Blog

Donor screening is the process of eliminating potential sperm donors in order to maintain specific quality and safety standards. It seeks first to eliminate the possibility of spreading infectious disease, next to ensure that all donations meet a minimum standard for the donor’s holistic health and wellbeing, and finally to optimize for desirable characteristics. In the assisted reproductive technology space, donor screening is one of the top areas of focus, because families need to feel safe and informed as they make the decision about what genetic traits they seek in a donor.  

The FDA offers a minimum legal standard for protecting against the spread of infectious disease, and from there, it is up to individual sperm banks to establish their own standards for donor screening. This basic level of testing is intended to establish essential safety, but best practices in the assisted reproductive technology space involve significant further screening. Industry standard varies widely, with boutique cryobanks typically offering the most comprehensive and stringent screening processes.  

Screening basics: health, safety, and infectious disease prevention 

Donor screening is a crucial process that ensures families receive safe, high-quality sperm. The FDA mandates basic health and safety requirements for sperm donors by requiring that sperm donors (as well as donors of other human cells, tissues, and cellular and tissue-based products, abbreviated in the industry as HCT/P) be tested for infectious disease, including HIV, hepatitis C, and the bacteria that causes syphilis. All donors must test negative for these conditions within a week of their donation date.  

Sperm samples from directed donors (donors whose identity is known to their recipient) are quarantined pending the donor’s re-test in six months. However, anonymous donors are not required to re-test, and their samples are thus not held in quarantine. 

The Fairfax Cryobank screening process 

At Fairfax Cryobank, rigorous screening is built into every step of our process. From the basic foundation of ensuring all donations are free from infectious disease, we move into a multi-phase process that seeks first to eliminate donors whose sperm doesn’t meet our strict standards for physical and mental health.  

Then, we move into a holistic evaluation of the donor, looking at everything from criminal records to education history. Our screening process eliminates the majority of donors, so that our repository of banked sperm includes only the most desirable candidates.  

Here’s how we work with candidates to bring you only top-quality donors: 

• Through an extensive health questionnaire, we unpack any health issues, family history of disease, or other notable factors in the donor’s physiological wellbeing 

• Next, we conduct a thorough physical exam, where we check for everything from skin and musculoskeletal condition to neurological responses 

• For candidates that pass these exams, we next move into medical, genetic, and infectious disease testing. This phase eliminates candidates with any individual or genetic conditions that could be passed through their sperm. 

• If a donor makes it this far, then we check out their sperm. We’re looking at motility, morphology, sperm count, pH, volume, and other metrics that help us identify the highest quality sperm 

• Candidates with top-tier sperm then move into the interview phase, when they meet in-person with our staff  

• Desirable donor candidates then submit to a verification of their educational degrees, which include a manual review of their transcripts, a criminal background check, and a battery of psychological evaluations  

• Once a donor is Fairfax-approved, they participate in regular physical and infectious disease testing for as long as their sperm is available 

Peace of mind  

The choice of whose genetic material to pass on to a child is a huge and weighty decision. Using sperm from highly desirable donors who have been comprehensively screened for medical or psychological issues is one of the most impactful long-term choices a family can make. Every family deserves the peace of mind that comes with knowing their genetic material has been fully screened.