Donor Insemination Treatment

Donor insemination treatment is just one option for couples facing infertility. Donor insemination is sometimes the only option for conception for some single women or women whose partner's are infertile. Donor insemination involves the insemination of a woman with donor sperm to conceive. While it doesn't necessarily cure infertility it may improve a woman's odds of conceiving.

Who Are Candidates?

Donor insemination is often a choice of infertility treatment for couples where the man doesn't produce enough quality of sperm or fertile sperm to produce a viable pregnancy. In other cases a man may carry sperm with high risk for producing offspring with various genetic defects. It is important that individuals interested in donor insemination seek the guidance of a qualified health care professional, as multiple variables are involved with donor insemination.

Sperm donors can be anyone. Most donors must meet certain criteria before they are allowed to donate sperm. These include being between the ages of 18 and 50 years usually, with quality sperm. Most sperm collection centers have rigorous screening protocols to minimize the risk that donated sperm will carry any disease or increased risk for certain genetic defects.

Donor sperm is typically screened for a host of infections including STD's like chlamydia, hepatitis, HIV antibody and syphilis. In addition sperm donors have to be blood typed and undergo various blood tests to confirm their general health and well being.

Most donors will provide up to 15 samples for collection. These samples are then frozen and donations made available for a period of six months after donation. Donations are quarantined for this period of time and retested to ensure that the donated sperm is viable, healthy and not likely to result in disease.

Do Sperm Donors Get Involved in the Fertilization Process?

Most sperm donors donate their sperm anonymously. Some donors may request they receive certain information including the number of offspring produced from their sperm or the sex of the children donated. Typically information is only shared when both parties consent to this. Couples are offered multiple choices when selecting donor sperm. Many are provided with information that doesn't identify the donor but does provide them some insight into the donors lifestyle and genetic tendencies.

Some couples for example may prefer to choose sperm donors that closely resemble their family or partner, to improve the chances that the baby they conceive will ‘fit in' with their family. Still others search for sperm donor with certain qualifications, lifestyle habits or other genetic traits.

Most couples accepting sperm donations will undergo much counseling to discuss the pros and cons of sperm donation and discuss the long term effects of conceiving a child through sperm donation.

Donor Treatment

Treatment is relatively simple. Timing is vital to donor insemination infertility treatment just as it is with IVF or other methods. Sperm that are frozen during the donor process generally have shorter life cycles than unfrozen sperm, so it is important that timing is carried out in an efficient manner. Typically a nurse will examine a patient during ovulation and insert sperm directly into the cervix or uterus around the time of ovulation. Most women will be asked to rest for a brief period of time after insemination then may go about their business

The chances of successfully conceiving using this treatment are about 20%, similar to the odds of getting pregnant using traditional means. Most couples will go on to conceive within six months of trying.