We received the 3 long donor profiles we ordered yesterday. That makes a total of 5 that we have right now. We like 3 of the 5 and have a decision to make regarding who to use of our top 2. We’re going to order 3 vials at a time, because third time’s the charm, and if it hasn’t happened by then, I’m going to want to switch donors.
Some of the issues that have come up are:
- One of our top 2 donors is a smoker (less than 10 cigs a day). The other is not, therefore, I’m tempted to go with the latter. We’ve read that smoking can effect both the fertilization ability of sperm, as well as increase the percentage of miscarriages by 60%! Even when taking this data with a grain of salt (I mean, we did find it on the interweb), the instance of smoking will definitely not *help* anything. Anyone using a donor who smokes or gotten pregnant by a donor who smokes? The smoking donor is still in the running because we like everything else about him, but I don’t want to be wasting money.
- Nutella has a second-degree relative with schizophrenia. That alone is not a big deal, but surprisingly, one of our donors also has a second degree relative with schizophrenia, and that was enough for us to cross him out. We just don’t want to add those genes to the mix.
- Some of our donors donated a loooong time ago. I’ve read that we should consider using “newer” samples. Anyone have any information on older frozen sperm not working as well? Has anyone used or is anyone currently using older samples?
- Apparently, we need to make sure the sperm banks are licensed to ship sperm to our state. We know one is, but we’ve got to call the other.
– Strawberry
1 In Vermillion 
I had complete success getting pregnant by a donor who smoked! However, I’d like to avoid it in the future if possible. 😛
In all seriousness, I think it’s true about cigarette smoke damaging the swimmers. I’ll look it up in “What to Expect” when I get home — they have a chapter for couples planning for a baby that discusses in/fertility issues to some extent.
Thanks, Mel. You’ll have to let us know. Since frozen sperm already has a lower chance of fertilizing an egg, I really don’t want to add even more negative factors in.
Hi there. Found you through “Two Hot Mamas.” I don’t know abt smoking. In general, I’d say it’s definitely NOT ideal. However, the sperm banks put them through so much testing, and they’ve got to be strong sperm if they make it through the freezing. (I’ve heard that more than half of potential donors are rejected by the sperm banks b/c their stuff isn’t strong enough to survive the freezing.) So if he’s in the bank, he must have pretty good sperm, right? I don’t know, just saying that if he is your hands down, far and away favorite, the impact of the smoking may be negligible. Not that I’d want to encourage you do something that seems unhealthy. Interestingly, my partner and I rejected a guy with schizophrenia in his family, too. That was a definite ‘no fly zone’ for us. It’s a fascinating process, isn’t it? Learning what is a definite “no way” for you and what you’re flexible about?
Hi Lizzie, I’ve actually been lurking on your blog for a while. Thanks for joining us over here! I hope you get your BFP soon. You are switching RE’s right?
It is interesting what things we rate as disqualifiers when choosing a donor. Right now our 2 top choices are either a) smoker or b) been in storage a long time. It seems that both factors have an impact but we aren’t sure how much. I am getting my CMV screen done today. If I am negative, that will eliminate the smoker, since he’s +.
Hi ladies! I did a little research, but unfortunately didn’t come up with any good numbers. “What To Expect” says that smoking reduces the number of sperm, plus “making conception harder” (DJ says that probably means reduced motility — ie., the swimmers don’t kick as hard).
10 cigarettes a day is GROSS. But is that the lowest category the donor could put? I mean, could “less than ten” mean “usually about one and a half a day”? Because that probably makes a difference.
Maybe if everything else is perfect, you could put that donor on the B list.
Mel, it was either “none” or ” < 10″ and so on. So yeah, the donor could’ve smoked one a day or 9 a day…who knows. Hopefully it was on the lesser end.
Of course, if Nutella is CMV-, we can’t use him anyway. We’ll get her results next week hopefully.
I still like the other donor better…but it’s really the issues of either the smoking or the age of the sample that are big factors in our choice. Other than those, I’d be pretty happy with either donor, except I find one to be closer to my background than the other.