10 interesting facts about donor sperm
Have you ever wondered how a sperm bank stores the sperm? And what “washed” sperm means? Here you can read 10 interesting facts about donor sperm.
1. How is donor sperm stored?
Cryos stores donor sperm in secured tanks with liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees. Some people ask us if they can freeze and store their sperm in their own freezer. Unfortunately, a freezer is only -18 degrees and therefore it is far from cold enough for sperm cells to survive.
2. Why use a sperm donor to become pregnant?
There are three main groups of people to answer the question; why use a sperm donor? The groups are heterosexual couples experiencing problems with infertility, lesbian couples and an increasing number of single women who have decided to become Single Mothers by Choice and create a family without a partner.
If you consider becoming a parent to a donor-conceived child, then follow the button below for our free Sperm Donor Search.
3. What is the difference between “washed” and “unwashed” sperm?
Washed sperm is prepared in a laboratory. To wash the sperm, a laboratory technician removes the ejaculate fluids and adds a cryo-preservative before freezing the sperm in plastic vials. Washed sperm is also called IUI-ready. This means that the sperm is ready to use for artificial insemination.
Unwashed sperm contains all the natural fluids that are present in a man’s ejaculate and the only preparation that has been made is to add the cryo-preservative that makes the sperm ready to survive to freeze.
4. What is the difference between a Non-ID Release and an ID Release donor?
Donors can decide whether to be Non-ID Release or ID Release Sperm Donors. A Non-ID Release donor means that no one will ever be able to know the identity of the sperm donor.
An ID Release donor means that a child will get the opportunity to receive the sperm donor’s last known address, name and birth date when the child turns 18.
5. How much sperm is enough for a pregnancy?
This is a more tricky question because this is dependent on the type of treatment the patient is going through and what the fertility clinic prefers. For an IUI treatment, Cryos recommend using 1 MOT 10 (or higher) sperm straw. This means that there are 10 million sperm cells pr. millilitre sperm. But the amount of sperm needed is different depending on the type of fertility treatment you are going to receive. The amount of sperm needed for ICSI treatment and IVF treatment is different to IUI and ICI treatment. In the end, only one single sperm cell is needed to fertilise the egg.
If you want to read more about how much sperm to order for fertility treatment, then follow the link to our page on the subject.
6. Who can become a donor?
Men of all ethnicities and races can become sperm donors. However, all donors must be physically and mentally healthy and go through an extensive screening program before being accepted and start donating at Cryos. Of course, they should also have really good sperm quality. Applicants with a family history of serious hereditary diseases cannot become sperm donors.
7. What is the age limit for sperm donors?
Donors at Cryos must be between 18 and 45 years of age. After the age of 45, men’s sperm quality starts to decrease, and therefore, there is an age limit to being a donor. However, this does not mean that a man has bad sperm quality after 45.
8. How much are sperm donors compensated for their donations?
Sperm donors get compensation for their time and transportation each time they donate. The amount is approximately 50 EUR for each donation.
9. Can you see pictures of sperm donors?
It is actually possible to see childhood photos of many of the sperm donors at Cryos. Some of the sperm donors have pictures of themselves as adults attached to their profiles as well. It is free of charge to see childhood photos, and if you also want to see pictures of the donors as adults, you can buy access to that type of sperm donor in Cryos’ Sperm Donor Search.
10. Does a sperm donor have parental rights?
Donors do not have any parental rights for donor-conceived children born with the help of their donations. Therefore, a donor will never be considered the legal father of the donor-conceived children.
If you found this blog post interesting, we can recommend you take a look at our blog post about misconceptions about donor sperm.