A sperm bank, semen bank or cryobank is a facility or enterprise which purchases, stores and sells

human semen. The semen is produced and sold by men who are known as sperm donors. The sperm is
purchased by or for women for the purpose of achieving a pregnancy or pregnancies other than by a
sexual partner. Sperm sold by a sperm donor is known as donor sperm. Sperm is introduced into the
recipient woman by means of artificial insemination or by IVF and the process may also involve donated
eggs or the use of a surrogate.

A sperm bank may be a separate entity supplying donor sperm to individuals or to fertility centers or
clinics, or it may be a facility which is run by a clinic or other medical establishment mainly or exclusively
for their patients or customers.

From a medical perspective, a pregnancy achieved using donor sperm is no different from a pregnancy
achieved using partner sperm, and it is also no different from a pregnancy achieved by sexual
intercourse. By using sperm from a donor rather than from the woman's partner, the process is a form
of third party reproduction.

A sperm donor must generally meet specific requirements regarding age and medical history. In the
United States, sperm banks are regulated as Human Cell and Tissue or Cell and Tissue Bank Product
(HCT/Ps) establishments by the Food and Drug Administration. Many states also have regulations in
addition to those imposed by the FDA. In the European Union a sperm bank must have a license
according to the EU Tissue Directive.

Sperm banks provide the opportunity to have a baby to single women and coupled lesbians, and to
heterosexual couples where the male is infertile. Where a sperm bank provides fertility services directly
to a recipient woman, it may employ different methods of fertilization using donor sperm in order to
optimise the chances of a pregnancy.

A sperm bank will also aim to provide donor sperm which is safe by the checking and screening donors
and of their semen.

Some controversy stems from the fact that donors father children for others, often single women or
coupled lesbians, but usually take no part in the upbringing of such children. The issue of sperm banks
providing fertility services to single women and coupled lesbians so that they can have their own
biological children by a donor is itself, often controversial. Donors may usually not have a say in who
may be a recipient of their sperm.

A sperm donor must generally meet specific requirements regarding age and medical history.

Sperm banks typically screen potential donors for a range of diseases and disorders, including genetic
diseases, chromosomal abnormalities and sexually transmitted infections that may be transmitted
through sperm. The screening procedure generally also includes a quarantine period, in which the
samples are frozen and stored for at least 6 months after which the donor will be re-tested for the STIs.
This is to ensure no new infections have been acquired or have developed during the period of
donation. Providing the result is negative, the sperm samples can be released from quarantine and used
in treatments. Children conceived through sperm donation have a birth defect rate of almost a fifth
compared with the general population.[5]

A sperm bank takes a number of steps to ensure the health and quality of the sperm which it supplies
and it will inform customers of the checks which it undertakes, providing relevant information about
individual donors. A sperm bank will usually guarantee the quality and number of motile sperm available
in a sample after thawing. They will try to select men as donors who are particularly fertile and whose
sperm will survive the freezing and thawing process. Samples are often sold as containing a particular
number of motile sperm per millilitre, and different types of sample may be sold by a sperm bank for
differing types of use, e.g. ICI or IUI.

The sperm will be checked to ensure its fecundity and also to ensure that motile sperm will survive the
freezing process. If a man is accepted onto the sperm bank's program as a sperm donor, his sperm will
be constantly monitored, the donor will be regularly checked for infectious diseases, and samples of his
blood will be taken at regular intervals. A sperm bank may provide a donor with dietary supplements
containing herbal or mineral substances such as maca, zinc, vitamin E and arginine which are designed
to improve the quality and quantity of the donor's semen[citation needed], as well as reducing the
refractory time[citation needed] (i.e. the time between viable ejaculations). All sperm is frozen in
straws[6] or vials and stored for as long as the sperm donor may and can maintain it.

Donors are subject to tests for infectious diseases such as human immunoviruses HIV (HIV-1 and HIV-2),
human T-cell lymphotropic viruses (HTLV-1 and HTLV-2), syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, Hepatitis B
virus, Hepatitis C virus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), Trypanosoma cruzi and Malaria as well as hereditary
diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Sickle cell anemia, Familial Mediterranean fever, Gaucher's disease,
Thalassaemia, Tay–Sachs disease, Canavan's disease, Familial dysautonomia, Congenital adrenal
hyperplasia Carnitine transporter deficiency and Karyotyping 46XY.[7] Karyotyping is not a requirement
in either EU or the US but some sperm banks choose to test donors as an extra service to the customer.

A sperm donor may also be required to produce his medical records and those of his family, often for
several generations. A sperm sample is usually tested micro-biologically at the sperm bank before it is
prepared for freezing and subsequent use. A sperm donor's blood group may also be registered to
ensure compatibility with the recipient.

Some sperm banks may disallow sexually active gay men from donating sperm due to the population's
increased risk of HIV and hepatitis B. Modern sperm banks have also been known to screen out potential
donors based on genetic conditions and family medical history.

Processing sperm Edit

Sperm banks and clinics usually 'wash' the sperm sample to extract sperm from the rest of the material
in the semen. A cryoprotectant semen extender is added if the sperm is to be placed in frozen storage.
[6] One sample can produce 1–20 vials or straws, depending on the quantity of the ejaculate and
whether the sample is 'washed' or 'unwashed'. 'Unwashed' samples are used for intracervical
insemination (ICI) treatments, and 'washed' samples are used in intrauterine insemination (IUI) and for
in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures

Storage Edit

Further information: Semen cryopreservation

The sperm is stored in small vials or straws holding between 0.4 and 1.0 ml of sperm and cryogenically
preserved in liquid nitrogen tanks.[6] It has been proposed that there should be an upper limit on how
long frozen sperm can be stored; however, a baby has been conceived in the United Kingdom using
sperm frozen for 21 years[14] and andrology experts believe sperm can be frozen indefinitely.[15] The
UK government places an upper limit for storage of 55 years.[16]

Before freezing, sperm may be prepared (washed or left unwashed) so that it can be used for
intracervical insemination (ICI), intrauterine insemination (IUI) or for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or assisted
reproduction technologies (ART).
Following the necessary quarantine period, which is usually 6 months, a sample will be thawed and used
to artificially inseminate a woman or used for another assisted reproduction technologies (ART)
treatment

Uses

Men may also store their own sperm at a sperm bank for future use particularly where they anticipate
traveling to a war zone or having to undergo chemotherapy which might damage the testes.

Sperm from a sperm donor may also be used in surrogacy arrangements and for creating embryos for
embryo donation. Donor sperm may be supplied by the sperm bank directly to the recipient to enable a
woman to perform her own artificial insemination which can be carried out using a needleless syringe or
a cervical cap conception device. The cervical cap conception device allows the donor semen to be held
in place close to the cervix for between six and eight hours to allow fertilization to take place.
Alternatively, donor sperm can be supplied by a sperm bank through a registered medical practitioner
who will perform an appropriate method of insemination or IVF treatment using the donor sperm in
order for the woman to become pregnant.

Sex selection Edit

Some sperm banks enable recipients to choose the sex of their child, through methods of sperm sorting.
Although the methods used do not guarantee 100% success, the chances of being able to select the
gender of a child are held to be considerably increased.

One of the processes used is the 'swim up' method, whereby a sperm extender is added to the donor's
freshly ejaculated sperm and the test-tube is left to settle. After about half-an-hour, the lighter sperm,
containing the male chromosome pair (XY), will have swum to the top, leaving the heavier sperm,
containing the female chromosome pair (XX), at the bottom, thus allowing selection and storage
according to sex.

The alternative process is the Percoll Method which is similar to the 'swim up' method but involves
additionally the centrifuging of the sperm in a similar way to the washing of samples produced for IUI
inseminations, or for IVF purposes..

Collection Edit
A sperm donor will usually be required to enter into a contract with a sperm bank to supply his semen,
typically for a period of six to twenty-four months depending on the number of pregnancies which the
sperm bank intends to produce from the donor. If a sperm bank has access to world markets e.g. by
direct sales, or sales to clinics outside their own jurisdiction, a man may donate for a longer period than
two years, as the risk of consanguinity is reduced (although local laws vary widely). Some sperm banks
with access to world markets impose their own rules on the number of pregnancies which can be
achieved in a given regional area or a state or country, and these sperm banks may permit donors to
donate for four or five years, or even longer.

The contract may also specify the place and hours for donation, a requirement to notify the sperm bank
in the case of acquiring a sexual infection, and the requirement not to have intercourse or to masturbate
for a period of usually 2–3 days before making a donation.