FCC Fertility Blog

Whether you’ve decided to use donor sperm to build your family or if you’re considering becoming a donor yourself, there are still plenty of rumors out there regarding donation and using donor sperm.

Sperm banks in countries such as the U.K. and China are anxious to grow their sperm donor databases. As more couples and individuals look to grow their families using third-party reproduction, there is a higher need for donated sperm. The U.K.’s national sperm bank is currently overdrawn due to a combination of fewer donors and this increased need for sperm.

We understand that the decision to use a sperm donor to build your family may have come after a long journey - one filled with many important decisions about fertility testing, treatment and third-party reproduction. Making a decision to use a donor isn’t always clear-cut, but now that it’s done, you’ll need to select the right sperm bank to find a donor.

Types of storage offered at FCC:

Egg Storage (oocytes) is for all women concerned with their future fertility, including cancer patients, those with high-risk careers (military personnel, fire fighters, police officers), high-impact athletes, transgender clients, and those who have not yet found a life partner. In 2012, the ASRM lifted the experimental label on egg freezing and now considers it an accepted and recommended method.

At the Fertility Center of California (FCC), we work with sperm donors and future parents to keep the sperm donation process as simple and straightforward as possible for all parties. Even though it is far less of a complex procedure for men to donate sperm than for women to donate eggs, that doesn’t mean potential sperm donors won’t have questions about the process.

Whether or not your partner and you used a sperm donor to have a baby, children are prone to ask “Where did I come from?”

It’s a completely understandable question, one that parents often struggle to answer, even those who conceived naturally. Explaining reproduction to your child can be tricky – many parents want to offer age-appropriate, but honest answers – yet how do you find the right balance? Especially, when adding the concept of sperm donation into the mix?

Sometimes, when a patient is experiencing a fertility issue, it may be a symptom or side effect of a more serious health condition. In the case of a recent patient, the patient’s fertility concerns led Dr. Bastuba to detect the beginning stages of a severe problem, which permitted immediate treatment before the condition became life threatening.

Talking to a fertility specialist when you are having difficulty conceiving can seem like a big step. Many couples are surprised when they are not able to conceive and often assume the reason is a female fertility issue (a common misconception). Reasons for infertility are split about equally, 1/3 female factor, 1/3 male factor and 1/3 unexplained.

The latest hot topic in science news is at the center of some controversy, and spotlights current innovations in fertility treatments: Three donor In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Many news outlets are eager to share personal opinions on this life-changing procedure, and some even scrutinize it to a demeanor of a “wacky sci-fi plot”. However, such demeaning connotations to breakthrough research that creates opportunities for healthy future families should not be abashed so hastily. As Albert Einstein once said, “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it”.

Dr. Martin Bastuba and Dr. Peter Hanson have recently joined forces to work on the scarcely researched field of cryopreservation of adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells. The newly founded team has acquired grant support from the Cell Surgical Network (CSN) in their innovative pursuit of stem cell storage.