In simple language, a sperm donor is someone who donates his semen. The semen is carefully collected and stored.
Once a family which has decided to conceive a baby contacts the institution, the female goes through a round of tests, and later the semen is injected into her reproductive system, or else it can also be used to fertilize mature eggs.
The whole process is often coined as third-party reproduction.
Some sperm donors also earn good money after donating their sperm.
Men, with a good background, for example, physical attributes, education, and good medical history can expect to make more money out of sperm donation.
Sperm donation can help millions and millions of couples, both straight and lesbian, to become pregnant, and enjoy parenthood. Before anyone can donate their sperm, the donor has to go through adequate medical screening, where they can be tested for risk factors and different medical conditions.
Why do people donate their sperm?
The reason is very simple; through sperm donation, the dream of raising a family and to conceive a baby comes true. You can also donate your sperm to help someone who wants to raise a family but unable to. Many lesbian couples and single mothers also look for sperm donors.
And married straight couples, who can’t become pregnant because of different infertility issues (can be male or female); sperm donation can become a great way to fulfill their dreams.
You will be donating your sperm to a sperm bank, and once you are tested qualified to donate sperm, you will be paid for it too. However, do note that you have to go through the sperm bank’s screening process for being able to donate your semen.
The payment that is given to you is in return for your favor; you are basically getting paid for your expenses and also the time that you will be spending while going through the scanning and ejaculation process. However the amount of payment won’t be much.
Hence, if you want to become a sperm donor thinking that you will get heavily paid, don’t do it for the sake of money then.
Who should become a sperm donor?
Readers may note that different sperm banks have different criteria; therefore, if you are planning to become a sperm donor, you must ensure that you satisfy their qualification criteria properly. Some of the requirements that you may be asked for are your genes.
It is ultimately your genes that will be passed on to the child. Therefore, the sperm bank will take a look at your genes. Other than that, some banks pay more attention to special features, for example, your physical characteristics, weight, and height.
Your eye color, nose shape, skin color, and various of the additional factors might be considered too. Some banks will look at your education qualification and lifestyle, the healthier you as an individual are, the better value your sperm will get.
One common requirement that every sperm bank will have is your family’s medical history. No receiver will like to receive the sperm of someone who has genetic risks. Hence, if the bank suspects or finds out about that, you will not be allowed to become a sperm donor.
No bank will allow someone to donate their sperm, with a poor family medical history. Apart from that, your quality of sperm and also the quantity will be checked. It’s quite a rigorous process and only those who qualify get to donate their sperm.
Former Sperm Donors Discus their Experiences
Some males also decide to donate sperm to sperm banks before they undergo some kind of treatment. Still, sperm banks generally don’t allow patients who are about to go through chemotherapy, mainly because they might end up passing on that medical problem to the child through your genes.
Sperm banks are pretty strict; hence it is better, to be honest to the bank. In some cases, the sperm donor can also be the partner of the female. There can be many reasons why a female fails to become pregnant.
If a male or female is suffering from some kind of fertility issue, and if the doctors find out after tests and screening process that injection of sperm externally can make the female partner pregnant, they will suggest the male partner to become a sperm donor for the lady.
The male will be asked to give his sperm, the sperm will be collected, and then through medical means, the sperm will be injected into the uterus. Sperm can be stored in sperm banks for more than two decades, provided the banks have the necessary equipment to store the sperm adequately.
Sperms are usually collected in a small container, and they are stored in tanks loaded with liquid nitrogen.
How to prepare?
Becoming a sperm donor might sound easy to a lot of you. You might think that it is only about ejaculating the sperm and that’s about it, you are all done. It can impact your personal life too. So, if you are thinking of becoming a sperm donor, ask yourself properly if you are ready for this.
Are you genuinely prepared to become the biological father of someone you would never meet, what if you become a donor for multiple individuals, imagine how many children your sperm will be reproducing, are you willing to take the stress of becoming a father to so many kids whom you will never meet?
What if one of your children who was conceived by your donated sperm decides to meet you one day? What if he starts looking for you, and imagine a scenario where you end up meeting your biological child whom you didn’t plan to meet ever in your life.
What will happen then? How would it impact you; will you be able to tackle that stress? And what if that child decides to stay in touch with you? Finally, would you tell your current family that you are exploring the chances of becoming a sperm donor?
What if you don’t share, and your wife finds out about it later? How would you react? Becoming a sperm donor is way more complicated than you think. Yes, your sperm will impregnate a lot of women, but how you go about it will be more critical.
How does the whole process work?
Once you decide to become a sperm donor, you will be contacting a health care facility or else a sperm clinic that collects sperms from potential donors. After you meet with your specialist, you will be asked to ejaculate and provide them with a sample so that the clinic can run some tests on it.
These tests will decide whether they want to go ahead with you as a sperm donor or not. You will be allowed to take as much time as you want. You can be asked to go to the washroom, or you can be provided a private room too. You can take as much time as you want for ejaculation.
Most of the clinics will suggest you to stay away from any sexual activities at least three days before the day of sperm donation. Once you have donated your sperm, a specialist will come and collect the sample carefully.
Get a Grip: Sperm Donation Process
After this, some rounds of clinic tests will be conducted, in which you might be interviewed as well. The men will be asked about their educational qualification, lifestyle, height, and weight will be taken into consideration.
Regarding your occupation and education, you may have to submit some proofs as well, just for confirmation. The tests that will be conducted will be of different kinds, for example, genetic testing, blood type, and other types of tests to detect if you have STI-related viruses.
The clinic or the healthcare facility will take a few weeks to identify if you can be the potential donor or not, once confirmed; you will be contacted and asked to visit the clinic once again. Now, you will only be asked to donate your sperm. You will be given a consent form you have to sign.
Some of the donors are paid. Therefore, you must speak to your clinic whether they will be paying for donation of sperm or not.
Here are some additional things you need to Know
- Age: Some clinics have age limits when it comes to donating sperm. Most of the banks have an age requirement of 18 to 39 years, while some might set an upper age limit of 34 years only.
- Physical exam: Physical exam is an essential part of sperm donation. Your urine and blood test will be conducted and will be tested for different health issues, one of them being HIV. In case you donate sperm regularly, you must ensure to go through a full-body check-up once every six months.
- Semen testing: The clinic will ask you to provide several samples. Samples are required to check for different things, for example, movement, quality, as well as quantity. Yes, it’s not just the quality of your sperm that is counted, the amount of sperm you can ejaculate will also be considered.
- Genetic testing: As we said, there will be a round of tests that will be conducted; one of them is genetic testing; this is done to make sure that you aren’t carrying any hereditary conditions in your genes.
- Family medical history: You must provide family medical history details to your sperm collector bank. They will ask you about your family history, are the one in your family who is dealing with a terminal illness, what type of medical condition exists, and so on. If the bank finds out that your genes have a family history condition, you might not be called for the final donation.
- Psychological evaluation: Under psychological evaluation, a few essential questions will be asked, for example, are you concerned about your personal information being revealed to your to-be biological child. If you are donating your sperm to someone you know, you will be asked about the comfort level of your relationship with that person.
How much can you earn by donating your sperm?
Most of the sperm clinics do pay their donors, mainly for their travel expenses and also for the time they have spared just to complete the whole donation process. Donors don’t get paid much, so you can expect to receive somewhere around $20 when you release your sample, and upon successful donation, you get paid $50.
In terms of men with solid educational background, no serious medical condition, good family history, and more, you can even get paid $1000 on a single donation.
What to expect?
It must be clear by now that you have to go to a sperm bank for donating your sperm. You will be given a sterile cup, and you will be asked to provide your semen in it. After the sperm is collected, your sperm will be frozen in a tank and will be quarantined for not less than six months.
During the whole process, you will be going through a lot of tests. The clinic will test the quality and quantity of your sperm, along with diseases that you might have. Some sperms do get damaged earlier than expected.
However, if your sperm meets all the quality standards, you will be asked to revisit the clinic, and you will become a registered donor.
Some Risks and Complications
Even though the donor goes through rigorous testing before becoming a certified donor, there are always some chances of risks and complications.
Infection
Infection is the most common problem. There are some risks involved, and even after testing and screening, some clinics are not vigilant enough, and they fail to rule out all the infections that are there in the sperm, which are ultimately transmitted to the recipient woman.
Therefore, if you genuinely want to donate sperm, you must ensure to go to someone who performs extensive testing or screening of every sperm. Don’t let your sperm affect someone’s health, especially the newborn baby.
Legal rights
You, as a donor, must know what your rights are. As a donor, your responsibility is only to donate your sperm. You will be asked to sign a consent form, which will clearly state that you won’t have any relationship with the receiver and the new-born child.
Also, if you are donating your sperm to someone known, both you and the receiver must make things clear and clarify all the legal rights. Would you like to take the responsibility of the child in the future, or prefer being the donor?
In case you want to remain an anonymous donor, ensure to talk to the clinic and ask them to explain everything for you. Most of the clinics fail to make the donor understand the rules and regulations, hence you must be active and clear your doubts.
Emotional risk
You as a donor will be donating your sperm only; however, when you decide to become a donor, please understand that your sperm will be used by a woman who will give birth to your child.
If you are in a relationship or thinking of getting married, it would be better if you inform your partner about everything. Also, have a clear picture of the fact that you will never get to know who got pregnant with your sperm, and it is better to stay out of all this altogether.
It would be right for you and your biological child too.
Best Way to prepare yourself to Become a Donor
Once you know that you suit the requirements of your sperm clinic, you are now all set to submit your sample. The donor must understand that the first sample that will be collected from you has to run by some tests. That won’t be your actual donation.
Once you clear the screening tests of the respective clinic, you have to wait for their call. They will tell you whether you have been selected or not.
Be healthy
A healthy person with no medical condition has more chances of becoming a sperm donor. Be prepared for the screening tests; these are critical because your screening tests will tell you whether you can become a donor or not.
We have already shared what kind of screening test you can expect; what we want to share here is that you have to be a healthy and fit person to donate sperm. You cannot have Hepatitis B, HIV, syphilis, HTLV, or genital herpes.
You must also make sure that you don’t have the common hereditary diseases as well, such as inflammatory arthritis, hemophilia, anaemia, and cystic fibrosis.
It is Better to Be Younger than 40
Most of the clinics accept sperm donations from males who are between 18-39 years of age. But some have a strict age restriction of up to 34 years. The younger you are, the more valuable your sperm will be. Therefore, think about donating your sperm as early as possible.
Take care of your overall diet and lifestyle. Clinics also pay more attention to people who are healthy and younger.
Your height
So, many clinics will pay more attention to physical attributes, such as your height. Most women prefer accepting sperm from a taller individual.
Shorter men can also donate their sperm, but ask your clinic and check with them about their height requirement, some clinics also have a mandatory requirement of minimum 5’9″ or 5’10”, while some clinics accept sperm donation from men with only 5’7″ height as well.
It all depends on the clinic, hence do check the requirement over the phone to save yourself from unnecessary traveling.
Your Education does matter
If you want to become a registered donor, make sure that you have a robust educational background.
Also, you must have proper documents to prove that. Some of the sperm banks look at your post-secondary qualification, while some of the most popular ones will accept the donation from only those who have graduated from Ivy League schools.
They will make their requirements clear on the website. Therefore, visit the website after confirming with them totally.
Tell them about your educational background, how much marks you have secured, what is your current occupation, and then the clinic will tell you if they would like to have your sample or not.
Parting words
Gone are the days when sperm donation used to be a taboo subject. Your sperm can help a family to live the dream of raising a kid. You, as a donor, play an essential life in the person’s life who will be accepting it.
You must try to remain fit and healthy, go for regular exercise, and keep yourself fit. Understand that only a suitable person can donate sperm, and the healthier you are, the better money you will be paid. Sperm donors are often compensated.
You can expect to receive a minimum of $50 if you donate your sperm. And if you are someone with no medical history, have a good family background, possess good looks, and there is no family medical history, you can even get $1000 for your sperm.
And people with quality sperm are repeatedly called by the clinic. Through sperm donation, you will also get to know many things about you, including your family medical history. Therefore it will warn you about certain genetic disorders and stay cautious.
Become a sperm donor if you think you are ready and if you qualify the necessary requirements of your clinic. We have shared all the details that we believe one should know if they are thinking about becoming a sperm donor.