What is Donor Insemination and How Does it Work?

Donor insemination refers to the use of a sperm donor by a woman that does not have a fertile male partner. Common examples include single women, same sex couples and traditional heterosexual couples that have chosen to use a sperm because of male partner infertility or certain genetic disorders.

The insemination is performed by placing the donor sperm in or at the cervix generally referred to as ICI or Intracervical Insemination.  The other method is Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) where the sperm is inserted directly into the uterus.

If neither of these methods is feasible, In vitro fertilization (IVF) is recommended.  In this procedure an egg is removed by aspiration from the ovary, placed into a Petri dish and fertilized by the addition of sperm.

How Donor Insemination Works – An Overview:

 In general these are the steps usually recommended:

1)    Find a good doctor. The most reliable way is to find a good fertility clinic which will have trained and certified reproductive endocrinologists (RE).

Go in for a preliminary consultation – many fertility clinics offer free ones, so take your time and choose the one that makes you feel most comfortable.

If you’re unsure where to find a clinic, ask for a recommendation from friends or colleagues or go online and do a search for fertility clinics in your area. SpermCenter’s Fertility Clinic search or Find A Fertility Clinic are great resources.

2)    Once you’ve set yourself up with a clinic and doctor you like, they will give you a full physical examination and relevant laboratory testing to determine your general health and identify any factors that may adversely affect your fertility potential. 

This generally includes the determination of your blood type and screening for infectious diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, syphilis and gonorrhea. Many physicians will review your genetic history for risks and may recommend consultation with a genetics counselor.

3)    After this initial evaluation you and your doctor will discuss options for insemination such as ICI, IUI and IVF to determine which method would be best for you.

4)   Next, you will need to choose your sperm donor. It is important to remember that when you select a donor you are  also choosing a sperm bank. Both are important.

Please see our section on how to choose a sperm donor for more information about donor selection. We highly recommend you start with our Donor Wizard, which takes you step-by-step through the process of choosing a donor.

5)    After you’ve ordered your donor sperm and it’s been delivered, your doctor will perform the insemination and schedule any follow up visits. 

IVF Isn't the End of the Road for Infertile Couples

New York Daily News health and lifestyle author Katie Charles wrote an interesting article that nicely lays out other options besides IVF for those needing a helping hand to conceive.

IVF is often considered the "last line of defense" against infertility, but before you go straight to it, you may want to think about other, possibly cheaper forms of artificial insemination like Intrauterine Insemination and Intracervical Insemination.

Please follow the link below to read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2009/11/11/2009-11-11_ivf_isnt_the_only_treatment_for_couples_struggling_to_conceive.html

Self and Home Insemination

Many women prefer to perform their insemination in the privacy of home (also called self-insemination), but not all sperm banks will ship sperm directly to your home.

Some sperm banks will, but most banks require a doctor's authorization, and some sperm banks will ship only to a clinic or doctor's office.

At SpermCenter.com, we list which banks do and don't ship directly to your home. Just go to the Sperm Banks page and click on the bank's name to see detailed information.

We provide this information for your convenience, but generally, whether the bank will ship to home or not shouldn't be of major concern as long as you're working with a doctor, because you can always have the sperm shipped to your doctor, who can then give the sperm to you to take home.

Please note: Only ICI (intra-cervical insemination) can be performed at home. IUI (intra-uterine insemination) requires insertion of a catheter (tube) through which the sperm is placed directly into the uterus.

This must be done under sterile conditions, usually a doctor's office.

Whether you decide to perform insemination yourself or visit a doctor's office or clinic is a personal choice that's yours to make.

Our advice is to consult with your doctor to help you decide whether home insemination is right for you, given your specific medical issues and health history.

While home insemination can be perfectly safe, and many women routinely do it, it's also possible to harm yourself depending on what type of sperm you purchase and how you perform the insemination.

That's why we recommend that you work closely with your doctor and get as much professional advice as you can, in order to make an informed choice that's right for you.

 

Women Who Relax May Have Better Luck With IVF

A recent article from Reuters Health examines findings by researchers who say women coping with the stresss of infertility treatment by "letting go" may be twice as likely to get pregnant as those that don't.

They (being Dr. Nathalie Rapoport-Hubschman of the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva and her colleagues) suggest that techniques like meditation and similar exercises that relax you may help improve your chances.

The researchers saw a strong correlation between higher IVF success rates and what they call "emotion-focused coping," which includes the use of humor and relaxation to help yourself de-stress and let go. 

The researchers looked at 88 women undergoing IVF, 21 of whom got pregnant. The only factors that independently influenced IVF success, the researchers found, were a woman's age and whether she had high "letting go" coping levels at the beginning of the study.

So what does this mean for you? It means that rather than just dealing with the stress of trying to have a baby, think about taking a step back and thinking about what is contributing to the already monumental amount of stress you're under.

Think about doing things you enjoy that make you happy and ultimately, that help you relax. Whether this is through meditation, a movie night with the girls, a long hot bath or anything else, the more you teach yourself to let go, the easier it may be to conceive.