

Good luck with your search 😀

[BleuM]

Thank you all so much for the replies, you’ve really helped me understand more. Cyros has never been mentioned so I’ll look into this and I’ll call the clinic to for help with transaction 🙏