Frequently Asked Questions
Below are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions. If you can't find the answer to your question, feel free to get in touch on +45 38 34 36 00 or info@europeanspermbank.com
Donor Search
When you decide to find a sperm donor through us, you need to create a free account. In order to create this account, you need to provide your name, gender, country of residence, and email. It only takes a few minutes and gives you full access to all our profiles.
Our sperm donors have provided us with personal information to make your decision easier. As we wish to protect this information from random Google searches and unauthorised access, you need to create an account in order to gain access to the donor profiles. It's free and only takes a few minutes, after which you'll have unlimited access to our donor profiles.
Once your account is set up, you can save your searches so you can always return to your selected sperm donor whenever you please. You sperm donor's profile will always be available to you and your child on the 'My Page' subpage.
To improve our service to both parents and children we have added a portrait of the donor as an adult on several donor profiles. The portraits are a hand-drawn sketch based on the picture we have of the donor as adult. It is up to the donor to select whether to include an adult portrait in his profile, so adult donor portraits are not available for all donors. The donor portraits are free and you can find them as part of the online image gallery on the profile on the website. We continuously upload more portraits of donors.
We only update a sperm donor's profile if there is a substantial change in the sperm donor’s health status.
You can sort sperm donors by availability. There are two factors that govern a sperm donor's availability:
1) Whether we have straws from the donor in stock
If the sperm donor donates regularly, new straws will become available on a continuous basis. If the donor doesn't donate regularly, we might only have a limited amount or even no straws in stock. If your preferred donor is unavailable, we recommend you to get in touch with us, so we can help you find a similar donor with a sufficient number of straws in stock.
2) Whether the donor is available in your treatment country
Due to legislation pertaining to pregnancy limits and types of donors, some sperm donors are unavailable in certain countries. In Denmark, both ID release and No ID release donors are permitted.
There are two types of sperm donors: ID release and No ID release donors.
A No ID release donor (previously known as a non-contact donor) doesn't want his identity to be revealed to the child. No ID release donors are also called anonymous donors. However, their identities are known to us, and their online profiles contain a wide range of personal information. That's why it's more accurate to refer to these donors as No ID release donors.
If you choose an ID release donor (previously known as an open donor), your child can find out the identity of the donor when he/she comes of age. Your child - and only your child - can obtain this information by contacting us.
Whether both types of donors are available in your treatment country, depends on the legislation of the individual country. If having an ID release or No ID release donor is important for you, consider getting treatment in a country that allows your preferred donor type. Contact us if you need more information about opportunities in other countries.
We have a constant influx of new donors, so the number changes all the time. That said, you can see the current number of donors on our website.
We ensure that the donor's profile goes live as soon as they have completed their screening and filled out their profile.
We do show baby photos. If we don't have a baby photo of the donor on file, the profile will have a photo of something like a baby shoe. These photos are stock photos and therefore unrelated to the specific donor. In some countries, such as the UK, it is prohibited to show baby photos. In these countries, we exclusively use stock photos.
Ordering & Confidentiality
"No. If you want to ensure that you have enough straws for the entire insemination process or for any siblings, you need to register for sperm storage.
We cannot guarantee that your donor will always be in stock, as we are always selling and replacing units. In some cases, a donor might stop donating altogether."
We charge the same price for all sperm donors except in the following two cases:
- The price of ID release donors differs from the price of No ID release donors (note that not all countries allow both donor types).
- Prices for our family limit options differ from the other sperm donors.
Note that we offer different concentrations of sperm (the so-called MOT), and so the price of an individual donor's sperm can vary depending on which concentration you choose.
Read more about our pricing here.
If you want to have enough straws for the entire treatment, we recommend purchasing 5-7 straws per child. If you opt for a storage unit, we can store your straws for you. You can store the straws with us if you choose to purchase a storage unit. We refund 75% of the cost for the sperm stored at our facility if you decide not to use it.
We recommend that you place orders at least 10 business days before the sperm is required. We ship and deliver sperm Monday through Friday.
Shipments are typically delivered to fertility clinics in Europe in 1-2 working days and outside Europe in 3-5 working days. Shipments to countries outside Europe may take longer than a week due to customs processing and longer transit times.
In special circumstances, we offer expedited delivery for a fixed fee. You can find our list of prices here.
According to Danish legislation, it is prohibited to ship donor sperm to home addresses. The sperm must be stored at a clinic or with a health professional who is assisting you with your treatment.
We take all necessary precautions to safeguard your privacy. Without your explicit permission, the information you share with us is held in strictest confidence, available only to your healthcare professionals.
We collaborate with clinics worldwide. Feel free to give us a call if you require further guidance.
Storage & Returns
Yes, if you purchase a storage unit, we can store the straws you purchase through us for anywhere between three months and 10 years. We refund up to 75% of the cost of any sperm stored at our facilities if you decide not to use it. Read more about that here.
No, we do not accept returned straws after they have left our facilities. Our sperm bank has full control of the sperm from the time of donation until it is shipped. Once the sperm has left the sperm bank, there is no way for us to keep an eye on it. If you store your straws with us, we refund up to 75% of the cost of the sperm if you decide not to use it.
Pregnancy & Limitations
The legislation that governs the amount of families to which a donor can contribute, otherwise known as pregnancy limits, differ from country to country. In order to ensure that these pregnancy limits are respected, some treatment countries require that you purchase a Pregnancy Slot. A Pregnancy Slot gives you the right to use the same sperm donor for multiple children. That said, owning a Pregnancy Slot does not guarantee that your selected sperm donor will have available straws. We advise you to register for a sperm storage unit and purchase straws simultaneously with purchasing a Pregnancy Slot. Read more about Pregnancy Slot here.
As of February 1st 2020, legislation in Norway has changed. Having moved away from the term Barnrett, Norway now uses the term Pregnancy Slot like most other countries. The law also stipulates a maximum of 6 families pr donor. The Pregnancy Slot is mandatory in Norway and gives you the right to use the same sperm donor for multiple children, thus ensuring that you can use the same donor sperm for potential siblings.
Yes. We carefully monitor our donors in order to comply with regulations regarding the total number of families/children per country. We do this by thoroughly analysing the number of sperm units donated and the total number of pregnancies reported per country. The pregnancy reporting also includes management of reported miscarriages and the health of offspring for each donor.
The pregnancy limit policy is also the reason why you have to select place of treatment and nationality in the donor search. This ensures that your donor is available to you for your treatment in your chosen country.
When the number of families for a country for any donor approaches the limit, we only sell remaining sperm units to families who already have a child from the same donor.
On average, a donor helps 25 families worldwide. Since there is no international cap on the number of families a donor can help, we have set a worldwide cap of 75 families for our donors.
If you would like to use a donor who has helped a smaller number of families, you can choose a donor with a lower family limit. Learn more here.
Health & Safety
We sell two types of donor sperm - IUI and ICI straws.
IUI stands for Intrauterine Insemination. These straws contain washed sperm that is suitable for almost all types of fertility treatments.
ICI stands for Intracervical Insemination. These straws contain 100% of the naturally occuring ejaculate and its cells. ICI straws are used exclusively for vaginal inseminations or if your clinic wishes to wash the sperm themselves
You can read more about the different types of sperm, including which type we recommend for different fertility treatments here.
At European Sperm Bank, we screen our donors for the most common serious hereditary diseases and sexually transmitted infections. Furthermore, we continue to screen for other infections.
Read more about how we screen and what we screen for here."
You'll find the CMV status of a donor listed on his profile here on our website. Look under the Background section on his individual profile page. If you are unable to find this information, you're welcome to contact us directly via email, chat or telephone to request information about a donor's CMV status.
If a donor is listed as negative ("Neg") it means that the donor has never had a CMV infection. If listed as positive ("Pos"), the donor has been infected with CMV in the past, but the infection is dormant, and the sperm is not contagious.
None of our donors has an active infection at the time of donation. You can read more about CMV and our donor screening here.
Currently, there is no evidence supporting that coronavirus spreads via sperm. We follow closely and act in accordance with the recommendations for donor screening issued by local and national health authorities. You can read more about our precautions in relation to COVID-19 on this page.
Home Insemination
This is required by Danish legislation as of 1 July 2018. The aim of this new law is to improve transparency and make it easier to control the number of pregnancies and traceability for each sperm donor.
As of 1 July 2018, it is no longer permitted as per Danish legislation to send sperm straws to private addresses for home insemination. All women and couples who wish to have a home insemination are required to cooperate with a health professional or clinic throughout the process. We sort out all the paperwork and ship your donor sperm from the sperm bank to the clinic.
The Future
Your child's ability to find out more about his or her donor depends on two things: firstly, the type of donor you choose (ID release or No ID release) and secondly, whether your chosen donor is interested in contact with children conceived with his sperm.
In the case of No ID release donors, the identity of the donor remains confidential. We are legally obligated to protect the donor and the parents. For that reason, we're not allowed to help donor children establish contact with their donor.
If you've chosen an ID release donor, your child can learn the identity of his or her donor when he/she comes of age. Your child, and only your child, can obtain this information by contacting us.
If your child has an ID release donor and would like to contact him, we'll ask the donor if he's interested in meeting the child. The donor is not obligated to any form of contact with the child. If the donor agrees, contact could take the form of an email, a phone call, an actual meeting - whatever your child and his/her donor feel comfortable with.