Sperm costs

[judecorp]

Just for giggles, I decided to check the fees/costs at the sperm bank we used to conceive Punk.

I think we paid something like $280-$300/sample in 2006.

Now the same samples are $500! HOLY CRAP!

Freaking insanity.

Comments

[maphia.livejournal.com]

yikes. that's scary to know.

[childlight.livejournal.com]

We spent over $700 last year on one sample.

[crushinator.livejournal.com]

That's strange... I can't seem to give the stuff away! Ha!

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

Every now and then you hear about a couple turning to a friend and employing the turkey baster method. It always gets a giggle in the news, but let's be blunt here, when the stuff is that expensive I suspect a lot of people are willing to go for the lower tech technique.

What do the guys providing the sample get out of the deal? Last I checked it was about $25 a shot. That's one hell of a markup.

[rexlezard.livejournal.com]

Consider, too, that each "shot" makes more than one sample. By my guess, probably around 5 each shot. That's $2500. I know the sperm banks have expenses, but it seems ridiculous.

PS I stole my icon from a Boston-area sperm bank

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should start selling mine on the open market. We could start a commodities sexchange.

Re: PS I stole my icon from a Boston-area sperm bank

[crushinator.livejournal.com]

That is actually a brilliant idea. The craigslist of sperm donation.

Re: PS I stole my icon from a Boston-area sperm bank

[oddharmonic.livejournal.com]

I stole my icon from a fridge magnet that has a speech bubble reading "I love you more than sh*t" on it.

If there were a commodities sexchange, they could happily have all my eggs since I'm done using them.

Re: PS I stole my icon from a Boston-area sperm bank

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

This would give the term "fresh squeezed" a whole new meaning.

[(Anonymous)]

"each "shot" makes more than one sample."

WTF?????

I've had cars that cost less than that. Admittedly they were crummy cars but STILL.

[colleenod.livejournal.com]

Look, most sperm banks are for-profit ventures. (There is one non-profit, but that doesn't mean cheaper. Not at all.) I am not acting as if they're not in it for the money.

But it's not as simple as provide a sample in a cup. They have staff who interview potential donors, collect info and detailed health histories, handle transactions, etc., and they deserve a living wage clearly. Some places turn away a lot of donors and frankly, I don't trust banks that don't. So, it's not as simple as "wanna donate? here's a cup."

Then the law requires that donors get tested for HIV (and possibly other STDs and genes such as that for cystic fibrosis, Tay Sachs, etc. depending on the donor's risk factors), then the sperm is frozen and quarantined for 6 months by law, then the donor is retested for HIV after 6 months. HIV has an incubation period, so the law requires this. That costs money. Storing the samples is not cheap either. And many banks also do things like... restrict use of donors to a certain number of families.

Each state has its own laws and regulations and banks need to register or something and prove they've met these before being able to ship to certain states. I know this because some banks will not ship to NY, where I live, because the regulations are some of the toughest in the nation. So, I assume they gotta hire lawyers to deal with those types of things, too.

All but one bank is for-profit, so sure there's a huge markup. But the non-profit bank I know about actually does research about the children of anonymous donors, about the best ways to handle it if a child later meets an anonymous donor, about the best ways to handle it if a child or family wants to meet bio half-sibs conceived with the same donor, and about how children are conceived using donor sperm (IUI? at-home, IVF? with meds? no meds?) so they can provide stats to their future clients.

I guess my point is... it's not as simple as provide a sample in a cup. I can't speak for other banks, but I like my bank and I think my bank does some good stuff with the money.

As for using a friend, a lot of folks would *like* to do that and many do and I think it's awesome when it works out. But it's not always so easy to find someone willing to do that. And I get why. And even if you can, it opens both parties up to potential legal complications (the donor has to trust you won't sue for paternity and the family has to trust that the donor won't change his mind and demand parental rights -- you can do a donor contract, but most lawyers say it won't hold up in court -- we don't recognize people legally until after birth, so whatever arrangement made pre-birth is about someone who the law doesn't yet recognize -- complicated). Anyway, there has to be A LOT of trust on both sides to go that route. It also complicates 2nd parent adoptions by the non-bio partner. It's much easier to convince the courts that no one has parental rights if you used an anonymous donor than if you need to get affidavits from a friend saying he doesn't want parental rights. Not terribly. People can still do it, and they do. I know several kids conceived with known donors and it all worked out great.

I guess my point is...it's potentially complicated.

And personally, I don't think half my future kid's DNA is something I'd go too bargain basement on.

[rexlezard.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of what you said. I still hold to my assertion that the profit margins are ridiculous, and that the two mainstream US banks I looked into, I didn't like their policies (Xytec and Fairfax which operates as Can-Am Cryo, I believe, were the only two available to me - I was in Canada at the time) I finally went with a smaller, Canadian bank because I liked their policies much better. The cost was also approximately half of Xytec and Fairfax.

As for the known donor thing. . . it's not true that there is no legal protection. The US legal system rules by precedent, and is supposed to rule in the best interest of the child in these situations. What is true is that there has not been (until *very* recently) a test of a donor agreement in court.

Recently, there was a court case and the court agreed that the donor contract was enforceable. This is a good thing, it means there are possibilities for KD contract enacted outside of the fertility industry.

Also, in certain states, notably California, the law is that if a doctor performs the insem, the donor's status as a donor stands.

Anyway, I agree with you on most things, but I still stand by my opinion that donor sperm is way too pricey - and they're hoping that their customers will agree with the idea that it's somewhat crass or negligent to look for a deal on half of your kid's DNA...but the flip side of that is that by paying more, you necessarily get better sperm. Or better genes. Or end up with a better kid. None of which is true.

[colleenod.livejournal.com]

That's great about the recent court case and donor agreements. We gave up on the KD thing long ago, so admittedly, I haven't been following that so much and didn't know about the case. I do know it would've been more complicated for us to do the 2nd parent adoption of our son in NY had we used a known donor though. Not impossible and if we had the right KD, we would've done it. But more complex in NY state, where we gotta do a home study and all that to adopt our partners' children.

I'm not sure about what you say about the doctor performing an insem in California. Are there doctors who will perform insems in CA if you use a known donor and admit it, and don't lie and claim the donor is a husband or boyfriend? A few years ago, a friend of ours had to lie to a doctor in CA to get an insem done with their known donor with whom they'd been trying unsuccessfully doing at-home insems. I have had other friends in that boat, too. Or have had friends told that the doctor will do the insem, but only if the donor tests negative for HIV, the sperm is frozen and quarantined, and the donor is then retested 6 months later. Maybe you just have to find a clinic or doctor who doesn't care. But some definitely do.

And my comment about bargain basement sperm was more directed at the thought of buying it for $50 on Craigslist. I don't think paying more guarantees a better kid. But personally, I was happier to pay a little more to use a small bank that is very selective with their donors and where the staff knows all the donors personally, than to use some big anonymous corporate entity. That's just my bent, though.

I'm sure the profit margins are insane. But that's the fertility industry in general, I think. People desperate for babies... let's take advantage!

[jactitation.livejournal.com]

The Cali known donor thing: the only thing issue, actually, is that the recipient cannot receive the sperm directly from the donor. A doctor acts as intermediary (in my case, literally taking the jar from the donor's hand and passing it to me) and that "medicalizes" it and, as rexlizard says, the legal precedant system has protected this as "donor sperm."

However the trick is finding a doctor because the process of medicalizing transfers all risk to them. That is, if the recipient contracts a STD or has a baby with disabilities that can be argued to come from the donor, and then flips out over it, the doc can be sued for malpractice. That's why, in my case, it was very lucky for me that my KD was a doc with doc friends, and convinced them that our 20+-year friendship made it unlikely that I was going to flip out and put them at risk.

It's the medicalization that creates the risk, whether the doc is simply handing it over or doing the actual insem. Cali docs are not barred from doing non-married insems, they just may not have enough insurance or not want to take on the risk.

But back to $500 a sample spermies. YIKES! I think it's time for a non-profit org to start coordinating the state-by-state legalities of KD insems, and maybe even doing a hook-up service.

re: same sample

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Do you mean "same exact donor" or "similar donor"? There's a supply and demand issue that would explain why the same exact donor's sperm would go up in price - it's known to suuccessfully conceive and bring a baby to term *and* is in decreased supply.

Re: same sample

[rexlezard.livejournal.com]

They typically price by category.

Joe average donor is $300 - 500 per vial, plus shipping, sometimes an account starting fee, a rental fee or security deposit for the tank, etc. . . .

Some banks have sperm from people who hold PhDs or MDs in a "premium" category, again, all at the same price, usually about $100-200 more per vial.

They also charge more for donors who are willing to be identified to the child when the kid is 18. Typically, about $100 more per vial.

But they don't price it per donor, like let's charge $400 for Joe and $800 for Bob, though they do discount some vials and call them "ART only" which means (I think) that they're half vials suitable for IVF. They seem to run 2/3 - half as much.

[lunapoppy.livejournal.com]

crazy...for something that is so plentiful...

[katishna.livejournal.com]

yes but would you take sperm from just ANYONE? :)

[geniusorafool.livejournal.com]

If your friends who have commented above *do* go forward and start some sort of competitive / rival sperm exchange, be sure to let me know. I wouldn't mind supplementing my income.

[katishna.livejournal.com]

"sample" makes it sound like you get to try it before you buy it :)

[somerandomchic.livejournal.com]

It is just outrageous. Our donor donated at the clinic for us to do IVF, an they split his 2 donations into TEN samples. Just to give you some perspective. It was cheaper to ship a man and feed/house him for a few days per cycle.

[mind-the-gap.livejournal.com]

Jude, I realize you don't know who I am. I've been reading your blog since you used to post in the fertility forums and I always thought you had interesting, intelligent things to say. Anyway, I had to respond to this post because my husband and I are about to use donor sperm, and I agree with you that the prices are completely excessive! Do you have any advice on how many vials to buy at a time, since the shipping is so expensive? My doctor suggested 3.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Most of the time, an RE will suggest three. REs tend to do a lot of things in 3s and then switch them up if they don't work. I'm not sure why 3 is the magic number, but it comes up a lot.

When we did all of this the first time, we actually tried 3 different donors. When we ordered the first donor, we ordered 3 samples at the recommendation of our RE. After 2 cycles, it was clear that the counts of sperm were not great and even though we had one sample left, we changed donors. The new donor we chose had 4 samples left at the bank so we bought them all. By this time, our RE was doing 2 IUIs/cycle so we used the 4 samples in 2 unsuccessful cycles. Then we bought 2 more samples of someone else for one more round (we were moving and it was our last round), and it worked.

This time around we are working with a new RE clinic, and she recommended 3 samples, too.

I think in some ways it depends on your plans. Are you thinking you want to have multiple children with this donor? If so, you might want to buy more for the future. Are you thinking that sperm is really expensive and you need to prepare for the costs? If so, 3 is a good number - it allows for a few tries and it saves on shipping sperm every month.

I hope that helps and it's nice to meet you!!

[mind-the-gap.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the info, and for sharing some of your experiences. I think we're just going to start with 3 vials. I start my Clomid on Thursday. Getting excited!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Good luck, I hope you are a one-timer!! :)

[(Anonymous)]

Hello again! We did the IUI today. Crossing my fingers... but I was just wondering if you went about your normal day afterward or if you tried to rest.

[mind-the-gap.livejournal.com]

The above was from me - forgot I wasn't logged in!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Hi! Most of the time I did whatever regular stuff... but I'm not a construction worker or anything so it wasn't like I was doing anything strenuous.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

[miss-tit.livejournal.com]

we are just starting the process and noticed that most places (due to quantities, they say) have what i call "valu-time" sperm. they rotate people in and out of that group so it is not indicative of the quality, and it is cheaper.. 250-350 per vial. it limits the selection of course (esp for me b/c i have a negative blood type and so im limited to begin with) but every little savings helps. this process is crazy expensive but looking at the end result... i cant think of a better reason to spend money!