# Newbie -hello and advice, observations about sperm banks /donors please



## Clacey (Feb 3, 2011)

Hello,

Sorry if I'm posting in the wrong place..there's alot of topics, and this is my first post...hello all. 

My partner (age 33)and I (age39) are TTC and are about to have DIUI. We've got to arrange sperm ourselves and have been pointed in the direction of a few sperm banks. ESB & Xytex. Though we subsequently discovered Cryobank Denmark too. Anyways we weren't impressed with the one off additional pregnancy slot fee of £1000-00 charged by one particular sperm bank who shall remain nameless...apparently the fee for "the right to create a child using the sperm"..hmmm. 

Anyways, it's been interesting and opened our eyes to the world of buying sperm, with donor profiles, straws, shipping etc all leaving us feeling a bit bewildered on times. That said, we've decided on our donor, and we're now trying to figure out how many vials or 'straws' to buy. We plan to both try, me first then my partner in a few years.  Any suggestions on how many? it's different for everyone I know, but we dont want too few incase we need more and have to pay more shipping fees and risk none being available AND on the other hand we dont want to buy too much iether. 

Also does anyone know if IUI ready sperm can be used for IVF if need be?

many thanks in anticipation.


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## kedmo1 (Aug 18, 2010)

Hi ya 
Well I think if you are wanting siblings then you need to go for more rather than less. 

I just imported/brought 3 vials but don't want siblings, this was on top of 2 goes of iui sperm I have already had. So 5 in total and I've moved on to ivf now as after 2 goes at iui as i wanted better success rates and chance.  another lady on here brought 10straws for her and partner, fell pregnant at first go at ivf and I think partner is now using remaining straws for a sibling.

My clinic told me to go for iui ready sperm for my ivf treatment,as its better quality. so yes you can defo use it later on for ivf.  
Check with your bank and see if you can reserve extra units at bank and leave them there and only ship them in if you need them and if not needed you may be able to get unused ones refunded? but once they are shipped they are yours whether you need them or not.

Also have you checked both your cmv status, partners and donor,as someone else posted their clinic was refusing to use their imported sperm as the donor was cmv+ but lady was cmv-. She was having to move clinics. Extra headache for her
Good luck
Kerry x


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## lmb15 (Jun 12, 2009)

Hey Clacey,
I think Kerry's referring to me  
We used the sperm at our clinic (nurture in Nottingham). We wanted the same donor for all our children (we're hoping for 3 but will see what happens). We bought a batch of sperm, which was 10 straws. They usually use 2 straws per IVF cycle.
I had ivf in summer 2009. We were very lucky and I got pregnant on the first go. Our little boy, Isaac,  will be 1 next month. So we've got 8 straws left.
My partner, Laura, is currently on her first cycle of IVF. We've got enough sperm for her to have 4 goes and are hoping one of them's successful. Fingers crossed!!
Prices were as follows:
sperm for one go of ivf or iui = £600
10 straws of sperm -enough for 5 ivfs = £1500
we also had to pay £300 to store the sperm for 10 years. 
I'm not sure how that compares to prices you're looking at paying?

Like you, we wanted to have enough sperm for siblings but didn't want to pay over the odds and end up with too much left over. We felt that having enough for 5 ivfs was about right. 
I think they use 1 straw for iui as there's obviously a lot less eggs but I'm not 100% sure on that as we went straight for ivf. 
It can all be quite confusing!
Best of luck,
Lisa x


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## kedmo1 (Aug 18, 2010)

Yes lisa was the other lady I was referring too! LOL. Glad I remembered all the right information from when I have become FF stalker and constantly reading peoples posts.   
My bank guarantee a minimum of 10mil highly motile sperm post thaw count per vial, so we are hoping that 1 vial per go is enough.


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## Clacey (Feb 3, 2011)

Thanks both for getting back to us. It seems that the ivf ready sperm is a bit cheaper, so maybe we'll do a pick n pix lol.,,,cos chances are one of us will need ivf?

I feel awful bringing it down to £££'s but this fertility treatment is sooo costly, trying to get the balance right.

I didnt realise reserving it with the sperm bank was an option, so will look into that. 

do you know of any sperm banks other than ESB, Xytex or Cryobank Denmark? I havent come across any UK ones, other than those connected directly with a clinic.

best wishes & Good luck


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## Hales :) (Mar 26, 2010)

Hi - We used Xytex (who were brilliant by the way) - We originally bought 6 vials with the intention of 3 for my partner and 3 for me, however my partner ended up using 4, so just to be sure we've just imported 2 additonal vials (making 8 in total) for my use.  We're hoping that we won't need all 4 for a sibling, but our donor is being retired, so we wanted to make sure we have enough.  I can't remember how much it was for the 6 vials (I'm thinking about £3.5k), but it cost £1100 for the 2 vials, but as you can imagine, a good chunk of that was shipping.


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