Sperm donation and sperm banks - How To

What is spermatozoa ?

2009-11-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

Sperm cell or SPERMATOZOA

We talk too much about donating sperm and donation eggs, but before i continue with new series related to egg and sperm donating (and how to become sperm donors) I would like to give you some base information about what sperm is, what are the parts of sperm cell, what is spermatozoa and similar useful info, so You will know better what definitions are, and you can be more theoretically educated about sperm donating before you start.

The mature sperm cell (spermatozoa) is 0.05 milliliters long. It consists of a head, body and tail. The head is covered by the ac cap and contains a nucleus of dense genetic material from the 23 chromosomes.

How sperm looks like under microscope and what are main parts if sperm cell

It is attached from the neck to the body containing mitochondria that supply the energy for the sperm's activity. The tail is made of protein fibers that contract on alternative sides, giving a characteristic wavelike movement that drives the sperm through the seminal fluid, which also supplies additional energy.

Some sperm have two heads or two tails and if the testes are too warm they may die or spermatogenesis may not occur.

Sperm swim at a rate of about 3mm (0.12 inches) per minute. That’s an average, it’s different for every guy. Some sperm cells are 'better' swimmers than others. Why? They need to wave their tales more than 1000 times just to swim 1.25 cm or a half an inch. Why some are better than others is still a mystery to many fertility specialists. Anyway...

Sperm cells are made in the testes where it takes about 72 days for one sperm to grow. Sperm production requires a temperature which is three to five degrees below body temperature. The scrotum has a built-in thermostat, which keeps the sperm at the correct temperature while they’re being stored. If it becomes too cool on the outside, the scrotum will bring the testicles closer to the body for warmth as you probably know from jumping into a cold pool of water or ocean. That’s why the testes hang away from the body -- so sperm can develop at the temperature they need. (95° - 97° F or 35° to 36° C)

Semen contains small amounts of more than thirty elements, including fructose, ascorbic acid, cholesterol, creatine, citric acid, lactic acid, nitrogen, vitamin B12, and various salts and enzymes. Let’s go back to the inside of the head of the sperm. All normal cells have 46 chromosomes but sperm have half that number or, 23. If and when the sperm joins ups with the female’s, egg (ovum) which also has 23 chromosomes, together they add up to 46 chromosomes. The middle section controls the sperms activities. The sperm or (spermatozoa -- which are the little swimming critters) make up only about 5% of what a man ejaculates each time he ejaculates. This represents about 100 to 400 million of them! Therefore, they are very, very tiny, in fact a single sperm is the smallest cell in the body.

The rest of what a man ejaculates in his ejaculate, which is about a teaspoonful (5 ml), is made up of water, sugar, protein, vitamin C, zinc, and prostaglandins. Semen or seminal fluid is the mixture of sperm and the secretions of the seminal vesicles, prostate gland, and the bulbourethral glands. Over the course of a guy’s life, he’ll produce more than 12 trillion sperm.

At the end of this small education for all potential sperm donors, here is short medical definition of spermatozoa: "The part of the semen that is generative—can cause fertilization of the female ovum."

We know now what sperm cell is

Why i decided to explain You this? I think that this is obviously, if You intend to become sperm donor, especially if You do that to make money donating sperm, You need to know what exact sperm is so You can provide quality sperm samples to local sperm (cryo) banks. Feel free to now visit and read all informations about sperm banks which will buy Your sperm samples if You are healthy and young .

For you, as sperm donor (man who sells sperm for money) it is important to remember some factors that influence quality of your sperm: alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, not sleeping and heating property. If you want to make money as sperm donor it is better for you to think about your health seriously, because in this case your body earns money, and you need to keep it healthy.

if you have any questions, feel free to ask here, so i can answer and everybody else can see answer what will help in building better knowledge about sperm donosrhip.

Ivy League Egg Donor

2009-11-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

What is "Ivy League Egg Donor"

This and similar ads like "Looking for an Ivy League Egg Donor" for egg donors have appeared in the pages of local newspapers, attempting to lure in
telligent Yale women with sums ranging from $5,000 to $100,000.

One Web site, offering $35,000 is looking for a “Genius Asian donor,” and describes the ideal match: “You should have or be working on a university degree from a world-class university, you should have high standardized test scores, and preferably have some outstanding achievements and awards.”

Another, EliteDonors dot com seeks a donor who is Caucasian, “very attractive,” “height 5’9” or taller” and “athletic.” The ad claims to offer $100,000 as minimum compensation.

But there are egg-donation programs that focus on finding donors who are more interested in helping infertile women than in monetary compensation.

Yale, for example, has its own anonymous egg donation program, called the Yale Oocyte Donation and Surrogacy Program, a subdivision of the Yale Fertility Center. The program compensates donors with $8,000, though administrators said donors are rarely motivated solely by money.

Despite the altruism that largely motivates egg donors, varying levels of compensation and the nature of the matching process — which allows recipients to select the type of donor they want — have raised concerns about how closely egg donation resembles genetic engineering.

Could fertility centers turn into factories for “perfect” children?

Better Than Blood, Easier Than a Kidney

The women who donate their eggs are primarily motivated by a desire to help others to conceive a child, Dorothy Greenfeld, the Yale program’s social worker, said, though the sum is often what first piques their interest when they see an ad in a newspaper or the Yale Calendar.

“They think it’s better than giving blood but easier than giving a kidney,” Greenfeld said.

Recent research from the American Society of Reproductive Medicine showed that almost 70 percent of egg donors across the country donated to help someone else have a family, while only 29 percent were motivated primarily by money.

This characterization was supported by an examination of the profiles of anonymous donors at the Yale program — identified only by numbers, as confidentiality constraints prevented the News from speaking directly with donors or knowing their identities.

Overwhelmingly, the donor profiles describe the women as active and outgoing, with at least some college education. There are social workers and MBA candidates; drama students and photographers. Some kayak for fun, while others enjoy cooking. They are Lithuanian and African-American, Italian and Asian.

Some donors have had abortions and are looking for a way to “give back,” and others have family members or friends affected by infertility.

Many even have young children and said they donated their eggs to give another woman the opportunity to experience motherhood.

“I love my children immensely and couldn’t imagine not having them,” said one donor during the screening process. “I want to give a couple the opportunities to share the love and joy that I experience daily.”

Others, like one social worker, said they were motivated by other aspects of their lives, like their jobs.

‘As a social worker, I have known many women that are unable to conceive,” she said. “This would be my way of contributing to them.”

Being ‘matched’

“Why do you want to donate?” is just of the many questions possible donors are asked during the long process of egg donation, Greenfeld said. The entire program can take anywhere from five weeks to forever for women who are never matched with a recipient.

Interested women are first directed to Wendy Somers, the program coordinator, who does some prescreening to eliminate applicants who do not understand the procedure or who are not fully committed to donating their eggs. After the prescreening, prospective donors are mailed a screening form, in which they describe their family history and health history.

Healthy donors who are not obese and have at least a high-school education are then called into the office to meet with Dr. Greenfeld for a psychological interview.

“If a donor feels like she’s giving away a baby, we tell her not to,” Greenfeld said.

Women also meet with Dr. Emre Seli, director of the program, who determines their risk factors, testing for problems such as sexually transmitted diseases or genetic disorders.

If approved, donors must then wait to be “matched” with a recipient, which can take varying amounts of time.

She meets with the recipient to discuss what they think is important in a donor. Criteria range from personality to ethnicity to level of education. One of the most popular criteria is physical similarity. Many recipients — who range from single women to married couples to gay couples using a surrogate mother — want a donor who looks like them, Greenfeld said.

Seli said the most important criteria for recipients is that the donor has had a child or has caused a pregnancy with a past donation — both of which are evidence of their donor’s fertility.

How it Works

Once a donor and recipient — who never meet or receive identifying information about the other — are matched, the medical process begins. A trial hormonal cycle is administered first, and if both parties react favorably, the real cycle begins.

The menstrual cycles of the donor and recipient must be matched, so they both receive Lupron, a hormone suppressant, Seli said. When the donor is in a state of low hormones, she is given FSH, a hormone that stimulates ovarian follicles, while the recipient is given estrogen to stimulate the uterine lining to prepare itself for embryo implantation. The final medication, hCG, is administered when the donor’s follicle is considered mature, and thirty-six hours later, the 15 to 20 ripe eggs are retrieved using a needle and a vaginal ultrasound probe.

Seli said the eggs are placed in a Petri dish with the sperm provided by the couple and allowed to fertilize. The embryos are then observed under the microscope, he said, and after three to five days, about two are implanted in the recipient’s uterus.

There is a 60 percent chance of at least one of the implanted embryos resulting in a live birth, Seli said.

Seli said there are few health risks associated with egg donation. The chance of bleeding is slight and Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome — which is induced by the hormone medications and causes bloating — has a risk of less than 5 percent.

Contrary to popular belief, egg donation does not affect the future fertility of donors, Hugh Taylor, Yale director of Reproductive Endocrinology, agreed.

“People ask if we’re depleting their eggs, or if they will have fertility problems down the road,” Taylor said. “But there are a certain number of eggs that grow every month, and if they’re not ovulated, they die off. We’re just stimulating those eggs to continue to develop.”

When hormones are administered to the donor, the only eggs that respond are the ones currently in development, Seli said. Dormant eggs are unresponsive to the medications, indicating that the treatments likely do not affect them, he said.

Engineering Perfect Children?

Greenfeld said she is uncomfortable with classifieds that raise questions about genetic engineering by advertising for specific, restrictive searches and large sums of money. And society at large, she said, often has similar concerns even about programs that are less choosy and offer less compensation.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine recommends that egg-donation programs and agencies compensate donors — because, as Seli and Greenfeld said, women in countries that do not compensate donate less frequently. But ASRM guidelines recommend that programs not provide compensation of more than $10,000. The majority of official egg donation agencies offer compensation between $5,000 and $8,000.

“I have a real problem with the fact that Ivy League young women are really getting inundated with requests from these agencies,” Greenfeld said. “I don’t think it’s good for anybody. I don’t think it’s good for recipients to think that the most important characteristic an egg donor should have is that she’s an Ivy League student.”

Seli, though, said that while the Yale program adheres to ASRM guidelines, it does not bother him when other agencies do not. He said his philosophy is to do his job without a moral or judgmental attitude, and instead to simply follow what is considered ethical by societal standards.

Both Greenfeld and Seli say they have never received criticism about the egg donor matching process accusing it of genetic engineering, and they rarely work with patients who seem to be trying to engineer a child.

“Occasionally, though, we get a couple who requests a donor who looks nothing like the recipient,” Greenfeld said. “And that makes me a little uncomfortable. That to me feels a little more like engineering.

But Greenfeld said that while some patients come armed with laundry lists of ideal traits and others arrive unprepared, most fall somewhere in between, requesting only basic physical resemblance. Many, she said, even find the matching part of the process unnerving and feel that it seems too much like engineering a “perfect” child.

What Lies Ahead

The future of egg donation, both at Yale and around the world, may move in several directions, doctors said.

Egg-freezing technology is still in development, Seli said, and may eventually become so improved that egg banks — equivalent to sperm banks — could be established, eliminating the matching and synchronizing processes. Oocytes could be frozen in batches, he suggested, and then thawed whenever a recipient wants the type of donor who provided them.

Currently, Seli said, Yale offers the egg-freezing technology to women who want to freeze their own eggs to use in the future.

Taylor suggested that improved stem cell technology might even eliminate egg donors altogether. Scientists could induce a stem cell containing genetic material from a patient’s somatic cells and induce to become or produce an oocyte, he said.

But would this be a positive development?

Perhaps not, for the donors who found it an “honor” to donate their eggs and choose to return as many as six times — the maximum allowed by the program.

The Yale Oocyte Donation and Surrogacy Program is one of many anonymous egg donation programs in America, though many patients opt to use directed donors — donors they know or have chosen themselves — or agencies, which recruit donors and sometimes allow recipients and donors to meet.

The program was established in 1989 as part of the Yale Fertility Center, which already had an in vitro fertilization program.

What is an open donation ?

2009-09-01T02:15:00.000-07:00

Egg donation might be celebrated as the most sought after reproduction option of the twenty-first century. It affords thousands of couples the opportunity to have children without having to forego the birth experience and the chance to preserve some genetic link to their hoped for child. Medical practices providing egg donation services and agencies promising to find the 'right' egg donor for couples in need have proliferated in recent years.

Many of these donor programs have followed in the tradition of sperm banking where anonymity and secrecy is de rigueur. With little precedent established for matching donor and recipient, many facilitators are writing their own rulebook concerning policies regarding donation policies and protocols.

Advocates of non-anonymous donation where you actually meet the selected donor has been previously considered blasphemy. Open donation was heeded as an attempt to undermine family values and challenge parental rights and ties. The widespread philosophical bent of secrecy and hidden identification discouraging the introduction of donors and recipients has been passively accepted by those so eager. Couples have been led to believe that they have no choice in the matter.

Hopeful recipients have not been given an opportunity to explore whether anonymous donation is truly in their best interests. Recipients have been convinced that if they never meet or know their donor they and their child will fare better. The claim is that a non-anonymous arrangement would only serve as a disruptive influence on the family further encouraging disassociation. It would interfere with the mother's struggle of entitlement to know full well she is the 'real' or authentic mother. Moreover, the veiled threat is that once a donor is revealed to the recipients, she will always be haunted by her presence and unable to erase the donor's image from her mind's eye.

Another often touted rationale for extolling anonymity is the fear that the donor will be an intrusive influence and want to participate in the child's life or, worst yet, lay claim to the child. Indications in the world of non-anonymity refute this claim saying it is preposterous. Other recipients are troubled by the issue of privacy and feel they would be obligated to disclose to others their reproductive history.

These tactics discouraging open donation unfortunately feed the familiar shame so many infertile couples experience and, that is, not having a baby in the traditional way….the way most people do it. The powerful yet subtle implication of these messages is that having a child through donation is not really okay and by participating in something that is not okay you is inadvertently doing something wrong or at least questionable.

Asking a third party to help you have a child was certainly not part of anyone's original game plan. Granted to step outside of what we know and have a child in this way raises questions and concerns, and is understandably uncomfortable. Nevertheless, if egg donation is a viable medical alternative for building one's family and makes reproductive sense regarding one's particular fertility problem, then there is the obligation to do it responsibility, with integrity and with one's eyes wide open.

To protect and shield oneself from discomfort by participating in an anonymous donation arrangement may not be in one's best interest….. not for the parents and not for the child. The merits of open donation are potentially profound and worth serious consideration for those pursuing this reproductive option. Open donation is an honest approach in confronting one's infertility and reproductive reality. It forces one to face their disappointment of not having a genetic child and embrace the prospect of working with another woman who is graciously willing to gift her eggs. It is a mutually agreed upon arrangement with women helping women in a profound way.

Non-anonymous donation programs, where donors and recipients meet and exchange information to whatever extent has been mutually decided, is becoming a more acceptable and available avenue for many. The consensus within the mental health community by and large is that individuals have an inherent right to know about their genetic origins. More and more parent participating in donation arrangements plan to tell their children their birth story. Yet, despite this growing trend donation programs continue their policy of anonymity, which confounds the question, as to what information parents will have to share with their child.

Most programs supply recipients with descriptive profiles of their donor giving medical and sociological histories. Some programs even provide photos of these donors. Reading such profiles or scrutinizing a photo can certainly provide some information but can in no way provide what face to face contact offers.

A child can derive a sense of security in knowing that his/her parents met the donor. It reassures a child that his/er parents, the people he/she trusts the most, have actively made a reproductive choice and are comfortable with their decision and are not in any way denying the family's genetic truth. It also provides an opportunity for parent to tell a child a much more personal and intimate story, which can only serve to strengthen the emotional bond between parent and child.

The sad part is that most recipients shy away from open donation arrangements because they carry and sense shame and fear about having to stray from reproductive tradition. These are not healthy operatives and need to be addressed prior to embarking on an egg donation procedure. Shame is usually a result of feeling like a reproductive failure where fear is the result that their donor will somehow interfere in their efforts to parent.

Shame is an often-heard sentiment in the psychologist office. Women, talk about their inadequacy and failures concerning what they believe to be reproductive givens. It is this sense of not being okay that drives the infertile to hide or mask what they perceive as their personal failings. The work of every woman preparing to receive an embryo resulting from an egg donor is to rid the shame and come to a place where egg donation can be viewed as a reproductive opportunity. Patient's who have e worked through the shame can more easily embrace open donation as a choice. They can look as these other women as helpers and advocates and not persons to be feared or shunned.

For many the burden of doubt lifts when they meet their donor and realize that she is here to help and not intrude. Finding her to be kind, pleasant and likeable is a great relief to recipients. Meeting your donor can take the mystery out of the experience by turning this apparition into something that no longer threatens.

When recipients voice their fears about the donor they often have to do with feelings of in authenticity and the lack of entitlement. The misguided belief is that a donor that they never meet does not pose the same threat as one they know. It is as if out of sight will be out of mind….. This often backfires because anonymous donors more often than not keep recipients wondering about what they don't know which inadvertently question their legitimacy as the true mother.

It is easy to forget the fact that donors do not have to participate in these procedures to have children. Furthermore, donors are not interested in becoming part of their recipient's family or for that matter claiming the child. Donor's motivations vary depending on a variety of factors. Many mothers who volunteer to become donors view donation more altruistically while non-mother donors may b e more pragmatic in their approach. Donors are not the enemy but are women who believe in helping woman and are proud of their ability to give.

Open donation is a novel concept, which warrants consideration for those embarking on egg donation as a means to build a family. This novel option might make more sense than and anonymous donation. It is important for egg recipient couples to fully examine their motivations for participating in an anonymous donation as compared to a non-anonymous one and evaluate what might be best for the family they are hoping to have.

Non-anonymous arrangements is certainly a more emotionally intensive option to pursue but, perhaps a more rewarding one. There may be more involved requiring a greater outlay of emotional energy. Thinking about what is in the best interest of the hoped for child may very well support the additional psychological expenditure. The benefit and ultimate peace of mind may truly outweigh the costs. Next time a program tells you anonymous donation is better, please stop, evaluate, and explore before you make that decision, it is most important to find secure and safe sperm or egg bank, and to do this on successful way no matter is donor known or no.

Best sperm banks in NYC

2009-08-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

I received a lot of comments and requests to find some good New York city (NY sperm banks) and I did, for today we will go with first one: Sperm bank of New York, and look what they ay about them selfs:

The Sperm Bank of New York established in 1992, is an independent and privately owned reproductive cell & tissue bank located in New York City, New York.
SBNY is an affiliate of BioGenetics Corporation and of The Sperm and Embryo Bank of New Jersey located in Mountainside, New Jersey.
SBNY provides the following health related services worldwide through physician referrals or directly to individuals:

   1- CRYOPRESERVE reproductive cells & tissue for men and women who desire to store their own reproductive cells & tissue to achieve pregnancy through assisted reproduction in the future.

   2- RECRUIT donors of diverse ethnic origins for couples and single women to conceive a child or children, using cryopreserved donor sperm, through assisted reproduction.
Couples and single women have the option to select :
A- an ANONYMOUS Donor from a current" Donor Quarterly".
B- a donor from a discreet list of "OPEN IDentification" Donors.

   3- OFFER an option to couples and single women seeking to conceive a child through assisted reproduction the option to select their own Directed or Designated Donor, the directed or designated donor could be a friend or a relative.

SBNY is licensed by:
The New York State Department of Health as a Reproductive Cell & Tissue Bank.
SBNY adheres to medical standards and ethics set forth by The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), related scientific associations and regulatory agencies.

I think that they pay about $200 per sample. Also, I am using this opportunity to enocourage to leave a comments so other peoples who want to donate sperm in this New York sperm bank to know are they paying good or no.

Cons of sperm or egg donating

2009-08-03T00:38:00.000-07:00

Found very interested article about et say 'cons' of sperm donating.Take a look I am sure that You need to know all this if You want to be sperm or egg donor.

1. Know that sperm banks do not (can not as most women do not report back their live births)keep an accurate count of how many kids will be born from your donations. There could be 20, 50 or 120- and someday they may want to know who you are.
2. Know that sperm banks do not update medical records, so that if several (or many)of your offspring are born with Autism, for example, you will have no way of knowing this. If some are born with more serious genetic conditions- you may never know this information either.
3. Know that the sperm bank can sell your sperm 10 or 20 years from now.
4. Know that through DNA testing your offspring have the ability to locate you- even if you never get your own DNA tested.
5. Know that many donor conceived people desperately want to know their genetic/ancestral/medical background and roots. It might just be a "sperm" to you, but to your offspring...

New York and New Jersey sperm banks

2009-07-30T09:12:00.001-07:00

List of best known and most reliable sperm (cryo) banks in New York and New Jersey. I will try to find more sperm, and especial egg banks, that help people in artificial insemination. Also, this is good place to start of you are young and health and want to sell your sperm, in NYC or NJ area.

At those same sperm banks, you can ask for artificial insemination if you are in group of people who need this. Anyway I will try to find more US (main cities for start) reliable sperm banks and will publish here so all people interested to buy or sell sperm will have good starting resource.

NEW JERSEY
M.A.Z.E. Laboratories Clifton, NJ,	973-472-0600

The Sperm and Embryo Bank of NJ (Biogenitics) Mountainside, NJ,	908-656-8836

NEW YORK
CORD Middletown, NY, 10941	877-CORDbld 877-267-3253

Idant Laboratories New York, NY, 10118	212-244-0555

M.A.Z.E. Laboratories White Plains, NY, 10603	914-683-0000

New York Cryo Great Neck, NY, 11021	516-487-2700

The Sperm Bank of New York (Biogenetics) New York, NY, 10025	213-531-0115

As I told sperm donating in US is more and more popular

2009-07-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

As You can see I am talking about sperm donating for about year, look what I was found today in Time about increased number of sperm donors in us because of recession.

Sperm banks and donor agencies say the recession is prompting a surge in calls from people who hope to make money by donating their sperm or eggs.

"We've seen a definite spike" of about 40% since February, says Kim Springfield, vice president of sales for Health News, an Irvine, Calif., company that operates a national referral service for donors.

Once prospective donors learn that medical and psychological screening can take weeks or months and eliminates most interested men and women, many opt out, Springfield says.

Compensation varies by region, state and donor agency. At Oregon Health & Science University Fertility Consultants in Portland, sperm donors get $100 per collection and can donate twice a week, says lab director David Battaglia. Egg donors, who undergo an outpatient extraction procedure, can get $5,000 for a donation, he says.

Egg donors must get mental and physical screening and be selected by prospective parents. Sperm samples are quarantined for six months, Battaglia says. Rules vary, but his agency requires that egg donors be 21-32 years old and sperm donors be between 20 and 39 to improve fertility odds.

Battaglia says his agency has experienced "easily a 25-30% increase in calls in the last nine months."

Sean Tipton, spokesman for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, says the group tracks donations only on an annual basis and can't say "for sure yet what impact, if any, the economic downturn has had." Still, agencies see a clear trend:

• "Our calls have just about doubled," says Robin von Halle, president of Alternative Reproductive Resources in Chicago, which works with egg donors. "It's not a quick buck," she says.

The increase in donors is giving prospective parents more choices, von Halle says, but the economy is forcing some of them to postpone parenthood. In vitro fertilization can cost thousands of dollars.

• The Donor Solution in Houston is getting more calls, but many are from women who are too old or too young, says Mary Fusillo, its executive director.

• Before the recession, Carol Miller-Woods, donor coordinator at North Hudson IVF in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., got about eight calls a week from potential egg donors. Now she gets that many daily.

She also has gotten calls from at least 100 men inquiring about donating their "eggs."

"Times are that tough, I guess," she says.

So, who was following me from start has a little advantage to other new sperm donors!

New 15 sperm banks list

2009-06-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

Cryos New York
(New York, New York)
Leading sperm bank with over 20 years of experience. Rigorously tested, educated donors from various backgrounds. Donor profiles, staff impressions, photos, and friendly customer service.
European Sperm Bank USA
(Seattle, Washington)
Worldwide delivery of donor sperm, exclusively from Open ID donors. Extensive donor information: 4 generations of medical history, audio interviews, childhood photos, free staff impressions.
Fairfax Cryobank
(Fairfax, Virginia)
Donor specimens provided worldwide. Extensive information available including: audio CDs of donor interviews, childhood photos, detailed medical and personal profiles, and photo-matching.
Fertility Cryobank
(Los Angeles, California)
We’re an innovative sperm bank that provides recent photos and streaming video of every donor in our program. Review complete donor profiles on our website.
MAZE Laboratories
(Westchester, New York & Clifton, New Jersey)
Precise, comprehensive, state-of-the-art fertility testing and sperm cryobanking. Personalized and individualized care. All patient specimens are held in two separate sites.
New England Cryogenic Center
(Boston, Massachusetts)
We offer a full-service cryobank that has been proudly serving the reproductive community since 1982.
NW Andrology & Cryobank
(Spokane, Washington)
We offer high quality frozen donor sperm shipped direct to patient or physician, sperm banking, fertility monitors, test kits, and supplies.
Pacific Reproductive Services
(San Francisco and Pasadena, California)
Providing lesbian couples and single mothers supportive services since 1984. Largest number of "willing to be known" donors. Fully accredited. Nationwide shipping. Insemination services.
SpermCenter.com
Find a sperm donor without the stress. SpermCenter.com lists over 1500 sperm donors from all US sperm banks. Created by a woman who's been there.
Xytex Sperm Bank
(Augusta, Georgia)
Helping families have healthy babies since 1975. Large panel of Identity Disclosure donors, baby and adult photos, and audio files available to clients worldwide.
California Cryobank
(Los Angeles, California)
A leading, nationwide, AATB accredited sperm bank. We’ve helped start families for over 25 years. Extensive selection of donors. Detailed donor information. Strict donor standards.
CryoChoice
(Atlanta, Georgia)
We are the first company to offer a cost effective home kit for privately banking semen. CryoChoice maintains an FDA registered sperm bank.
Cryogenic Laboratories Inc.
(Roseville, Minnesota)
Inspected & accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB). Established in 1970, CLI has been providing sperm banking services for more than 30 years.
CryoGam Colorado, Inc. (Loveland, Colorado)

Also, please read how to increase your sperm count because that is highly important for all who want to make money donating sperm.

New Yourk sperm banks

2009-04-27T10:38:00.000-07:00

Here is small list of sperm banks in US country New Yourk. I wil try to find and provide list off all US countries cryo banks and also list of all world sperm banks, just please be patient. For now here it is New Your country sperm banks list:

M.A.Z.E. Laboratories	Purchase	NY	914-683-0000
M.A.Z.E. Laboratories	Clifton	NJ	973-472-0600
Priority Male Overnight Collection Kit	All Locations	DE	800-489-2294
California Cryobank, Inc.	All Locations	CA	866-862-3666
M.A.Z.E. Laboratories	All Locations	NY	877-MAZE-LAB
Cryos Sperm Bank	All Locations	NY	866-366-6777
Xytex Corporation	All Locations	GA	800-277-3210
Xytex Tissue Storage	All Locations	GA	800-277-3210
Embryology Network	Albany	NY	518-434-9006
Institute for Reproductive Health and Infertility	Rochester	NY	716-723-7470
Geisinger Medical Center Fertility Center	Danville	PA	570-271-5620
Pittsburgh Cryobank, Inc.	Pittsburgh	PA	412-687-0335

Young people making money as sperm donors

2009-04-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

I am very satisfied because after only 4 posts on my sperm donor ship blog, I found that many people linking to my blog, especially make money from home doing nothing, and similar "money making" blogs and sites, also received a lot of ffedbak from my readers. So we will continue and today I found interesting article about how everything started and how students make some fast money as sperm donors.

College students comprise 90 percent of American sperm donors. Why? They’re smart, cute and virile — everything a would-be mom wants.

Jeff Salkin was struggling to pay his bills when he saw an ad that seemed too good to be true: a clinic would pay him to masturbate.

“I was having a hard time coming up with enough money for food and rent. I found out selling sperm is pretty easy, and at 40 bucks a whack, it’s pretty lucrative too,” said the University of Oregon senior, whose name was changed to protect his privacy.

Salkin is one of thousands of college students nationwide who cover their expenses by selling DNA. Commercial US sperm banks, which exploded in the early 1970s and now number more than 150, have clustered around universities where the “natural resources” are plentiful: intelligent people who need quick cash and have sperm to spare. By 1993, frozen sperm was a $164 million a year industry, and companies like California Cryobank were aggressively recruiting on the campuses of brand-name schools like Harvard, MIT, Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley.

“At least 90 percent of our sperm donors are college students,” said Melonee Evans, California Cryobank’s client relations manager. “Students are more eager to donate because they need the money and have more flexible schedules.”

Those who can make the time and the maximum donation, which usually means siring up to 10 children can net upward of $6,000 in one academic year.

“Most students do it because they really need the money,” said Geo Low, an employee at Berkeley, Calif.’s Reproductive Technologies, Inc. “And some think their genes are cool and want to spread them around.” According to Low about 15 students make “deposits” to her bank on an average day.

Students at top schools say they can hardly walk across campus without finding ads soliciting donations from the young, brainy and virile.

“Everywhere you look there’s an ad for sperm donors,” Harvard sophomore Owen Breck said. “Our sperm has good SAT scores.”

Students at prestigious colleges are highly coveted sperm bank donors because they please picky customers. California Cryobank only accepts donors who attend or have graduated from a “major four-year university.” Donors must also be tall, trim, heterosexual, between 19 and 34 years old, and able to provide flawless medical and genetic histories of their families. The five percent of applicants who make the cut are well rewarded: The SpermBrokerage, another major sperm bank chain, pays donors $100 per visit, plus a $1,000 bonus for every six months they stick with the program.

Just six years ago, the average payment for a single sperm donation was $30. But as baby boomers reach middle age and decide to start families, and as single career women decide they want children but not husbands, the demand for top-quality sperm has far outpaced the supply. In 1997 about 250,000 babies were conceived from anonymous sperm donations, even though a single sperm sample (about 10 samples can be divided from one donation) sells for $200.

“It’s a very lucrative industry,” Evans said.

One University of Wisconsin junior who studies computer science and is an All-American athlete says his donations to Sperm Brokerage keep him enrolled in school.

“My friends suggested it as a joke but I was considering it even before they said anything,” the donor said. “Since the NCAA doesn’t allow me to hold a job during the school year, this was one of the few ways I could actually make money to support myself while school’s in session.”

Since many college men are uncomfortable when they first begin making sperm donations, sperm bank staff members (usually female) work to create calming and sexy environments featuring private rooms, dim lighting, plush chairs, porn magazines and X-rated videos.

“To [the donors] the idea of masturbating for money is a little weird at first,” Low said. “To masturbate in a strange place, pornography is kind of necessary.”

This is especially true after the grueling tests donors must constantly undergo. In the eight weeks before a California Cryobank donor can begin making deposits, he must have a full blood workup and must complete genetic counseling and mounds of paperwork. “Even the physical is intense we check every orifice,” Evans said proudly.

Sperm bank representatives say they must be so selective because customers are so demanding. “Everyone wants something different, but most want a donor who is over six feet, has blond hair and blue eyes, and is majoring in the sciences,” Evans said.

Some consider the idea of making designer babies made from Ivy League sperm elitist. Shortly after California Cyrobank opened its Cambridge office, The New Republic called the chain “one of the more blatantly elitist sperm buyers” in the country.

“Smarts and looks are just very important to [clients],” said Low, who explained that Reproductive Technologies moved from Oakland, Calif. to nearby Berkeley to be closer to that nationally-renowned university’s smart set.

But while some banks like the Repository of Germinal Choice in Escondido, Calif., which for a time accepted only sperm from Nobel Prize winners exclude all but the “best” sperm, others, like CryoGam Colorado, Inc., consider such careful selection ethically questionable. “We’re not involved in eugenics or anything like that,” said CryoGam director Betsy Cairo.

While ethical debates rage, increasing numbers of students turn to sperm banks for extra cash even after they finish school (though the average age of a donor remains about 21).

“I started after I graduated I needed to pay off my student loans and it seemed like a good way to supplement my income,” said a recent Northwestern M.B.A. grad. “The money actually helped me start my own business.”

For now, Salkin has found another source of income, but he says he’d go back to being a donor if money gets tight. “When someone offers you $40 for a little sperm, it’s hard to turn down a job offer like that.”

I hope you like this, and that you released that money from sperm donation can be very easy and very fast.

Those were very interesting facts about sperm donation in US today, ehat i am even more interested is how it is with egg donation in US and UK, what I will examine in future.

IVS: In vitro fertilisation

2009-03-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

What is "In vitro fertilisation"?

Initially IVF was developed to overcome infertility due to problems of the fallopian tube, but it turned out that it was successful in many other infertility situations as well. The introduction of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) addresses the problem of male infertility to a large extent.

For IVF to be successful it may be easier to say that it requires healthy ova, sperm that can fertilize, and a uterus that can maintain a pregnancy. Due to the costs of the procedure, IVF is generally attempted only after less expensive options have failed.

This means that IVF can be used for females who have already gone through menopause. The donated oocyte can be fertilised in a crucible. If the fertilisation is successful, the zygote will be transferred into the uterus, within which it will develop into an embryo.

Fertilisation

In the laboratory, the identified eggs are stripped of surrounding cells and prepared for fertilization. In the meantime, semen is prepared for fertilization by removing inactive cells and seminal fluid. If semen is being provided by a sperm donor, it will usually have been prepared for treatment before being frozen and quarantined, and it will be thawed ready for use. The sperm and the egg are incubated together (at a ratio of about 75,000:1) in the culture media for about 18 hours. In most cases, the egg will be fertilised by that time and the fertilised egg will show two pronuclei. In certain situations, such as low sperm count or motility, a single sperm may be injected directly into the egg using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). The fertilised egg is passed to a special growth medium and left for about 48 hours until the egg has reached the 6-8 cell stage.

Embryo- Oocyte Donation

The first transfer of an embryo from one human to another resulting in pregnancy was reported in July 1983 and subsequently led to the announcement of the first human birth February 3, 1984.It was accomplished by in vivo fertilisation, a process that was derived from animal husbandry. This procedure was performed at the Harbor UCLA Medical Center under the direction of Dr.John Buster and the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine.

In the procedure, an embryo that was just beginning to develop was transferred from one woman in whom it had been conceived by artificial insemination to another woman who gave birth to the infant 38 weeks later. The sperm used in the artificial insemination came from the husband of the woman who bore the baby.

Donor embryo transfer has given women a mechanism to become pregnant and give birth to a child that will contain their husband’s genetic makeup. Although donor embryo transfer as practiced today has evolved from the original non-surgical method, it now accounts for approximately 5% of in vitro fertilization recorded births.

Prior to this, women who were infertile, had adoption as the only path to parenthood. This set the stage to allow open and candid discussion of embryo donation and transfer. This breakthrough has given way to the donation of human embryos as a common practice similar to other donations such as blood and major organ donations. At the time of this announcement the event was captured by major news carriers and fueled healthy debate and discussion on this practice which impacted the future of reproductive medicine by creating a platform for further advancements in woman's health.

This work established the technical foundation and legal-ethical framework surrounding the clinical use of human oocyte and embryo donation, now a mainstream clinical practice that has evolved over the past 25 years.

How to become egg donor?

2009-03-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

You probably know that womens also can be donors.Until now we just talked about man sperm donor ship,but also, women can be an egg donors.

INTRODUCTION

Many couples who want to have children find it difficult or impossible to conceive. Using special techniques, some couples can conceive using their own eggs and sperm. Others must use sperm donated from another man. More recently, egg donation has allowed some women, whose ovaries do not produce enough healthy eggs, to become pregnant using donated eggs.

You may be reading this guidebook because you answered an ad for egg donors or were asked by a friend or relative to consider becoming a donor. If so, you need to learn all you can about the process and think seriously about what it involves before you start. Becoming a donor is a very important decision.

This guidebook provides prospective egg donors with unbiased information. It suggests issues for you to consider and questions to ask before deciding whether or not to become a donor.

WHO CAN BECOME AN EGG DONOR?

Not all women can donate eggs. Programs vary in the qualities they prefer, but some criteria are fairly standard. Certain rules are set for legal reasons. Other policies are designed to increase the chance that a pregnancy will result and that the process will be safe for both donor and recipient.

Commonly, egg donors must be a certain age, usually 21, and be no more than 35. The lower limit ensures that a woman can legally enter into a contract. The upper limit reflects the fact that older women respond less well to fertility drugs. There is also a chance that an older woman's eggs will be abnormal, making pregnancy less likely or increasing the risk of a birth defect.

Some programs prefer to use donors who have already given birth or successfully donated eggs. It is believed that they are more likely to be fertile and it is easier to anticipate their feelings about having genetic offspring born to someone else.

WHAT DOES EGG DONATION INVOLVE?

If you apply to become an egg donor you may have several medical visits before you are accepted. These visits will include a physical and gynecological exam, a medical and family history, blood and urine tests, and a psychological evaluation. You will also discuss your rights and responsibilities with a program representative. A donation will not occur unless you are accepted, matched with a woman who will receive your eggs, and give your consent.

Using donated eggs to establish a pregnancy involves in vitro fertilization (IVF). First, you will take a series of fertility drugs (some of which must be injected) to stimulate your ovaries to produce many eggs at one time. While using the drugs, you will have frequent medical tests. Removing the eggs from your ovaries involves a minor surgical procedure. After you recover from egg retrieval, your part of the treatment cycle is finished.

Your eggs will then be mixed with sperm from the intended father in the clinic's laboratory. If embryos result, they will be grown in a lab dish before one or more are transferred into the uterus of the recipient. If she becomes pregnant and delivers a child, she will be the birth mother and legal mother of that child even though the child will be genetically related to you.

WHAT SHOULD I KNOW ABOUT ADS FOR EGG DONORS?

When you answer an ad for egg donors, it is important to find out who placed it. Many infertility programs advertise for egg donors to help treat their patients. These programs provide all the screening, matching, and medical procedures required by the donation.

In some cases, ads are placed by egg brokers. These individuals or organizations recruit egg donors but do not provide medical services. If you contact a broker, be sure to find out who is responsible for each part of the egg donor process. Will you be screened by the broker? Will an infertility program want to repeat those tests? Who will pay your medical bills? What will happen if you develop complications? What will happen to information you provide?

Occasionally, advertisements - supposedly on behalf of a specific couple - will offer a large amount of money to the right egg donor. These ads seek donors with special qualities, such as above-average height, athletic or musical ability, or an Ivy League education. Be aware that, in some cases, there is actually no couple willing to pay the enticing fees. Instead, a broker is trying to attract a large number of applicants. Details about these applicants will be used in the broker's advertising or on its Web site to attract recipients. Some brokers will use the information you give in these ways unless you specifically refuse permission.

You may receive a phone call offering a much lower fee to serve as a donor to another couple. Even if you are never called, information from your application may become available on the Internet.

Remember, the purpose of an ad is to entice you to become an egg donor. Do not rely on an advertisement for details about the process. You will need to read any educational materials and consent forms carefully. Ask questions until you understand the process well enough to make a decision.

HOW ARE EGG DONORS SELECTED?

If you answer an advertisement, you may be interviewed over the telephone, or be sent an application to fill out. Based on your responses, the program may decide that you are unlikely to be chosen, and you may not hear from them again.

If the program decides that you are likely to be chosen, you may be invited to proceed with the selection process. Before you are accepted as an egg donor, however, you will be required to undergo medical and psychological screening.

Before you are screened, program staff should thoroughly describe the procedures and risks involved in donation. That way, if you decide not to proceed, you can avoid the screening process. In any case, do not give your written agreement to become an egg donor before the screening process is complete. After you are screened, you should have access to the results of your medical tests - whether or not you become a donor.

General medical screening: You will have a physical examination, including a pelvic exam. Blood will be drawn to check your hormone levels. Ultrasound (which uses sound waves, not X rays) will be used to examine your uterus, ovaries and other pelvic organs. These tests might reveal an existing health problem. If anything is found, ask about your options for treatment (either from the program or another health professional).

You will complete a detailed medical and psychological history about yourself and close blood relatives. It will include questions about your use of cigarettes, alcohol, and both prescription and illegal drugs. Many programs conduct unannounced drug tests during the screening and donation process.

Infectious disease screening: When blood or tissue is transferred from one person to another, it can carry viruses or bacteria. To minimize the risk that a donor egg could cause illness in the recipient, donors are tested for a variety of infections.

During your pelvic exam, a small scrape from your cervix will be taken to test for gonorrhea and chlamydia. Blood will be drawn to test for syphilis, hepatitis B and C, and HTLV-1 (a very uncommon virus that is associated with some cancers).

You will have a blood test to see if you have been exposed to HIV. New York State Law requires that you consent to this test in writing, after you read about the pros and cons of the test and understand who can receive the results.

Although there has never been a report of this happening, a program should not accept any egg donor who is at increased risk for exposure to HIV or other infections. According to State regulations, you may not donate eggs if you have injected drugs or been engaged in prostitution within the last five years. You are not eligible to donate eggs if, within the last year, you have been diagnosed with syphilis or if you have received acupuncture, a tattoo or body piercing without being certain that sterile procedures were used. If you have had more than one sexual partner in the last six months, you are not eligible to donate eggs. The program may also require your sexual partner( s), if any, to be tested for HIV.

Before you are screened for infectious diseases, make sure you understand the tests, and whether and how you will be given the results. If you have an infection, seek medical treatment to protect your own health and fertility.

Screening for inherited disease: Most programs try to learn all they can about a donor's genetic make-up in order to minimize the chance that a baby will have a birth defect or serious inherited disease. You will be required to provide your complete medical history. You will be asked medical questions about your biological parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. The program may tell you what information to collect, or they may have you work with a genetic counselor to identify:

Any birth defects that required surgery or resulted in medical problems (such as a cleft lip, spina bifida or a heart defect).
Certain genetic disorders (such as Huntington's disease, hemophilia, Tay Sachs disease or sickle cell anemia).
Inherited diseases that are of special interest to a recipient because of her own family history.
Any major medical problems, surgeries, mental retardation, or psychiatric problems.

For any close blood relatives who have died, you will need to know how old they were and the cause of death. Some common diseases (such as cancer or heart disease) that strike when people are middle-aged or younger are influenced, at least in part, by genetics.

If you do not have access to the necessary information, either because you are adopted or there is no informed person to ask, you should not become an egg donor.

Some programs do a large number of genetic tests on all donors. Others select specific tests for each donor. Some tests are required by state law. A program may check for disease genes that are common in the ethnic group of either the donor or recipient. You might be tested to address a genetic concern in the family of the recipient, or to answer questions raised by your family history.

Genetic tests usually involve a simple blood test. However, genetic testing may give you information for which you are not prepared or need help to understand. For example, what if you carry a gene that puts you at high risk for breast cancer, or a gene that might create a risk of serious disease in your children? Or, what if you are rejected for medical or life insurance because of your genetic test results? Before undergoing genetic testing, find out:

Will you receive the results?
Is a genetic counselor available? If not, will the program refer you to one?
Will the program give anyone else the results, such as your doctor or insurance company?
How might the results influence your ability to get insurance coverage in the future?

Psychological screening: Donating eggs requires you to confront complex ethical, emotional and social issues. The screening process should help you evaluate your desire to donate and to think through these issues.

You should have a chance to ask questions and express any concerns. In most programs, you will meet with a mental health professional to discuss your life circumstances, your support system, your feelings about the donation, and related issues. In addition, many programs ask donors to take psychological tests.

Another goal of psychological screening is to make sure that you will fulfill the complex requirements of egg donation. Failure to follow instructions can endanger your health and jeopardize the procedure. The program also wants to minimize the chance that you will have regrets or psychological problems, or find the procedures traumatic.

Before you decide to participate, you must try to foresee how you will feel about donating your eggs and the possibility that children will be created who are genetically related to you. You may want to discuss these issues with your spouse, a relative or a trusted friend.

The program should offer you psychological counseling and support throughout the decision making and donation process. Talking with an independent counselor can be helpful, too. If you need help finding one, the program should be able to refer you to an independent counselor who is familiar with infertility treatment issues. The goal of counseling is not to convince you, or help you "adjust" to the program's demands, but rather to better allow you to decide, of your own free will, whether you wish to donate your eggs.

No matter how motivated, most donors do not find the process easy. Take advantage of counseling services offered through the program, and think about who might serve as a good support person.

Organized religions hold various opinions about whether it is appropriate to use donor eggs and sperm in the creation of children. If these views are important to you, you may want to consult a religious advisor before you decide.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine suggests that a woman should not donate eggs if she:

Has a serious psychological disorder.
Abuses drugs or alcohol or has several relatives who do.
Currently uses psychoactive medications.
Has significant stress in her life.
Is in an unstable marriage or relationship.
Has been physically or sexually abused and not received professional treatment.
Is not mentally capable of understanding or participating in the process.

If any of your close, blood relatives have serious psychiatric disorders, the program needs to know, because some psychiatric disorders may be inherited.

WHAT IF I AM NOT ACCEPTED?

It's natural to feel rejected if you are not chosen. Sometimes the decision is made to protect you from medical harm. Or, it might become apparent that you may find the process too time-consuming or emotionally difficult. In some cases, it simply means that the right match has not been found.

To prevent prospective donors from dwelling on the reason they were not accepted, some programs will not provide this information. If that is the policy where you are applying, make certain you are comfortable with that before going through the screening.

WHO WILL USE MY EGGS?

Egg donation is a treatment option for women who do not produce enough normal eggs but are otherwise able to be pregnant. Some of these women have malfunctioning ovaries or entered menopause at an early age. Others are at an age when they produce eggs less readily, even with fertility drugs. Still others tried standard IVF but produced poor quality eggs or embryos.

Less commonly, women decide to use donor eggs because they are aware of an increased risk for inherited disease in their biological offspring. For example, the woman herself may be healthy, but she and her partner may both carry a gene for the same disease. This creates a risk in the child if it inherits the altered gene from both parents. Using an egg donor who does not carry the gene eliminates this risk.

Who will use your eggs depends on the policies of the program. Most often, donor eggs are used by women in their late 30s or 40s who are attempting to become pregnant. Very few women under the age of 36 use donor eggs. Programs have various upper age limits for recipients. Some programs will allow women over age 50 to be recipients.

Most programs will treat unmarried women who are trying to become pregnant without a male partner and who require donor spermas well as donor eggs. Some programs match an egg donor with more than one recipient.

If you have concerns about who might receive your eggs, discuss them with the program before agreeing to become a donor. Some programs allow donors to place restrictions on the use of their eggs. However, no program can guarantee how your eggs will be used.

WILL THE RECIPIENT KNOW WHO I AM?

Most programs keep the identity of donors confidential (often called "anonymous donation"). If you enter one of these programs, the recipient will have important information about you, but you will never meet or know each other's names. Other programs are more open. They may accept:

Donors willing to be identified later: Some donors give permission to be contacted once the child reaches a given age.
Donors willing to meet the recipients: In some programs, the donor and recipient meet to get to know each other and to ask questions.
Donors who want ongoing relationships with recipients: Some programs help donors maintain contact with the recipients, through an occasional photo or card, or a closer role as a special family friend.
Donors who already have relationships with recipients: A recipient may contact a fertility program after she has already asked a friend or relative to donate.

No single type of arrangement is right for everyone. Each presents unique challenges during and after the donation.

HOW ARE DONORS MATCHED WITH RECIPIENTS?

In most infertility programs that use "anonymous" donors, program staff match a recipient with the donor who most closely resembles her, including ethnicity, height, body build, skin type, eye color, and hair color and texture. Once a possible match has been found, the recipient is given information about the donor and decides whether to proceed or wait for another donor.

In some programs, recipients are given information about several possible donors and select the match they would like to pursue. Donors may be asked to take intelligence tests or to provide other information (essays, childhood photos, school transcripts, lists of hobbies, etc.) that will be given to possible recipients. Other programs, however, do not provide this type of information because it implies, without good evidence, that these characteristics are largely determined by genetics.

WHAT IF SOMEONE ASKS ME TO DONATE?

Some women donate eggs to help a relative or friend who has been unable to have a child. These are often called "known donors."

If someone asks you to donate, it does not automatically mean you can. In New York State, a "known" donor must undergo the same screening as an "anonymous" donor. In addition, the program will make certain that you are not feeling pressured to take part because of your emotional or financial ties to the recipient. For example, you may not be allowed to donate eggs to your boss or to your mother. Because of the risk of inherited disease, you will not be allowed to donate eggs if you are a close blood relative of the intended father.

As a known donor, you must be ready for problems that might emerge later. How will your relationship with the recipient change? What will the child and other family members be told? Will you feel comfortable being an "aunt" or "family friend" to your genetic child?

Even when pregnancy does not occur, egg donation can still have a long-lasting impact on a donor's relationship with her relative or friend.

It is valuable (and often required) for a known donor and recipient, along with their spouses, to meet together with a counselor, as well as separately.

WHAT IS THE EGG DONATION PROCESS?

These are the standard steps in the process and the risks:

Stopping your normal cycle: You may be prescribed a medication for one or more weeks to temporarily halt your ovaries' normal functioning.

This makes it easier to control your response to fertility drugs. A doctor or nurse will give you an injection or instruct you about how to inject the medication daily at home.

The risks: The medications can cause hot flashes, vaginal dryness, fatigue, sleep problems, body aches, mood swings, breast tenderness, headache, and/ or vision problems.

Stimulating egg production: In a normal menstrual cycle, one egg matures and, at ovulation, is released from an egg-containing sac (called a follicle) on the ovary. In egg donation, the goal is to obtain several mature eggs. You will be prescribed medication to stimulate your ovaries to mature more eggs than normal (called "controlled hyperstimulation"). The medications are similar to the hormones that your body produces, but at much higher doses. These medications must be injected (either under your skin or into a muscle). Treatment will start on a specific day of your cycle and continue for about ten days. You will be shown how to inject the medications. If you are unable to inject yourself reliably, you will need someone else to do it for you.

The risks: You may develop soreness, redness or mild bruising around the injection site. You may experience mood swings, tender breasts, enlarged ovaries and mild fluid retention. Occasionally, the medications cause more hyperstimulation than intended (known as "ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome," or OHSS). This will cause fluid retention and swelling of the ovaries. In mild OHSS, you may have abdominal pain, pressure and swelling. This should go away after your next period. In moderate OHSS, you may require careful monitoring, bed rest and pain medication. Severe OHSS is rare but can cause serious medical complications, including blood clots, kidney failure, fluid build-up in the lungs, and shock. In rare cases, hospitalization is necessary and the condition can be life-threatening. One or both of your ovaries may have to be removed. The risk of OHSS decreases after the eggs are retrieved.

If you show signs of OHSS before the eggs are ready to be retrieved, the doctor may decide that it is too risky for you to keep taking the hormones. You must stop using the medication and the cycle will be canceled.

If you decide, for some reason, not to undergo egg retrieval after having completed fertility drugs, you increase your risk of OHSS. Very rarely, an enlarged ovary will twist on its stalk and cut off its blood supply. This painful condition requires immediate surgery and the ovary may have to be removed. Also, very rarely, a woman has an allergic reaction to fertility drugs.

You can become pregnant during the cycle, if you have unprotected intercourse. This could occur if some of the eggs are released before retrieval, or if the doctor is unable to retrieve all of the mature eggs. There is a chance that you could become pregnant with twins, triplets or quadruplets. You must abstain from intercourse or use effective barrier contraception. Ask the doctor about restrictions on intercourse during the donation cycle.

The long-term risks of fertility drugs are unknown. A few studies suggest that fertility drugs might increase a woman's risk for developing ovarian cancer later in life. Others do not show this link. At this time, no one knows for sure.

Monitoring your progress: During the donation cycle, you must have frequent blood tests and ultrasound examinations to track the developing eggs and to see how you are responding to the hormones. Based on these tests, you will be told how to adjust the dose of medication. The ultrasound exams involve inserting an ultrasound probe (about the size of a tampon applicator) into your vagina so the doctor can see the growing follicles on your ovaries.

When the time is right, you will receive a final injection of another drug to prepare the eggs for retrieval. This injection is given shortly before egg retrieval.

The risks: Blood drawing can cause mild discomfort and there is a chance you will develop a bruise in the area where the needle was inserted. Ultrasound examination may be slightly uncomfortable but has no known risks.

Removing the eggs: The eggs will be removed from your ovaries in a minor surgical procedure called transvaginal ovarian aspiration. An ultrasound probe will be inserted into your vagina. A thin needle attached to the probe will be inserted into each follicle. Using suction, the egg and liquid inside each follicle are removed. You may be given painkillers, sedatives or anesthesia during the retrieval, which lasts about 30 minutes. When all the eggs have been retrieved, you will recover for a few hours before going home. You must have someone drive you home. Afterwards, you will need to rest for the day. Often, it takes several days of restricted activity to recover.

The risks: After the needle is inserted into the ovary, there may be bleeding. Although rare, it is possible to damage or puncture the bowel, bladder or nearby blood vessels. In the unlikely possibility of severe internal bleeding or serious damage to the pelvic organs, major abdominal surgery may be needed.

To prevent infection, you may be given antibiotics. If infection occurs, it may affect your own future fertility. Ask the doctor about the risks of all medications used during retrieval.

Follow-up care: You should be given clear instructions about what to do if you need medical attention. In some programs, donors return for one or two check-ups. You may also be scheduled to meet with a counselor.

Many programs do not provide follow-up care, and it is normal for a donor to feel let down after her intense involvement in the process ends.

Many women are concerned that giving up some of their eggs may reduce their ability to later become pregnant. If there are no complications, being an egg donor should not affect your later fertility. However, if you develop serious complications, involving bleeding, infection, or loss of an ovary, it may jeopardize your ability to conceive.

WILL DONATING EGGS AFFECT MY EVERYDAY LIFE?

Egg donation is time-consuming. During the donation cycle, you will be given medications for about three weeks, and you will make several visits to the program for blood tests and ultrasounds.

You will be responsible for arranging your work or school schedule to fit the demands of egg donation. Some donors find it difficult to continue their normal activities. They have trouble keeping up at school or on the job, and in fulfilling their family responsibilities.

You will be required to refrain from drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and using illegal drugs. You will not be able to use any prescription or non-prescription drugs without permission. If you are in a sexual relationship, you must abstain from unprotected intercourse during specific weeks of the treatment cycle.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE DONATED EGGS?

You must be aware that many things can happen to your eggs after they are removed from your ovaries:

No embryos may be formed. This may be due to a sperm problem, the condition of the eggs, or a problem in the laboratory. Immature or unfertilized eggs can be discarded as medical waste or used in research.
Pregnancy may not occur or may end in a miscarriage. More than half of egg donor cycles do not lead to successful pregnancies, even when embryos are formed and transferred.
The recipient may become pregnant with more than one fetus. She and her doctor will decide how many embryos to transfer at one time. Pregnancies involving two or more fetuses are at higher risk of various complications, including miscarriage, premature birth and infant death. If the recipient becomes pregnant with a dangerously high number of fetuses, she may choose to undergo multifetal pregnancy reduction. In this procedure, a lethal chemical is injected into one or more fetuses to lower the number that continue to develop and decrease the risk that the entire pregnancy will be lost or end prematurely.
More embryos may develop in the laboratory than can safely be transferred to the woman's uterus. The remaining embryos may be frozen and kept in storage for later use. You cannot be certain when a genetic child of yours may be born - it could be nine months or even years after your donation.
The eggs may go to more than one recipient. One or more women may conceive, using your eggs, now or years from now. Or, no pregnancies may occur.
The original recipient may never use the frozen embryos. The program may ask the recipient to: donate the embryos to another couple; donate the embryos to research; leave the embryos frozen indefinitely; or allow the embryos to be destroyed.

Once you donate your eggs, their fate is entirely up to the recipient. You have no say about what happens.

WHAT IS INFORMED CONSENT?

A doctor must obtain your informed consent before treating you. But informed consent is more than a form to be signed. It is the process of helping you fully understand and agree to the medical procedures. Before you give your consent, the doctor who will provide your care should meet with you and answer your questions. If you wish, you should also be able to discuss any concerns or doubts with a nurse, social worker or counselor.

Before giving your consent for the procedures involved in egg donation, you should understand:

What is involved in each procedure.
If each procedure is:
1. generally accepted as effective and safe by fertility specialists (although thorough research may or may not have been conducted); or
2. new and innovative and not generally accepted among fertility specialists.
How much experience the program has with each procedure, including the level of training of the professional staff.
The risks of all medications and procedures, and what will be done if complications occur.

You can change your mind. You cannot be forced to undergo medical procedures against your will. Many programs acknowledge that a donor may withdraw her consent to participate at any time before retrieval of the eggs. Before consenting to donate eggs, make certain you understand and agree to the program's and/or the broker's policy on withdrawing consent.

ARE THERE OTHER LEGAL AND FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS?

Contracts: You may be asked to sign one or more contracts with the program and/or the recipient. These contracts may detail your responsibilities and those of the recipient and the program. Contracts are different from consent forms, because they may be legally binding.

Do not sign any contract before you have completed the informed consent process. Do not sign any contract that you do not fully understand. Some programs may require you to meet with a program lawyer to discuss the provisions of the contract. These lawyers represent the program's interests, not yours. You may wish to get independent legal advice before signing.

Confidentiality: A program or broker will gather a great deal of information about you from your application and throughout the screening process. In order to donate, you must agree to let a program disclose certain information to potential recipients of your eggs. If you are donating anonymously, the recipient should not be given your name or any information that can be used to identify you.

Before giving any information to an agency or a broker, ask about all the ways it may be used. Do not apply unless you are comfortable with the answers.

If you donate eggs and it results in the birth of a baby, State regulations require the program to keep certain information about you on file. Some of this information may be available to the child. According to current State regulations, no information will be released (unless you give permission) that would allow a child to identify you as the donor. However, it is possible that confidentiality laws and regulations may change in the future. In addition, a program cannot guarantee that someone will not discover confidential information by unauthorized means.

You should also be told under what circumstances, if any, a program might contact you in the future. Do they ever call previous donors to ask them to participate in research? Would you be contacted if the child has an inherited disease or needs a bone marrow transplant?

Parental rights and responsibilities: Once your eggs are retrieved, you have no control over what happens to them. You bear no responsibility for the outcome of the pregnancy. Any documents you sign should make it clear that the recipient is legally and financially responsible for any children that result, no matter what their condition. Ask to see the documents that she will sign, as well.

Although the clear intent is for the recipient to become the legal parent, this is a fairly new area of law and one that most state laws do not address specifically. A program cannot guarantee that this legal understanding will hold up in court (if a dispute arises) or that current laws will stay the same. However, it is extremely unlikely that you would be able to establish yourself as the legal mother of any child born as a result of your donation.

Payments: Most fertility programs offer payment to egg donors for their time, effort and discomfort. It is not payment for the eggs themselves and should not depend on the outcome.

If a cycle must be canceled before eggs are retrieved, some (but not all) programs provide partial compensation (often based on the number of days of treatment completed). After egg retrieval, you should receive the full, agreed upon amount no matter the number or quality of the eggs.

Before signing an agreement, make sure you understand how you will be paid - directly by the recipient, or by the program? Will the program have the money in hand before the cycle starts? Is there any payment for donors who are screened but not selected? What is the payment (if any) if a cycle is canceled prior to retrieval?

According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), you must pay taxes on any money you receive for donating your eggs. The program must report how much they pay you, and you should receive a Form 1099 to use in preparing your tax return. Find out if the program will do the necessary IRS reporting and if it will withhold taxes from your payment.

Usually, there is no financial compensation when a woman donates eggs to a relative or friend. If you arrange to be paid outside of the program, the program will not be able to protect you if things do not go as planned.

Expenses: Think about what it will cost you to participate. This may include days off from work, transportation to the program, baby-sitting, or other expenses. Find out what records you need to keep, and if you will be reimbursed by the program or recipient.

Insurance: In most cases, your medical bills for procedures involved in the donation will be paid, in full, by the program or the recipient. Make sure that this is clearly stated, in writing, before you sign up.

In some programs, donors are required to have their own medical insurance. Ask under what conditions any treatment will be billed to your insurance. In most cases, no planned expenses will be billed to your insurance. However, if complications develop, your insurance may be billed.

Some programs will not accept a donor who does not have insurance. Others will arrange special, short-term insurance to cover you in the event of medical complications. If this is the case, you need to know:

Who will pay the insurance premium?
How long will the coverage last? What if you have long-lasting medical complications? What if a problem arises several months after you have completed your donation?
How do you access care under the policy? Do you see your private doctor or must you first return to the program?

If no insurance is offered, you need a clear agreement, in writing, of how bills will be paid for complications. If there is a general statement, such as the program "covers all expenses," there are still likely to be restrictions and limitations. Is there a limit on the amount paid? If the recipient is supposed to pay, is it up to you or the program to collect the money? What about problems that appear later? What if you are unable to work or need special care?

Before starting a cycle, you may be asked to sign a statement that waives your right to sue the program for medical malpractice, pain and suffering, or any other expenses resulting from complications. You should consult with an attorney before you sign any such waiver. Even if you do sign, you can still sue to recover any medical expenses, pain and suffering, and other costs associated with injuries or complications caused by the negligence of the program. In the unlikely event that you are injured or have medical complications, and the program is unwilling to assist you, you should see an attorney.

CAN I DONATE MORE THAN ONCE?

There are no firm rules about how many times a woman can donate her eggs, but there are several reasons why a program may limit repeat donations. For one thing, there are still unanswered questions about the possible long-term impact on a woman's health and fertility. Because of this, programs are often reluctant to expose a healthy woman to the process more than a few times.

Programs are required, by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the State Health Department, to limit the number of children created using the same donor.

This limit is necessary, because all children from a single donor will be genetic half-siblings. The small chance that they might meet later in life and be unaware of the relationship raises health concerns about their potential offspring.

Because of the costs involved in screening, some programs ask prospective donors to commit, in advance, to donate eggs several times. Think carefully before agreeing. You do not know how the medications will affect you, how difficult the procedure will be, or how you will react to the possibility of creating genetic offspring.

Do not sign a consent form for more than one cycle of egg donation. Even if you do sign, no one can force you to make multiple donations. On the other hand, it is reasonable for a program or donor egg recipient to want to know if you would consider donating eggs more than once. A recipient may see you as an ideal match and wonder whether, if there is not a successful pregnancy, you would be willing to try again. Or, if a child is born, she may wonder if you would help her conceive that child's little brother or sister.

GLOSSARY

ART (assisted reproductive technology) - All treatments or procedures that involve surgically removing eggs from a woman's ovaries and combining the eggs with sperm to help a woman become pregnant.

Canceled cycle - An ART cycle in which ovarian stimulation was carried out but which was stopped before eggs were retrieved.

Egg - The female reproductive cell, also called an oocyte.

Egg retrieval - A procedure to collect the eggs contained in the ovarian follicles.

Embryo transfer - Placement of embryos into a woman's uterus through the cervix after in vitro fertilization.

Fertilization - The penetration of the egg by the sperm and the resulting combining of genetic material that develops into an embryo.

Follicle - A structure in the ovaries that contains a developing egg.

Gestation - The period of time from conception to birth.

In vitro fertilizationv (IVF) - An ART procedure that involves removing eggs from a woman's ovaries and fertilizing them outside her body. The resulting embryos are then transferred into the woman's uterus through the cervix.

Miscarriage - A pregnancy ending in the spontaneous loss of the embryo or fetus before 20 weeks of gestation.

Multifetal pregnancy reduction - A procedure used to decrease the number of fetuses a woman carries and improve the chances that the remaining fetuses will develop into healthy infants.

Oocyte - The female reproductive cell, also called an egg.

Ovarian stimulation - The use of drugs to stimulate the ovaries to develop follicles and eggs.

Sperm - The male reproductive cell.

Ultrasound - A technique used in ART for visualizing the follicles in the ovaries and the gestational sac or fetus in the uterus.

Source: CDC, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Reproductive Health

CHECKLIST: BEFORE YOU GIVE CONSENT TO DONATE EGGS

Be sure you carefully read the informed consent documents. Do not give your written consent to become an egg donor unless you have received acceptable answers to all of your questions:

__ What screening tests will be performed?
__ What are the pros and cons of genetic testing?
__ What procedures and medications will be part of your donation process?
__ Have they been thoroughly described?
__ What are the risks of any drugs, procedures and anesthesia?
__ What are the side effects?
__ What information about you will the program keep on file?
__ What are all the currently known ways that your eggs or resulting embryos might be used?
__ What information about you will the program give to the recipient?
__ What costs might you have to pay if you need treatment for complications?
__ At what point can you no longer change your mind about the donation?
__ What financial compensation will you receive for a completed cycle or one canceled before egg retrieval (for various possible reasons)?
__ Do you fully understand and agree with all conditions?

How to become sperm donor?

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What is an anonymous sperm donor?

An anonymous sperm donor is a man who chooses, for any number of possible reasons, to donate his sperm anonymously to help a woman or a couple become pregnant.

An anonymous sperm donor will generally not meet the couple that uses the sperm, nor will he have information about any resultant child's whereabouts. Different sperm banks differ on the amount of information they will provide the donor about resulting pregnancies. You will need to speak to the sperm bank with which you choose to work about their specific policies and conditions.

What is involved in being a sperm donor?

Each sperm bank has its own requirements and procedures for sperm donors; however, many requirements are required by all sperm banks. You should look at the question below "Am I eligible to become a sperm donor" and make sure that you generally meet the criteria before approaching a donor bank.

The following is an outline of the typical procedure at a sperm bank. The process you will go through at any individual sperm bank may be more or less extensive in terms of the evaluation but there will be many similarities.

You may approach a sperm bank directly to see if they are accepting new donors. You will be asked a number of questions over the phone. At that time, you will be asked to come in to the bank (or laboratory) for a meeting. During this first meeting, the laboratory will spend significant time with you, have you fill out a very thorough questionnaire about your own medical history and your family history. At that time they will go through their rules and procedures. Often labs will ask you, during this first visit, to produce an initial semen sample in the collection room. This initial sample is tested by the lab to see how much sperm is in the ejaculate, its quality, and how well it freezes. Most labs have private collection rooms with videos or magazine to help with production.

Assuming the sample looks good and you meet the bank's basic criteria, you will be invited back for a full physical and to have blood drawn. At that time, you will probably be asked to produce another sample of semen and urine. These will be thoroughly tested for infectious disease, sexually transmitted diseases or genetic problems. Assuming all of these tests are completed and come back negative you will be able to start regular donations. Most often banks ask you to sign a contract agreeing to produce specimens 1-2/ week for at least 6 months. Again, each laboratory has its own requirements.

Am I eligible to become a sperm donor?

Most banks look for the following qualifications:

Ages 18-44.
Individual who were not adopted.
Healthy: No significant illness or conditions.
No family history of genetic diseases.
Ability and willingness to produce a specimen 4-8 times per month in the laboratory.
Ability and willingness to make a minimum 6-month commitment.

How much can I expect to be paid as a sperm donor?

Each bank varies in what they pay per specimen. Usually, the range is $35-$50 per specimen. Banks often require a six-month gap between production and complete payment. That is, they will not release payments to a sperm donor until he has completed the second set of blood tests; six months after the first set were done. The reason for this is fairly straightforward. Any specimens in a laboratory's bank cannot be released until a second blood test, (done after a 6 month quarantine period) returns negative and proves that no infections were in the blood at the time the specimens were produced. The banks, as an assurance that the donor will return for the 6 months blood test, will hold payment for that time.

How do I become a sperm donor?

You can contact the banks closest to you about your interest in becoming a sperm donor. Please be aware that most sperm banks require that you live within an hour's commute. I will write in next weeks about sperm banks, how to find them, contact them, etc.

Donor payment

The majority of sperm donors who donate their sperm through a sperm bank receive some kind of payment. This varies from the situation in the United Kingdom where donors are only entitled to their expenses in connection with the donation, to the situation with some US sperm banks where a donor receives a set fee for each donation plus an additional amount for each vial stored. Whilst the amounts concerned in each case are not excessive, some donors are known to donate to more than one sperm bank every week and they are thus able to secure a reasonable monthly income.

Some private donors may seek remuneration although the majority of these donate for altruistic reasons. Equipment to collect, freeze and store sperm is available to the public notably through certain US outlets, and some donors process and store their own sperm which they then sell via the internet.

The selling price of processed and stored sperm is considerably more than the sums which are received by donors. Treatments with donor sperm are generally expensive and are seldom available free of charge through national health services. Sperm banks often package treatments into eg three cycles, and in cases of IVF or other ART treatments, they may reduce the charge if a patient donates any spare embryos which are produced through the treatment. There is often more demand for fertility treatment with donor sperm than there is donor sperm available, and this has the effect of keeping the cost of such treatments reasonably high.

You can find much more info about how to become sperm donor, in DMOZ sperm donoship section.

Welcome to my blog about sperm donorship!

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Welcome to my new blog about sperm donorship. I would like to explain possibilities of giving (selling) your sperm into sperm bank.

The cost of donor sperm varies among sperm banks and depends on what combination of products and services you want. The larger sperm banks tend to have more complicated fees, whereas the smaller clinics/providers usually have simpler, more straightforward pricing. You will probably pay in the ballpark of $200-$600 per insemination for sperm. That is including shipping. The cost of sperm is not not usually covered by insurance.

Semen specimens are usually sold in vials or units. One vial/unit is enough for a single insemination. There are three types of sperm purchases(the cost varies to which one you choose):

Standard (ICI/cervical insemination)

Prewashed (IUI/uterine insemination): It cost a little more, the price ranges from $50.00-$150.00 more per unit. Prewashed offers the best chance of getting pregnant.

IVF (in-vitro fertilization): It is the cheapest.

Most labs/clinics can wash semen for you (for a fee), so if you find a donor you like, you can probably have his sperm washed for IUI if it isn't already. Unwashed vials typically range from $100-$400 per vial.

The best thing to do is shop around. See what the general prices are. Find the clinic that suites you the best and that is in your price range. It is important to research the clinic that you are going to do business with.

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