Banks that tell you sperm counts before buying?

[escher]

Do you know of any banks other that TSBC (The Sperm Bank of California) or PRS (Pacific Reproductive Services) that will tell you the sperm counts and motility for vials that are currently available? Several banks we called will tell us the average for each donor, and virtually all banks seem to tell their guaranteed minimum, but I really like knowing exactly what we are getting before we order. TSBC gives that information for free, and PRS will give it but charges $60 for each donor you ask about. Other suggestions?

Thank you!

[Beastie]

Hi Escher!

We've been using CCB (mostly because we committed before their last price hike, ugh). Just for your records, CCB not only won't tell you anything beyond their minimum requirement *before* you order, they now have a new policy in which you can no longer ask them to send you the vials with the highest count from your donor, or even to send all vials for a single cycle from the same donation. So that's incredibly frustrating. This cycle I was able to put these things as a "request" on my order, and did get 3 vials from the same donation with nice high counts. So it worked out, but only despite the CCB system.

HTH,
Beastie

[Coco99]

Yeah, Xytex gave averages and minimum garantees...

[escher]

Thanks, Beastie and Coco! Good to know!

[milletpuff]

Good numbers was one of our two non-negotiable points when picking a donor (the other was willing-to-be-known). Basically we didn't find any besides the two you mentioned that had both WTBK and gave out the counts. So disappointing!

[indigoscot]

we went with ccb also - while what beastie said is true, we did find with our backup donor that the counts and motility varied incredibly between donation to donation - we requested that info when the vials were shipped to our RE. so i think asking for a donor with high counts isn't always indicative of all the donations he has made or might make in the future.

note that my dp got her bfp with ici vials spun to iui from our original donor, and the counts were 9 mil and 11 mil respectively for each insem.

g

[escher]

Thanks, Milletpuff and Indigoscot! It's good to know that you've found the same information available, but that sometimes it is possible to get pregnant even if the counts aren't sky high.