In this instance, we're usually in the middle of updating something on the website so things get a little jumbled. However, you know your order went through if you get two notifications. If you don't, please be sure to contact support@spermcenter.com and we'll take care of it.
#1 Confirms your payment was submitted successfully:
Order number: 123
Customer: Jane Doe - jdoe@gmail.com
Order total: $25.00
Shipping method: Standard delivery
Products:
- 1 x SpermCenter One Year Membership - Access Donor Listings Now - $25.00
SKU: 12687
Order comments:
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#2 Confirms your payment was approved
Thanks for ordering!
Your credit card has been approved in the amount of $25.00.
*** IMPORTANT: The charge will appear from SpermCenter LLC. ***
Thank you.
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Transaction ID: 40000031662424.109
Order Number: 123
How do I become a sperm donor?
Please see our page devoted to becoming a sperm donor here.
This is one of the most frequent questions we're asked on SpermCenter. The process of becoming a donor varies from bank to bank but it may generally follow this outline over several months:
1) Find a sperm bank near you. If you find one in your state but not your city, see if the bank has other branches or call them to see if they have partnerships with any fertility clinics near you.
2) Fill out an application, either online or at the sperm bank. You will be asked about your height, weight, age, ethnicity, education and anything else the banks feels is relevant.
3) If your application is accepted, you will go to your first office visit. During this visit you may be asked to provide more medical history and social information and you'll get your first semen analysis. Most banks will pay you a nominal amount, for example, $25 just for your first sample.
4) You may be asked to come back for a second visit where you will sign consent forms, get a second semen analysis if needed (and get paid again, usually about the same amount you go thte first time. If your specimen is good and they keep it, you can make $70-100), review your information, perhaps take a vision or other test, fill out your detailed profile and other similar activities.
5) During your third visit you will usually receive a physical exam where the doctor will determine if you're fit to be a donor.
6) After you've had your physical and your medical and social history has been reviewed, you will visit a fourth time. During this visit you'll get your third semen analysis and begin infectious disease screening, blood testing and urine analysis.
7) Your fifth visit or so will be to review your genetic history with the medical director of the sperm bank or other genetic professional (at the larger sperm banks, this is usually a genetic counselor) and commence genetic testing
At this point your final chart is reviewed and approved by all the necessary departments of the bank (e.g. lab, genetics department and donor department) as well as the medical director. The medical director then sings off on your chart and you're ready to go.
After you've been qualified, every donation thereafter is fairly straightforward. You will go in, give a sample and they will do a semen analysis and have you review your medical and social history.
They may test monthly for diseases like gonorrhea and chlamydia and every few months they will do more infectious disease testing and update your file. You may be asked to come in every 6 months or so for a physical examination and review.
This is just a sample scenario of the steps you may have to take. It may be longer or shorter depending on the bank you go to, but the general process is similar. Some donors have made as much as $1,100/month just by donating their semen.
What is SpermCenter.com?
SpermCenter.com is not a sperm bank. It is a search and information tool that lets you easily find sperm banks and sperm donors from across the United States. We provide information to guide you through the process of finding a sperm donor. Our goal is to provide everything you need to find a sperm bank and donor, all in one convenient place.
Why Should I Join?
Save time, reduce stress
It could take hours or days to find and search donors at all the sperm banks we cover. With SpermCenter.com, you can find the right donor in minutes. According to our member survey, 89% of members say SpermCenter.com made it easier for them to find a sperm donor.
Search nationwide
Most clinics only work with a few sperm banks because it's easier for them. But there's no need to limit yourself! You can buy sperm from any sperm bank and have it shipped to your clinic. All the sperm banks we list meet federal and state guidelines. By searching nationwide, it's easier to find donors that meet your criteria—for example, donors with rare ethnicities.
Compare Sperm Banks
It's difficult and confusing to compare the donors, features, services and fees at different sperm banks. We organize information in a common format with common terminology, so you can more easily compare.
Search from the comfort and privacy of home
Since the Internet is open 24/7, you can search any time you like, day or night, from the comfort and privacy of your own home.
We're impartial and make it easy
Our goal is to give you the impartial information you need so that you can make the choice that is best for you. We aggregate and present information that the banks themselves provide to give you the ability to find your perfect donor with ease.
How Does it Work?
SpermCenter is a free social community that offers unique tools for finding sperm donors from over 25 FDA-approved sperm banks across the U.S.A
There are two levels of membership, free and paid. Paid members can access the donor listings via the Donor Wizard and Advanced Donor Search in addition to all the community benefits enjoyed by free members. Membership is just $25 per year and is primarily to cover the costs of running SpermCenter.com.
Once you find the donor(s) you're interested in, you need to contact the sperm bank your donor belongs with to obtain more detailed information about the donor and, eventually, the sperm itself.
How Do I Find a Sperm Donor?
For first-time visitors:
There are a couple ways to find your donor on SpermCenter.com. If you’re new to the process and have just started looking for your sperm donor, consider our guided search and education tool, the Donor Wizard.
The Donor Wizard walks you through the steps to choosing a donor, going through the physical characteristics, genetic and infectious disease-screening process, other donor information like blood type and the registration/accreditations a bank must go through before they are approved.
For experienced searchers:
Check out our Advanced Donor Search. This search is fully dynamic, which means the results refresh each time you select or delete criteria for your search
Q: Can I change my username on SpermCenter? I noticed my user handle shows up in Google.
A: Yes, you can. We can do this for you, or you can do this on your own by going to "My Account" > "Edit" and changing your screen name. If you'd like us to do it for you, please send us your current user ID and the user ID you want to change to, and we can do it for you.
How much does donor sperm cost?
This question is complex as each bank has diverse fee schedules. Checking with your chosen sperm donors’ banks is the best way to get the most accurate information.
How often do you update your sperm donor listings?
We update it at least twice a week. Each donor is date/time stamped so you can see exactly when the donor was last updated.
How is a donor's sperm valued?
This question is complex as each bank has diverse fee schedules. Checking with your chosen sperm donors’ banks is the best way to get the most accurate information
Why is infectious disease screening important?
Please see our page on infectious disease screening.
Why is genetic disease screening important?
Please see our page on genetic disease screening.
Why can't I see donors' photos?
Most (but not all) sperm donors wish to remain anonymous. When they decide to donate their sperm, they sign a contract with the sperm bank.
Sometimes a donor will give the bank an adult photo on condition that it be used only for photo matching (see our glossary of fertility terms). Most sperm banks offer some kind of photo-matching service. With photo-matching, you give the bank a photo of your husband/partner or someone else, and the bank selects a donor with similar features or appearance—but you don't get to see a picture of the donor yourself. Photo-matching can range in price.
That said, some donors do allow their photo to be released, and many provide baby photos. Even when photos are available, sperm banks do not post them on the web for the general public to see; you will usually have to pay a small fee to see a baby or adult photo, often as part of a more detailed donor profile package.
At SpermCenter.com, we just let you know if there is a photo available for each donor. Look for the Photo? field in the donor's detailed profile, where it will say Yes/No. ALWAYS double check this.
If photos are important to you, it's always a good idea to ask the sperm bank if a photo is available, even if the profile says "No," because sometimes the bank gets a photo of a donor but forgets to update their database.
When is Donor Blood Type Important?
Please see our Donor Blood Type page for more information.
I’ve Found a Donor, What Do I Do Next?
If you’ve found a donor, your next step is to contact the bank your sperm donor is from. At that point the sperm bank’s client service representatives will walk you through purchasing sperm and answer any questions you have.
Here is another question from a member:
Q: Are all donors screened for all STDs and Hiv?
A: Any sperm bank HAS to be registered with the FDA by law - if they aren't, steer clear. The FDA requires that sperm donors be tested for STD's like Gonorrhea, Chlamydia and HIV, among others. For a full breakdown of what the FDA requires and reccomends, please see http://www.spermcenter.com/sites/default/files/ucm091345.pdf. Its a long document but well worth reading through if you're concerned about infectious disease screening requirements on sperm donors.
Another question from a member:
Q: How does How Does Sperm Get to Me?
A: This depends on what you mean. If you mean do they ship to you, the answer is most sperm banks do, so don't feel a need to stay local if you like a donor better from a sperm bank on the other side of the U.S. If you mean how does it get to you from the start, here's a very brief overview: you first have to choose your donor.
Then you need check with your doctor to make sure you understand what types of vials you should buy (this depends on what kind of fertility treatment you're getting), then you go online or call the sperm bank of your choice, place an order for your donor's semen, then have it shipped to you, or most often, the doctor performing the insemination.
This is a complex question and depends on a number of factors. What sperm bank you choose, what information you want before you choose your donor, what kind of vial you choose, how you have it shipped - what you pay will depend on all these things.
However, lets break down some of the common costs you're probably looking at when trying to find your sperm donor. For the purposes of this article, we aren't including fertility treatments or procedures like IUI, IVF and other forms of assisted reproductive technology.
All figures are broad averages compiled from listed prices, when available, from 9 of the top sperm banks. There's no guarantee these prices are current as we can only go off of what each sperm bank lists:
1) Sperm Donor Vials
Vials are usually priced higher if they're from open or ID Release sperm donor. Caution: don't just buy any type of vial; you need to buy the vial specifically created for your procedure (E.g. IVF, IUI, home insemination). This is a common mistake, so be sure you ask your doctor what vial type you should be ordering.
| Premium ICI | $350 | $500 |
| Premium IUI | $450 | $600 |
| ART ICI | $250 | $400 |
| ART IUI | $250 | $450 |
2) Sperm Donor Information
Many sperm banks offer all kinds of sperm donor information; the info you see here is collected from various sperm banks and by no means applies to them all. However, if you are interested in this information, these are approximately the prices you will be paying.
| Donor Information | |
| Short Profile | $0 |
| Long Profile | $20 |
| Staff Impressions | $0 |
| Donor Essay | $0 |
| Facial Features | $15 |
| Keirsey/Temperament | $19 |
| Baby Photo | $22 |
| Photo Set | $45 |
| Photo Series | $75 |
| Audio Interview | $28 |
| Handwriting Analysis | $25 |
| Silhouette | $36 |
| Medical Profile | $17 |
3) Shipping
After you order your sperm, you must have it shipped to your doctor's office or your fertility clinic. Here are some general shipping prices you might be looking at:
| Express Processing | $80 |
| Local Courier | |
| Monday--Friday | $130 |
| Saturday | $140 |
| Carrier Service | |
| 2--Day Economy | $170 |
| Priority Overnight | $200 |
| Alaska/Hawaii/Puerto Rico | $200 |
| Saturday Priority | $200 |
| International Tank Deposit | $950 |
| Order Changes | |
| Order Cancellation | $100 |
| Order Change Fee | $90 |
| Client Pickup | $40 |
Best of luck on your search!
Frequently asked questions about the Donor Wizard.
The Donor Wizard is an educational tool to help you get started on your search for your ideal sperm donor before you go to the main donor search. Through the Donor Wizard, you will learn about all the criteria people use to select a donor, from hair color and ethnic origin to blood type.
Keep in mind this is a special filtered search - what you choose in each step determines what you will see in the next step.
Steps 1-4: Learn about the physical characteristics available when selecting a donor
Step 5: Understand different sperm banks’ licenses, accreditations and registrations and why they are important when choosing your sperm donor
Step 6: Learn about the genetic testing and disease screening done on sperm donors
Steps 7-9: Choose other donor information like education, religion and blood type
Once you've gone through it once, feel free to move on to the advanced search for more flexible options.
You have to become a VIP member. You can do this by either checking out via your cart on the right hand area of your screen or by going to the checkout page here.
This special filtered search is unlike any other - it shows you results in real time. We sort all donor information (criteria) into categories like Ethnic Origin and Hair Color. When you choose different criteria, the results below refresh in real time. Easily narrow or broaden your search with a couple clicks. You never have to start over - if you change your mind, just pick different criteria.
We list all donors in alphabetical order, depending which bank they come from. This ensures you get to see all the donors from a bank that match your criteria, not just on or two. There are also some excellent sorting options, so once you get your results, feel free to play around.
Sometimes the sperm banks don't list that information for their donors. Or they might be missing the information for a specific donor. Other times, it may be that it was too difficult for us to get. In this case just click over to the donor profile. For the banks that don't have individual donor profiles or for profiles that we can't get, just copy down the donor number, click the link to the bank and search for that donor number.
Tip: If the sperm bank doesn't have a searching option, select ctrl+f in your browser and a box will pop up at the bottom of your browser. Type in the donor number there and select 'find' then click 'up' or 'down.' This is something you may encounter with some of the smaller banks with older websites.