How many vials?

[prettyisa]

Hi everyone,
my DP and I finally chose a donor, and are planning to chart for another month or so before actually trying (I just started using OPKs and can't figure them out, so a couple more rounds seem necessary).

Anyway, how many vials do y'all buy at once? Do you just call every month and see if your donor is in stock, or buy several months at a time? And how many tries do you give each donor before moving on to someone else?

We've got money right now for three tries (6 vials), but I don't know if it's silly to buy that many from the outset. But we really like the donor and don't want to have to go for our second choice if we can help it (unless this one doesn't work, obviously).

Should we buy all six now, or just 2 at a time when we actually need them?

[maryeliz]

We chose to just do two at a time, because I had heard a bad story about someone who got a bunch of vials and the numbers weren't very good, but the bank didn't want to take them back and give a refund. I cared more about the numbers than having a particular donor, but fortunately for us our first choice worked out well.

[Coco99]

Oops,double post... see below !!

[Coco99]

Hello

We always bought 2 or 3 months at a time.

-That way we were sure to have our available donor (they went from available to not available almost daily...)

-That way we saved on shipping.

-It was less stressful that way.

-It wasnt too much that if it didnt work we were stuck with too much of a not-so-good stock.

What bank are you using ? Use one that will give you the donor's stats for quality... We used Xytex.

Coco
xx

PS: Come join us in Queer Conceptions if you feel like it

[quasar]

If you really like the donor, I would probably purchase 2-3 months of samples. This will help ensure that if it doesn't work the first time around that you won't have to start hunting again for someone that you like. Certain banks are more difficult than others to figure out what is available at any particular time. Is there a way for you to find out what the numbers are ahead of time? I know some banks are hesitant to release that information.

Another option is to actually call the bank and ask them how many samples are available, how popular the donor is, and whether or not they are still actively donating. For some donors, their samples get bought out rather quickly and even waiting a day to decide you might be out of luck. This happened with us when we were looking at several different donors from California Cryobank. In the end we used Xytex and found them to be really helpful. We used a total of 4 different donors, and the one that we used twice in a row was the one that gave us our son.

Once we had our son, we ended up buying 6 more vials for the next one and just storing them there. We really wanted a bio-sibling, and the first one took us five tries. I was still nervous that 6 vials wasn't going to be enough, and was contemplating buying more. Luckily for us, we tried for the second baby using just one vial and got pregnant the first time around. So now we have 5 vials in storage, and feel somewhat more relaxed about the next time.

[KCMommy]

Hi, hope I can post here.. I am a straight SMC, but so many of the posts in this forum are relevant to my donor insemination journey so I lurk.

I am about to reserve some vials of my chosen donor from Repromed too. I asked them for details and got this response:

An order form would need to be filled out as usual stating how many vials you wish to reserve and noting that they are in fact for reservation. You will then be charged the cost of the vials ($495.00 each) along with the yearly storage fee ($375.00). The vials will then be allocated for your use only. In future whenever you place an order with us you would note on your order for us to pull the vials from your reservation.

I had asked if there was such a thing as a partial refund for unused vials, but they didn't address that in their response. I'm not sure I want to sink $6000 into reserving 6 months worth of cycles (2 vials per cycle) if I might not need them. But I'm already in contact with several other families that have used this donor and now I am feeling pretty committed to using him to conceive a child now, and probably one more in a couple years.

But, I think it seems to be a personal thing with age, fertility, and a bit of luck factored into how many tries it is going to take.

- K

[Coco99]

Originally Posted by KCMommy

Hi, hope I can post here.. I am a straight SMC, but so many of the posts in this forum are relevant to my donor insemination journey so I lurk.

Of course you are, we appreaciate diversity around here .

Coco
xx

[prettyisa]

Thanks everyone! I think we'll probably go ahead and get several months' worth now. I'm afraid that we'll spend the money otherwise, and also we liked this donor much more than the others we looked at, so I'd hate to have him be unavailable when we needed him. We're going through Midwest, since we're in the area and can just pick it up from her house instead of paying for shipping.

[prettyisa]

Oh! and Coco, we're not starting yet (there have been arguments about the suitability of various astrological signs. Seriously. Somehow I lost the fight, so we're waiting until October to get going) but I'll be there with bells on (and stirrups, I guess) once we do!

[wehrli]

prettisa, i saw you over at babycenter too! we used midwest and are pg with a 345 babe!
i know you aren't starting until october but you should join us all in queer conceptions anyway! if you get to know the ppl there, you will have an amazing support system through the whole process!!

[lexbeach]

I guess I'll be the voice of dissent, not that it necessarily matters to the OP at this point (congrats on buying sperm!). I think it makes more sense to just go month to month in the beginning rather than buy a few months' worth all at once. I, personally, would not have chosen to use the same donor for more than two unsuccessful cycles in a row; this is one of the few benefits of using anonymous sperm: you can choose a different donor if the first one doesn't work for you in a timely fashion.

After we conceived with a particular donor (we were lucky on the first try), then we bought up extra sperm to keep in storage for a future sibling.

Maybe it's just that I never felt particularly attached to our donor before becoming pregnant, but I fail to see the benefit in buying a bunch of vials from the get-go, before you know if your eggs and his sperm are a good match.



Lex

[quasar]

I guess I just kind of went on the belief that there's such a thing as bio-familiarity. Meaning once your body has encountered that particular donor's sperm, then the next time it's more likely to recognize them as not being as much of an intruder. Maybe that's quackery, but for us, the only donor we used two months in a row got us pregnant with DS1, and then the first time we tried for the second child, we used the same donor and got pregnant on the first try. I'm sure a LOT of things went into it, like better timing, good counts, and just the odds factor. But it still works for me.

[lexbeach]

Originally Posted by quasar

Maybe that's quackery, but for us, the only donor we used two months in a row got us pregnant with DS1, and then the first time we tried for the second child, we used the same donor and got pregnant on the first try. I'm sure a LOT of things went into it, like better timing, good counts, and just the odds factor. But it still works for me.

I definitely recommend using the same donor for two tries; I just wouldn't have chosen to use the same one for more than that (maybe three, if I really liked him on paper).

FWIW, we had a pretty amazing conception rate (5 tries, 3 pregnancies), and later learned that this was not unique at all: the other women we know who used the same donor all had really great "luck" as well (many of them got pregnant on the first try).

I'm not advocating switching donors every month, but if you've been unsuccessful for two (or three) months in a row, there's definitely a chance that the reason is the sperm (quality of sample or match with your body).

Lex

[Coco99]

Originally Posted by lexbeach

FWIW, we had a pretty amazing conception rate (5 tries, 3 pregnancies), and later learned that this was not unique at all: the other women we know who used the same donor all had really great "luck" as well (many of them got pregnant on the first try).

Hey Lex its good to see you !

About the conception rates, I wish they shared that on the profiles !!

Coco
xx

[AugustLia23]

I think we bought 4, then 8. We now have 3 kids and at last check had 4 remaining vials(which we stopped paying storage for, so they've probably destroyed them by now). I can't remember how many vials we used each cycle, but I remember one successful cycle we did use 3 vials. Each 2nd try resulted in a baby, with one of the 1st tries being with a fresh donor, so no vials were used. So our stats are similar to Lexbeach, 5 donor IUI tries, 3 pregnancies.

I preferred to buy as much as we could afford, never know when the prices would go up, or the donor could run out of vials. We really wanted bio siblings.

[gellybeangrl]

Originally Posted by prettyisa

We're going through Midwest, since we're in the area and can just pick it up from her house instead of paying for shipping.

Hi Prettyisa,

We use Midwest as well...Joanne is great. Give her a call and talk to her. Tell her what your wants and needs are. She is great about working with you and letting you know how fertile the donor you select is.

Good luck and lots of baby dust to you!!!

[indigoscot]

it's a really tough decision. on the one hand i agree with quasar and on the other hand i agree with lex. we bought 6 vials of the donor we liked and then he retired and by the time i was pg he had no vials left. we had 2 vials left for dp and no way of getting more besides reactivating the donor.

as it turns out i managed to contact our bank about any returned vials at the exact same time vials became available via another client who had reactivated the donor. we were able to purchase an additional 6 vials and 2 of those brought us our second son that dp carried.

banks are notoriously coy about telling you if a donor is about to retire. sometimes they don't know if he will come back to have final testing to release his last donation and quite frequently what's on their website isn't always 100% accurate wrt how many vials are available. if you are really set on one donor i say buy as many vials as you can afford and store them. most banks have a buy-back policy and sometimes you can find other parents who are desparately looking for a spare vial to grow their family.

i have seen so many couples who want to grow their family but won't unless they have the same donor.

we have been extremely lucky - 5 insems, 2 kids.

g