anyone get pregnant using a sperm bank?

[cubasianchica]

if you have used a sperm bank I was wondering if you could tell me how that works. Im considering using it and wanted to know from beginning to end how it works. like is there a catalog and you see the guys or is it a written review, do you get to know about medical background? how much? how the process works...thanks

[simcon]

The mamas in the queer parenting forum know a lot about sperm banks--you may want to ask your question over there. I think different banks present different levels of information to you (sometimes you need to pay for longer profiles), but most of the info you're asking about is available, depending on which bank you use. This is all second-hand info, though, as we used a donor, but not a bank.

[cubasianchica]

The mamas in the queer parenting forum know a lot about sperm banks--you may want to ask your question over there. I think different banks present different levels of information to you (sometimes you need to pay for longer profiles), but most of the info you're asking about is available, depending on which bank you use. This is all second-hand info, though, as we used a donor, but not a bank.

thats interesting.... what is the difference between a donor and a bank? how does that work?

[simcon]

Our "known" sperm donor is a friend of ours who has agreed to give us sperm to help us grow our family. We know him, and he's like an "uncle" figure to our daughter (and any future children). We did inseminations at home with him (we used a jar and syringe) for our daughter, and we did the same with this one (though we also had him store sperm, frozen, at our fertility clinic at one point, as he's across the country from us--however, it was a fresh try that worked--not a frozen vial).

Sperm banks use "unknown" donors--men who get paid to deposit their sperm to be frozen, which people who need sperm then buy for insemination purposes. There are no legal entanglements with sperm banks, as donors sign away their rights to any future children produced by the sperm they deposit when they get paid--this termination of rights pre-conception is not possible with known donors, so many people prefer sperm banks for just this reason. We had a great deal of trust of our known donor, and so felt confident that we would be able to complete the legal paperwork (termination of parental rights) after the baby was born. Some sperm banks have id-release donors, men who are willing to be known after the child is 18, I believe. Some sperm banks use only unknown donors, and others offer a combination of the two.

[cubasianchica]

Our "known" sperm donor is a friend of ours who has agreed to give us sperm to help us grow our family. We know him, and he's like an "uncle" figure to our daughter (and any future children). We did inseminations at home with him (we used a jar and syringe) for our daughter, and we did the same with this one (though we also had him store sperm, frozen, at our fertility clinic at one point, as he's across the country from us--however, it was a fresh try that worked--not a frozen vial).

Sperm banks use "unknown" donors--men who get paid to deposit their sperm to be frozen, which people who need sperm then buy for insemination purposes. There are no legal entanglements with sperm banks, as donors sign away their rights to any future children produced by the sperm they deposit when they get paid--this termination of rights pre-conception is not possible with known donors, so many people prefer sperm banks for just this reason. We had a great deal of trust of our known donor, and so felt confident that we would be able to complete the legal paperwork (termination of parental rights) after the baby was born. Some sperm banks have id-release donors, men who are willing to be known after the child is 18, I believe. Some sperm banks use only unknown donors, and others offer a combination of the two.

thats fantastic, I think I was looking to use someones dna that I know (for privacy Im not mentioning specifically who) but with the technicalities of the rights and whatnot.... am I able to just put on the birth certificate that I dont know who the father is and that way bypass the paperwork? or could this work against me?