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Sperm Bank Questions

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sperm bank
1K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  nessa4222 
#1 ·
Hi,

It's been a while. I conceived my last two kiddos with fresh (friend) sperm. I am considering having more children, but I don't have male friends that I want sperm from, and so I wanted more info on sperm banks.

What is the best bank to use? I live in NY state if that makes a difference. What is involved and can you pick a donor by blood type (I am rhesus negative and did not get the rhogam shot after my last birth, so I need to find a rhesus negative donor)? What kind of questions do they ask when you go through a bank, or do you basically just give them money and they do not ask? I haven't a clue how it works and I'm a bit afraid to look at websites yet. Would love some basic info. Thanks!
 
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#2 ·
:wave Hello Raene! I hope your TTC journey is short and sweet. Feel free to join us over in the Queer Conceptions thread when you are ready. I don't know much about banks in your area, but I did use one to conceive my son. If you can find one locally where you could pick up the stuff yourself, that would save you a bunch on shipping. I used the Sperm Bank of California. They are non-profit. Many people choose them because they have smaller family limits. They will retire a donor after a number of successful births. I'm not sure what the number is but I believe it is less than 10 families. Because they retire donors sooner, they have a smaller group of donors to choose from. Other banks have higher limits. If that is a concern of yours, you will want to ask.
Most banks need approval from your doctor or midwife basically saying that you are healthy enough to receive sperm and get pregnant. I believe Northwest Sperm Bank does not require a doctor's approval. My bank will ship directly to a recipient but some may only ship to a doctor's office, so you will want to ask about that as well. They ask some other questions to get you registered but nothing too in depth. My bank has the forms they need to register online if you want to look at them. Banks will absolutely tell you if the donor is rh negative or positive because it's so important. They also test for things like cystic fibrosis and other inherited diseases.
The big differences between the banks are costs, number and selection of donors, information available in their profiles and how much you can do on their websites (some are fancier than others). My bank has short profiles online but you have to pay for baby pictures and full profiles. Xytex has baby pictures of the donor and adult pictures, and I think you can pay a fee for full access to all the profile info for a set period of time. You may want to ask around in your community to see who people have worked with.
Any other questions? :grin:
 
#3 ·
Choosing a Sperm Bank

I chose MWSB due to the fact that they will ship directly to your home for home insem. They do require a doctors signature (we had a horrible time with that and even switched doctors in the end) but they are extremely easy to use and very helpful. The down side is that I don't believe they have known donors and they don't have as many a la carte items (extended profiles, photo matching, etc.) as some others. We also were having trouble finding black donors and of course price.

Because of all these factors, there isn't one that is the 'best' since it is all due to your wants/needs/situations. You should definitely figure out what is important to you/your family and go from there. Good luck!!
 
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