Donor Insemination: What's Involved

Donor insemination (also known as DI) involves the artificial insemination of semen received from your donor into the uterus of the woman to achieve a pregnancy.

Your donor’s semen is stored in liquid nitrogen and thawed on the day of your insemination. The process is simple and painless, taking approximately 15 minutes. Most women describe it as similar to a pap smear.

The insemination is usually done by either Dr Davidson or our IVF nurse Co-ordinator. The woman can then return to her normal daily activities. Once pregnancy occurs, it’s no different from if you had conceived naturally. There is no increase in any of the complications of pregnancy or delivery with an artificial insemination.

With at least one functioning fallopian tube, approximately 50-60% of women will conceive through donated sperm within 6-9 cycles of treatment.

Where Can You Find A Sperm Donor?

There are two types of sperm donors that may be able to help you have a baby.  You can either choose a known donor from outside of the clinic (such as a friend), or select from the donors at the fertility clinic.

Your donor needs to:

  • Be aged between 18-55 years of age
  • Be in good health with no personal history of hereditary disease
  • Not be in a high-risk HIV group
  • Complete a lifestyle declaration, blood and semen screening tests, and legal documentation

All donors who provide sperm for our fertility clinic need to pass a number of rigorous screening tests before their sperm is utilised. Please contact us for more information on this and what’s needed.

All donor sperm is frozen and stored for six months prior to an insemination. For this reason, if donor insemination is an option you might like to possibly pursue, we recommend you contact us sooner rather than later, so that the necessary tests for both you and your donor can be completed. This way you are ready and able to maximise both your fertility and your IVF cycle.

For more information on either a known donor or clinic donor insemination option, please get in touch.

Choosing  A Sperm Donor

If you choose a donor from our donor list, you’ll be given non-identifying information including nationality, ethnic origin, blood group, physical characteristics (such as height, build, eye colour, hair colour and skin tone) of the donor. You can then decide if you are happy to accept sperm from that donor.  

Due to very few sperm donors being available, it may not always be possible to match the physical characteristics of the sperm donor you would prefer. Because of the shortage of donated sperm available from our fertility clinic at times, some prospective parents may choose to find  their own donor to minimise the wait, and maximise their own fertility time.

For a confidential chat or more info on the help you can get to have a baby, please get in touch.