Donor Sperm

• Purchase specimen from your selected sperm bank
• Complete the Donated Sperm Acquisition form provided by the sperm bank and bring or fax to us (808.262.3744)
• Samples are ordered from the sperm bank by the patient.  In order to save on shipping costs, some patients may order 3 or 4 samples so that they have enough for more than one cycle at a time. Usually one sample is sufficient for one insemination. Occasionally, your provider may recommend using two samples per insemination. For patients who are actively cycling with our office and attempting pregnancy, we will provide storage without an additional charge.

Semen obtained from reputable sperm banks has undergone rigorous screening for sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and a health risk questionnaire is completed by the donor and reviewed by trained personnel. The semen is frozen and quarantined for six months and the donor is then re-tested for STDs. If he is not infected, the semen samples are made available for intrauterine insemination (AI).

Donor semen samples used for insemination must be processed, or “washed”, in order to separate the seminal plasma from the sperm.

• Washed (or IUI) samples are processed by the sperm bank and contain no semen.
• Unwashed samples, also called Intracervical Insemination (ICI) samples, contain semen and must be washed by our Laboratory on the day of your insemination in order for placement into the uterus.
• Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) samples are now being offered by some sperm banks. These samples have lower total motile sperm and may only be used with IVF (in vitro fertilization). We would always recommend washed (processed) samples for purchase and use.

• Please coordinate the shipping of the donor sperm specimens with our office and inform us of when your samples will be arriving. This is imperative so that someone will be available to receive your samples upon arrival.
• Samples need to arrive between 8:00am and 4:00pm Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. There can be no weekend or holiday deliveries.

Patients who use donor sperm samples for their infertility treatment must sign consents related to the storage and use of donor sperm.

The chance of obstetrical complications, spontaneous abortion (miscarriage), and having a child with physical or mental defects is the same with Therapeutic Donor Insemination (TDI) as with a pregnancy conceived after intercourse. Donors’ family histories have been reviewed by medical geneticists to eliminate those with a higher than average risk of passing known major genetic defects to their offspring. This screening, however, in no way entirely eliminates all risk to the offspring of genetic defect(s).

Although extensive precautions have been taken to minimize the chance of infection, there remains some risk, although very slight, of contracting an infection from TDI. Included are such sexually transmitted infections as hepatitis, herpes, Chlamydia, gonorrhea, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and others. The use of frozen semen from an approved bank carries a theoretically minimal risk of transmitting infection since the frozen samples are held in quarantine while donors are re-tested for infection.

It is important to have the recipient’s Cytomegalovirus (CMV) status determined prior to choosing the sperm donor in order to decrease the chances of an infant being affected by a primary CMV infection in the mother.

A female who has never been exposed to CMV does NOT have antibodies to CMV and should only use donor sperm from a donor who also has never contracted CMV. If the female has previously been infected by CMV and has the antibodies, she already has had the primary “infection” (you may have had no symptoms or indiscrete symptoms) from CMV. So any reactivation of the disease state has a very, very small chance of affecting the infant. She may, therefore, use donor sperm from a donor who has also previously been infected by the CMV virus.

The donor’s blood type might be medically important to consider.  Incompatibility will require additional medical treatment.  Please review this with your Provider prior to purchasing Donor Sperm.

Intrauterine Insemination with donor sperm is often used in conjunction with ovulation induction cycles. The underlying principle is to bypass the major loss points for sperm in the female reproductive tract (the vagina and cervix), so that more sperm may be placed closer to the “destination”. This allows more sperm to be in the proximity of the eggs.

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). In vitro fertilization with Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) can be used as a primary therapy for some patients (severe sperm problems, single females, lesbian patients, occluded or damaged fallopian tubes, diminished ovarian function, for example). During in vitro fertilization, the ovaries are stimulated to produce multiple follicles. The eggs from those follicles are retrieved during an ultrasound guided procedure and then combined in the embryology laboratory. Fertilization then occurs via Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) which is a procedure performed under the microscope where a small glass needle is used to inject a single sperm directly into the egg. ICSI is most commonly used when the man has a low sperm count or poor sperm quality.

While we are unable to guarantee the quality of any sperm received from sperm banks, the list below represents some of the sperm banks with which we have worked successfully in the past.

• California Cryobank www.cryobank.com
• Xytex Cryo International Sperm Bank www.xytex.com
• NW Cryobank www.nwcryobank.com
• Fairfax Cryobank www.fairfaxcryobank.com
• Cryogenic Laboratories www.cryolab.com
• Seattle Sperm Bank www.seattlespermbank.com
• Cryos International Sperm and Egg Banks http://usa.cryosinternational.com/