Sperm vial question

hlke

It looks like we're going to do a fresh (not shipped) cycle at least next month, hopefully the next two months.  If C isn't preggers by then, I think we'll need to move to IUI.  That means we'll have to bank sperm. (This is true in Illinois - I know it's not true in every state.)

For ladies who have been through this before, how many vials do you think we should bank?  Our donor will probably be available to bank again for the next pregnancy, so we don't necessarily have sibling concerns.  But I'd like to make this as easy as possible for our donor, and we need to know how many samples he needs to bank.

Edited to add: at that point we will have done 4 fresh home insems and 2 shipped home insems, all with good to very good timing.  C will be 35 in August, and I think she'll consider Clomid or Femara, but isn't willing to use injectables or do IVF.  So I'm guessing 9 or 10 inseminations with banked sperm for her, max.  Her feelings could change, but I think it's unlikely.

2moms2twins

hlke:

It looks like we're going to do a fresh (not shipped) cycle at least next month, hopefully the next two months.  If C isn't preggers by then, I think we'll need to move to IUI.  That means we'll have to bank sperm. (This is true in Illinois - I know it's not true in every state.)

For ladies who have been through this before, how many vials do you think we should bank?  Our donor will probably be available to bank again for the next pregnancy, so we don't necessarily have sibling concerns.  But I'd like to make this as easy as possible for our donor, and we need to know how many samples he needs to bank.

Edited to add: at that point we will have done 4 fresh home insems and 2 shipped home insems, all with good to very good timing.  C will be 35 in August, and I think she'll consider Clomid or Femara, but isn't willing to use injectables or do IVF.  So I'm guessing 9 or 10 inseminations with banked sperm for her, max.  Her feelings could change, but I think it's unlikely.

can you clarify what you mean by banking sperm?   If you are storing it from your known donor with a facility there are tons of legalities involved and the donor will have to be screened and the FDA will be involved.  ( I am assuming you are not going to pretend that the DONOR is your  husband or fiance ) or maybe i have no idea about this ... but i know we had a friends husband who was willing to donate to us and aside from other issues (paternity legalities) we found that it would be a HUGE- Long process and costly. I am so interested?

 

 

 

hlke

Yes, we would do directed donation through a sperm bank.  The rules have changed in the last several years to make it easier to bank sperm from a known donor, but most sperm banks still haven't changed their policies.  A few things are unique about our situation.

1. The FDA no longer requires the 6 month quarantine period and two sets of testing, but most sperm banks still do.  We were able to find a bank in Chicago that doesn't quarantine and only requires one set of tests within 7 days of donation.

2. Because we are local to the bank, it keeps costs down.  $150 per "deposit" of sperm and a $50 fee each time you get vials out of the bank.  If we weren't local, we'd have to pay $275 to prepare and ship vials, and it would be close to the cost of anonymous banked donor sperm.

So basically, we just got lucky.  We are really committed to the known donor process, so the legalities are not as much of an issue for us.  If we weren't so committed to this donor and using a known donor, we'd probably just switch to anonymous donor sperm. 

2moms2twins

oh awesome that it has changed and crazy that it changed in just a year or so

Thanks for explaining !

Good luck !

 

 

JoySeattle

I think only you and your partner can make the "what's enough" decision, but here are some things you may add to your considerations/questions:

• often one vial is only a portion of one ejaculate, therefore you may only need your donor to make a few donations in order to get many vials. what does your bank usually do?
  
• are you having them prepared as IVI, ICI, or IUI vials? 
• do you do 1 or 2 insems per cycle?
  
• is that likely to change?
• if you partner doesn't conceive within those parameters, do you have a plan B that may involve wanting more vials on-hand?
• do you want some stored for a potential sibling without needing to ask for more donations?

Best of luck on deciding!