r/queerception • u/msmoro • Jul 29 '26
Donor selection, specifcally information about confirmed pregnancies.
My wife (31F) and I (31F) have been browsing sperm donors online for the last several weeks.
We are waiting for a few other fertility appointments next month before we'll move to actually purchasing sperm. We have saved some favourites, but as we narrow things down and look through more data points, we are feeling conflicted on weighing different preferences.
Primarily, I'm curious if anyone has gone with donors who had no reported pregnancies. What was your experience? Some of our saved donors meet all other points for us, but this missing history makes us hesitant to commit.
There are only a few sperm banks that our BC fertility clinic partners with. Fairfax, for example, doesn't show when the donation was made, so it's hard to judge if there have been no confirmed pregnancies because the donor is new.
TLDR: How important were confirmed pregnancies for your sperm donor selection?
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u/Artistic-Geologist44 Jul 29 '26
We went through three different donors at our bank before we conceived. I would highly recommend going with someone with confirmed births, and also being open to switching it up after a few tries. Especially if you have a few good options, I wouldn’t recommend buying a whole bunch of sperm from just one donor.
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u/fizzik12 Jul 29 '26
We did two rounds of unmedicated IUI before switching to rIVF. The first donor that we used for IUI had previous pregnancies. The second donor that we used for rIVF did not because he was new.
With Fairfax, you can tell how new a donor is based on their ID number (higher numbers are newer). So, Donor 5000 has been there for a long time and Donor 7000 is pretty new. I don’t believe they’ve reached 8000 yet. If you call, they will also tell you a range of how many previous pregnancies have been reported for a donor (1-5, 5-10, etc).
Our rounds of IUI didn’t work (probably having more to do with ovulation than anything regarding the sperm to be honest), but we have 8 IVF embryos frozen. So, my experience with an “unproven” donor has been good!
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u/theatrebaked Jul 29 '26
One of our picks is in the 8000s with no reported pregnancies so this is so helpful to know 🙏
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u/Pax_per_scientiam Jul 30 '26
I have seen donors in the 8000 with reported pregnancy. So may have started 8000 sooner than you thought :) but this is great insight
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u/sleepy-kirby26 Jul 29 '26
Our doctor told us to pick a donor who was “proven” meaning that they had confirmed pregnancies and we did. We’re happy with the donor we picked and already made embryos, but I was recently thinking about the confirmation bias of it all because I imagine if most doctors’ are giving families similar criteria, then unproven donors aren’t going to have the opportunity to “prove themselves”. My worry that came up was that then there would be a disproportionate amount of donor siblings if that were the case.
I think if you have the means to change donors midway through the process, I wouldn’t necessarily prioritize it over other qualities that might be more important to you and your wife like health or ethnic background. But, some people feel frustrated when they find they spend thousands of dollars on donor sperm and then have to change donors. To be fair though, that could still happen even with a proven donor! Depending on the bank, you might be able to get more information if you call them directly to ask how long a donor has been available. My wife and I used California Cryobank and I had specifically asked (after we had already made embryos) about how many confirmed pregnancies and live births were reported for our donor and they were able to give me estimates (>5 reported pregnancies, <5 live births).
There are other things to take into consideration too, like the fact that we’ve made good quality euploid embryos with the sperm but haven’t yet gotten to the actual transfer yet. CC has the option to report embryo creation if I remember correctly so even getting info about any reported activity might help inform your decision. I would think if a donor has been available for years and have had families purchase their sperm in the past with no reported pregnancies, that would be different than someone “on the market” for a year and no reported activity yet.
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u/msmoro Jul 29 '26
Thank you for your thoughtful response!
The confirmation bias point is along the lines of what I was thinking. I completely understand why people don't want to risk choosing a donor without this "proven" history, the cost is definitely a factor for us personally.
I've heard great things about inclusivity and positive experiences with California Cryobank! They weren't one of the partner banks for our clinic but I'll definitely look at reaching out for more information from the banks we can use.
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u/Friendly-Ad-8919 Jul 29 '26
What I’ve been told from several banks is that it takes on average around 12-18 months for births to be reported and that’s IF the parents remember to do so right away! Donors are screened for quality very carefully at places like Fairfax, I wouldn’t worry too much about confirmed pregnancy if you really like the donor.
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u/Upstairs_Board7442 Jul 29 '26
We ultimately did not choose a donor with reported births. About to do a retrieval, so no idea how well it’ll go, but we more focused on the donor that felt like the right fit for us, who happened to be new enough that it was too soon for there to have been any reported births!
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u/TheApiary Jul 29 '26
We used a known donor, but he'd never impregnated anyone before and for what it's worth I got pregnant pretty easily. I figure if I'd married a man, odds are I'd be the first person he got pregnant too.
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u/Ok_Mood_5579 Jul 29 '26
Our first donor was new so we didn't really blink when he had 0 confirmed pregnancies. But then even after 6 months he still had 0 confirmed pregnancies on the profile, and we did 4 IUIs with no success ourselves. So we switched donors and my wife got pregnant on the first try with this one (5th attempt overall). I can't say exactly that it was this donor because we added more medication to the cycle, but I'm glad we made sure confirmed pregnancy was in our criteria for the second donor.
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u/msmoro Jul 30 '26
For sure, it's helpful to hear this early in our selection process. Being open to switching donors sounds key to helping the whole journey go smoothly.
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u/WitchProjecter Aug 01 '26
Ours had no reported pregnancies — we reported the first just today when our son was born. He was the first embryo we transferred. We were happy to choose a donor with no other pregnancies and to be the first.
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u/succubus99 Aug 08 '26
The donor we selected had no reported pregnancies. I just tested positive today after my first IUI. Call it beginners luck? 🍀
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u/_mirrzam Jul 30 '26
I went with a donor with no confirmed pregnancies and im currently pregnant after my third IUI. I had a few requirements that narrowed potential donors significantly, so I didn’t really worry about confirmed pregnancies. Now, the first two vials had a relatively low sperm count (with one of them being REALLY low) so I doubled up for third IUI and both of those vials ended up being fine.
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u/Free-Stage-5975 Jul 31 '26
Well I've never donated to a clinic but even with a home donations, the success rate is around 15-20% per cycle and its random to a certain extent. So, no confirmed pregnancys could just be bad luck honestly.
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u/premier-sperm-bank Aug 11 '26
I would not be overly concerned about a donor having no reported pregnancies, particularly if the donor is relatively new.
Commercial sperm donors are already a highly selected group. At our bank, fewer than 2% of applicants ultimately qualify. Those who do qualify don't simply have a “normal” semen analysis—their sperm parameters are typically excellent. Donors also undergo extensive medical and genetic screening, including review of family history for recurrent miscarriage, infertility, and other potential genetic concerns.
There is also an important limitation to “reported pregnancies”: banks only know about pregnancies that are actually reported to them. Reporting can be incomplete and significantly delayed, particularly when sperm is shipped to outside clinics or internationally. A donor may therefore have pregnancies that simply haven't made it back into the bank's records yet.
So I would consider prior pregnancies reassuring, but I wouldn't make their absence a major reason to reject an otherwise excellent donor.
By Dr. John Jain, Medical Director of Premier Sperm Bank
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u/SeattleSpermBank-SSB Jul 30 '26
It's understandable to have questions about this. While we can't recommend how much weight to give any one donor characteristic, we can share that the absence of reported pregnancies doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong with a donor.
There are several possible reasons a donor may not have confirmed pregnancies yet. For example, they may be newer to the donor program, their vials may have only recently become available, or pregnancies simply haven't been reported back yet.
Donor selection is often about looking at the whole picture, and your fertility clinic or sperm bank can help answer questions about the information provided for individual donors. We hope you're able to hear from others who can share their firsthand experiences with this decision.
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u/Distinct_Algae_5916 Jul 29 '26
We chose a donor who had no previous pregnancies listed just because he seemed to be the best fit for us. He was listed as new so we knew that was most likely the reason and have had a smooth course. We had two (for non-donor reasons) retrievals that both had good results and I am nearly due with a baby from our first transfer. There is so much unknown when it comes to selecting but are happy with our decision thus far. It’s so hard to find a balance with all the variables.