Q: Sperm donors w/ recorded pgs?

Seagull2012 · April 2012

(also XP'd on Infertility Board)

My wife and i are starting to look at anonymous sperm donors as we continue to move along the sloooow road to our late july/early aug IVF. good news is we found 2 we like (and CMV-; CF-) at a bank but one of them is "new" to the system - just got out of testing/quarantine - so he has no reported pgs. The other one does have reported pgs (not sure how many). When i called the bank they did confirm the one w/out pgs is new so that's the only reason why no pgs.

I've heard that you "should" only pick donors with pgs on record but, honestly, i have read so much about IF in the past year or so that i can't remember if i heard it from a friend, Dr. Google or just one of those crazy myths floating around. Since the sperm is in a bank and tested it won't have MFI issues, obviously, but i guess it just makes sense to feel more reassured that the sperm is "good" if it works w/ another woman. Of course, there always has to be the first woman to try the sperm, right?

so i'm kinda torn if we should count the one donor out just b/c he doesn't have any pgs (yet). Just wondering if anyone on this board has any insight or thoughts on this.

Thanks - hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday night!

ball.and.chain · April 2012

This will be long, but I hope you find some of it helpful.

When we started TTC in July, we chose a donor with no reported pgs. I was a bit hesitant because he wasn't a "sure thing" and that felt risky, but we really liked him. I believe I had read in The Ultimate Guide to Pregnancy for Lesbians (Pepper) that you should not choose a donor that has been on the market for a year with no reported pgs, and this guy had been available for about 6 months, so we went for it. (Re: the advice from Pepper, I've never been able to find actual medical/expert support of it or read it anywhere else. I have no idea if it's just her opinion). I got anxious that we'd made the wrong choice after we bought it, and posted here asking if people had conceived with a donor with no reported pgs (like you say, someone has to be first). Anyway, a number of women here said they had, which was comforting -- I'm sure they'll respond here as well. I have not conceived period, so on that point I can't be of much help. On the subject of frozen sperm quality, however, I have a lot to say!

When we needed more sperm after the 4th IUI, I wondered if we should switch, but when I checked his profile again he suddenly had a "Yes" next to reported pgs, so we bought 2 more. These happened to be the first 2 tries with an RE's office, and they routinely do analysis on the vials before the IUI. Our total motile count for those vials was 4.18 and 7.85 million. The cryobank's guaranteed minimum is 10 million, and women here have reported motile counts of 20 million on frozen sperm. In other words, our donor sucked. I suspect the 1st 4 vials were just as craptastic.

This is a reputable bank (California Cryobank) and they do multiple semen analyses on donors (side note: they did credit us for both vials + shipping when we reported the numbers). But I have read that some sperm survives the freezing/thawing process better than others, so it's possible to have good numbers at the time of donation and still have not-so-good numbers post-thaw. I don't know if banks normally thaw and check the motile count on vials they have already frozen. If they don't -- which would explain my problem -- then you could still have a low motile count. But I think one of the solutions for dealing with a lower motile count is IVF? So maybe that's not as much as an issue for you.

We're in the process of choosing a new donor and at this point, given my experience, we are only considering donors with reported pgs. If I was doing IVF, because I'd really want to maximize my odds, I would probably still only consider donors with reported pgs (of course, our last donor did eventually have one, so it's still no guarantee you're going to get a great vial). Personally, it just makes me feel more confident about our chances of success. Since you like 2 and one has reported pgs, is there a reason not to just go with that one? Or do you actually prefer the new one?

Re: my own role in this process, I ovulate regularly, my cycles are basically normal, my hormone levels have all been fine, and my HSG showed one clear tube and one tube that could be blocked but my RE thinks it was more likely a preferential flow issue; I've ovulated on the clear side for both RE cycles. I ovulate a bit later than normal which my RE said could indicate "mild ovarian dysfunction" but at this point we have not done any fertility meds. I am about to turn 34 but they told me at my first u/s that I have "young ovaries." So I have no idea whether I would have conceived a long time ago with a "good" donor or not; my RE doesn't consider me infertile but I have also not "helped" the process with anything more than a trigger shot. We're going to give the new donor a couple of tries, and then go to meds (probably Clomid).

ETA: It's still way longer than I thought! Sorry! Embarrassed

emma+karen · April 2012

I like Pepper's book a lot, but I think a LOT of it is "just her opinion!"

I think everyone has different feelings about this...some will never pick a donor with no reported PGs, others will pick a donor they like, no matter what...our donor has a few reported PGs, but that's not the main reason we picked him...it was more like and added benefit.

Ultimately, the decision is yours, and there is always the option of switching donors if this one doesn't work out!

Kershnic · April 2012

Anything you read about this issue is just an opinion. The question is do you trust the opinion of the person you're reading?

The bank we're using doesn't publish whether the donors have reported pregnancies. So, obviously, this was not very important to me. I agreed I'd be wary of a donor that you knew had been available for a year and did not have any reported pregnancies. But even then, there are so many variables in play. How much has really been sold, how much has been used for insemination (and what type of insemination), did the women using it have fertility issues of their own, are there unreported pregnancies, etc.

My impression is that the banks screen for obvious sperm issues (really low count pre-freeze, no sperm, etc.) but that issues as ball.and.chain pointed out or things like minor morphology issues and that type of thing could get ignored. There is urban legend that implies that some sperm might just not be compatible with some women. Who knows if that's true or not.

Since you're doing IVF anyways I'd be even less inclined to worry about it. IVF bypasses a lot of the potential MFI issues that are a possibility in donor sperm.

Every donor has to be new at some point. I would have no qualms at all about no pregnancies from a new donor. If that's the guy you like best, go for it.

ball.and.chain · April 2012

emma+karen:

I like Pepper's book a lot, but I think a LOT of it is "just her opinion!"

Yes!

I preferred her book to the Brill book because Brill struck me as a bit out-there on certain things and I found some sections kind of alarmist. But I think Pepper's qualification to write that book is that she was a lesbian who got pregnant...? I'm sure she researched, but I believe she's not a medical professional.

Not to de-rail the conversation!

kendylann · April 2012

I think the reported pregnancy thing pretty much becomes a moot point when you are doing IVF. We were the first reported pregnancy for our donor and he'd been active for a long time before that, but we had our hearts set on him for personal reasons and decided to take the risk with the hope that IVF would mitigate any post-thaw count or mobility issues. In our case, it worked on the first cycle, despite his history in the program. I definitely would not have felt comfortable using him for ICIs or IUIs. If you are torn between the two donors and don't really have a strong leaning for one over the other, I'd definitely let the known pregnancy question be the scale tipper. That said, if you prefer the donor who doesn't have any known pregnancies yet, I think the money you're shelling out for IVF buys you the option of using him. The medical technology you're accessing will give you a pass on many of the post-thaw concerns that would be otherwise concerning. Good luck with your decision!

thiswillbe · April 2012

I think everyone has pretty much covered it, but I just wanted to chime in to say that our donor was new and had no reported pregnancies when we used him (ultimately successfully). That said, we were planning to switch donors the next cycle because the counts weren't as high as we'd hoped (highest one was 14m). But we were doing IUI.

mskabs · April 2012

Thanks everyone for your opinions and thoughts. I really appreciate it. ball.and.chain - i have also read Pepper's book and i think that's probably where i got the 0pgs-dont-pick-the-guy idea. (I also think her book was full of a lot of her opinions!) Everyone on this board is pretty split - as was the girls on the IF board and my wife and I! - so this wknd we sat down with the two donors' info and went thru and ultimately decided to go w/ the guy who has pgs reported b/c we liked him more in general and he "felt" right. So now we are waiting til May to purchase the vials & store them so we'll for sure have him in Aug!!

woo hoo - another step done in this crazy long process

It was also nice to get some reassurance that IVF will mitigate a lot of potential sperm issues. The other donors we used always had a count of over 10mil (and had reported pgs) but after a few IUIs I started getting paranoid over their stats, if they weren't "met" to fertilize my eggs, etc. so at least the IVF price tag will help in that regard!

JLRHNR · April 2012

We chose a donor this time around that had no reported pregnancies and got pregnant on the first IUI. Glad we could help him out, lol. Wink

Two*True · April 2012

And don't forget that some people don't report the pregnancies. Hell, there are women on this very board that have said they never reported the pregnancy and/or birth of their child(ren). So we (generic "we") can only expect the tool/guide to be as useful as we make it and there are plenty that want to use it but then don't help keep the statistics valid.

bluedaisyus · April 2012

eh, my opinion is that someone's gotta be the first in order for there to be a reported pregnancy. IIRC (it's been a long time, so I am fuzzy on the details) I believe that our first donor had reported pregnancies, and I know that the second--the one that gave us our monkey--had none. I'm not even that concerned if they've been in the system for a while since you don't really know if it's just that no one has actually chosen him or if he's been tried by a thousand people and no one has had success.

also, like TT says, a lot of people don't ever report their pregnancies. our bank won't even accept and record pregnancies until there's a baby in your arms, and at that point...well, things like calling the bank to report aren't so important and get pushed to the back burner in favor of things like snuggles and diaper changes and sleep.

fitzhughh · April 2012

We used donor sperm with no reported pregnancys for IUI. We did not pick our donor based on this. I conceived on the first try. So I may be biased but I would not base your decision on this. Pick someone with all the other characteristics you want and then as your possiable donor list gets smaller and smaller then decide how important it is to you. We made our choice based on CMV status, blood type, and physical characteristics first. If you find one that you really connect with you will know if it is worth taking a chance. Also know that the sperm would not be avail if there were not good swimmers in there

Want a personalized experience?

Q: Sperm donors w/ recorded pgs?

Re: Q: Sperm donors w/ recorded pgs?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards