Sperm Donor Photos

Can I see what the donor looks like?

Usually not

Many of our members ask, "Can I see photos of the sperm donors?" The answer usually is: no.

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. Usually, one of the terms in the contract is that the bank agrees to keep the donor's identity private. Some donors do agree to release their identity when any offspring becomes an adult, usually in 18 years. (See our tutorial on ID Release Donors). This doesn't mean you can see the donor's photo now.

That said, some donors do provide photos. For example, they may provide baby photos, child photos or even adult photos. Among these, adult photos are rare; at the time of this writing, only 31 donors out of over 1500 agreed to release their adult photos. Some banks provide "lifetime" or "lifespan" photosets—that is, several photos spanning the donor's lifetime from infancy to adulthood. Whatever photos are available—baby, child, adult or lifespan—you may have to pay the sperm bank an additional fee to obtain them.

Sometimes a donor will give the bank an adult photo on condition that it be used only for photo matching (see our glossay 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 from free to several hundred dollars.

At spermcenter.com, we don't show photos online, but we do list which kinds of photos (baby, adult, lifespan, photo-match) are available for each donor. Look for the Photo Available? field in the donor's detailed profile. 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.

And remember: tall, dark and handsome is nice, but beauty is only skin deep!

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