Getting a sperm donor typically involves choosing between two main paths: purchasing sperm from a commercial cryobank or arranging a donation from someone you know. Each route has different costs, legal requirements, and timelines, but both can lead to a healthy pregnancy when handled correctly. Here’s how the process works from start to finish.
Sperm Bank vs. Known Donor
A sperm bank (also called a cryobank) is the most common route. You browse donor profiles online, select a donor, and have frozen sperm shipped to your doctor’s office. The bank handles all medical screening, genetic testing, and identity verification. This is the simplest option legally, since commercial banks operate under federal regulations that clearly establish the donor has no parental rights.
A known donor is someone in your life, such as a friend or family member, who agrees to provide sperm. Some intended parents choose this route because they want the child to have a relationship with the donor, or because using a relative of a non-biological parent gives both partners a genetic connection to the baby. There’s no cost for the sperm itself, but you’ll need to pay for independent medical screening and legal agreements. The legal side is more complex, and skipping it can create serious problems down the road.
How to Choose a Donor From a Sperm Bank
Sperm banks offer two tiers of donor profiles. A basic profile includes race, ethnicity, eye color, hair color, height, weight, blood type, and education level. An extended profile adds personal background, detailed physical descriptions, health and family history, personality assessments, photos, a handwritten greeting, a voice recording, and even a staff impression where a bank employee describes what the donor is like in person.
You’ll also choose between two donor identity options. An anonymous donor’s identity is never shared with you or your child. An open ID donor (sometimes called “identity release”) has agreed to let the child access identifying information once the child turns 18, potentially allowing future contact. Many cryobanks are shifting toward open ID systems, and a growing number of donors now opt in. If the possibility of your child knowing their biological origins matters to you, an open ID donor is worth considering, though there’s no guarantee the donor will want a relationship at that point.
Banks screen donors more thoroughly than most people realize. Beyond infectious disease testing, donors fill out extensive questionnaires about their medical history, family health patterns, lifestyle, and personal traits. As one fertility clinic puts it, cryobanks often know more about their donors than the donors know about themselves.
What Screening and Testing Is Required
The FDA mandates that all donor sperm be tested for HIV-1 and HIV-2, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea. Donors are also screened for risk factors related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other transmissible conditions. For anonymous donors, there’s an additional safety step: the sperm is quarantined for at least six months, then the donor is retested before the sample is released for use. This waiting period catches infections that might not show up on initial testing.
Genetic screening is not federally required but is standard practice at most reputable banks. Many test for conditions like cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, and spinal muscular atrophy. If you’re using a known donor, you’ll need to arrange this testing independently through a fertility clinic, which adds time and cost to the process.
The Legal Agreement You Need
If you’re using a sperm bank, the legal framework is largely built in. The bank’s contracts establish that the donor has no parental rights and no financial responsibility for any resulting child, while the intended parents assume full legal and financial responsibility.
If you’re using a known donor, a formal legal agreement is essential. Every state has its own laws about sperm donation, who qualifies as a legal parent, and what conditions must be met for a donation to be legally recognized. A solid agreement should cover the donor’s acknowledgment that they will have no parental or guardianship rights, the intended parents’ exclusive parental rights and responsibilities, conditions for terminating or amending the agreement, and which state’s laws govern the contract. Work with an attorney who specializes in assisted reproductive technology. This is not an area where a generic template is sufficient.
Ordering and Receiving Sperm
Once you’ve selected a donor from a bank, you order vials online or by phone. Sperm is shipped in a specialized nitrogen vapor tank that keeps vials frozen for up to seven days from the ship date. Orders placed by midday typically ship the same business day and arrive within one to two days. The tank ships directly to your doctor’s office, where staff check that the vials are still frozen on arrival. If a vial has thawed, it must be used immediately or discarded since refreezing destroys the sperm.
Shipping fees usually include a prepaid return label for the tank. You’ll want to coordinate your order with your fertility clinic so the sperm arrives close to your treatment date.
How Donor Sperm Is Used
Most people using donor sperm start with intrauterine insemination, or IUI. A concentrated sperm sample is placed directly into the uterus using a thin catheter, bringing sperm closer to the egg and bypassing barriers in the vagina and cervix. The procedure takes just a few minutes and doesn’t require anesthesia.
If IUI doesn’t work after several cycles, or if there’s an underlying fertility issue, IVF is the next step. IVF involves stimulating the ovaries with hormone injections for about two weeks to mature multiple eggs, retrieving those eggs under anesthesia, and fertilizing them with sperm in a lab to create embryos. IVF has higher success rates per cycle but is significantly more expensive and physically demanding.
For people without an underlying infertility diagnosis, fertility specialists typically recommend starting with IUI since it’s less invasive and less costly. IVF can increase the chances of achieving pregnancy sooner, but it’s not always necessary.
Success Rates Per Cycle
IUI with donor sperm has a success rate of roughly 10 to 20 percent per cycle. Age is the biggest factor: women under 30 tend to see rates closer to 20 percent, while those between 30 and 40 are closer to 10 percent. That may sound low for a single attempt, but the cumulative odds improve quickly. Most fertility specialists estimate about a 40 percent chance of pregnancy within three IUI cycles.
Because multiple attempts are common, it’s smart to purchase more than one vial upfront. Many people buy two to four vials at a time and store extras at their clinic or the bank.
What It Costs
Sperm vial prices have risen sharply. A 2025 analysis published in Fertility and Sterility found that the median cost of a single IUI-prepared vial is now $1,625, with prices ranging from about $1,170 to $2,195 depending on the bank and donor type. Open ID donors tend to cost more than anonymous donors. Vials prepared for IVF run slightly less, with a median around $1,337.
These prices represent a 40 to 80 percent increase over just two years. At one bank tracked in the study, an IUI vial that cost $995 in 2023 now costs $1,495 in 2025. On top of vial costs, you’ll pay for the fertility procedure itself, shipping, and potentially storage fees if you’re banking extra vials for future cycles or siblings. If you’re using a known donor, legal fees and independent medical testing replace the vial cost but can add up to a similar range.
Steps to Get Started
- Choose your path. Decide between a sperm bank and a known donor based on your priorities around cost, genetic connection, and whether you want the child to have access to the donor’s identity.
- Consult a fertility clinic. A reproductive endocrinologist can evaluate your health, recommend IUI or IVF, and coordinate the logistics of receiving and using donor sperm.
- Browse donor profiles. If using a bank, spend time with extended profiles. Filter by traits that matter to you, but also pay close attention to medical and family health history.
- Handle the legal work. For known donors, hire a reproductive law attorney before any sperm is collected. For bank donors, review the bank’s consent forms carefully.
- Order and schedule. Coordinate your vial order with your treatment cycle so sperm arrives at the right time. Your clinic will guide the timing based on ovulation tracking or medication protocols.