Blog

Blog written by Laboratory Staff JM

Working at a sperm bank over the years, I’ve accumulated quite the collection of t-shirts, pens, keychains, and such – all with pictures of sperm, of course! I wear one t-shirt more than others, usually on weekends, running errands or just around the house. The shirt has a picture of a “school” of smiling, swimming sperm, and says “Elite Swim Team” across the top.

Sometimes, people ask “What’s that shirt about?” and I tell them we have used the shirt for donor recruitment, and we discuss how the slogan is catchy, et cetera.

But, explaining the shirt to my (then 3-year old) daughter proved to be a bit challenging! She exclaimed “Mommy, I like the whales on your shirt!” and I explained that they were sperm, which help to make babies. She looked at me with a puzzled expression, and said “Whale babies?”. At that point, I decided the explanation could wait a few years. She still calls the shirt my “whale shirt”, and she calls my keychain that is shaped like a sperm a “tadpole”!