The Hand-off

only1leia

So everything is in order to finally start inseminating at the end of this month and I was wondering if anyone has advice on the "hand-off" part.  We are using a known donor/fresh sperm and we got the SoftCups to use to transport the semen.  We've told the donor to ejaculate into the cup, which I am not 100% sure will be big enough, but besides that, what is a good way for him to "hand off" the sperm to me (since my partner is getting pregnant this time) before it ends up at the final destination?

LolaBelle515

Well, I Imagine there are a variety of successful ways, but here is what we did.

 

Donor was in one room, we were in another. After his deposit, he put the semen in the syringe himself. (We have him a syringe to practice the month before).  Then, he left the room and called out that he was done and left the house. As soon as he called that he was leaving, I went to the room and picked up the cup with the syringe in it, brought it immediately to my wife, and well, the rest is history.

 

We discovered, for us, that these "visits" with our donor were very much only for the purpose of donation. There was very little small talk and certainly no hanging out, as if he were visiting socially like he normally would. He was never there long. I'd recommend having that conversation with your donor in advance, so that the three of you can figure out what scenario works best for you.

 

2moms2b

For our first year of trying we would put our donor in a hotel room as he was not local.  We would have the timing set so that he came in the day before we expected a positive OPK and stay three days. The hotel room was very close to our house (3 minute car ride).  We would text him that we were home and ready and he would text us before he "started" for a lack of a better word.  We would then wait in the hotel parking lot and he would bring it down in a sterile cup in a bag.  I would then place the cup in my shirt to keep it warm.  We went home and did our thing.  From him giving it to us to us inseminating was maybe 5 to 10 minutes.

We used the rubbermaid cups with the screw on lids.   We found it was big enough to hold the sample and easy enough to get to with the syringe.  We got a sterile wash from the drug store and used that on it.  The syringes were ones we picked up in the drug store as well for kids medicine.  When he arrived in town he got the cups in a paper bag from us.  Just make sure if you wash your container ahead of time, that there is no water remaining as it will kill sperm. 

The first couple of times it was kind of weird as I thought it looked like a drug deal lol. Us waiting in a hotel parking lot and a man bringing us a paper bag to the car lol.  That would have been fun to explain to the police.   We simply limited all interaction on these visits as like Lola said these were not social visits.

JGY

We did not go this route, so I don't have any first-hand experience.  But I do have friends that were using a donor who was not local, but still within driving distance.  They would meet half-way at a hotel and would get rooms that adjoin/have a door between them.  The "Hand-off" was made through that doorway.

Nice plan (even if the donor IS local), if you can afford to do it that way.

clairmeij

I've not used this method, but its really interesting to read!

only1leia

Good ideas, I would have never thought of the adjoining room hotel.  Luckily our donor is local and he is willing to drive to our house and do his business in our bathroom.  We did touch on the procedure when we signed the contract (that it was not a social visit, ad he would make the deposit and leave).  Mostly I'm curious about the SoftCup/InsteadCup ... Thinking now that maybe we will have sterile cups set out in addition to the SoftCup and he will put the SoftCup in the sterile cup?  Our plan may change, but at the moment we are avoiding syringes because we heard it kills some of the sperm.