Blog

Read this week’s No Silly Questions blog on the safety of using sperm donors.

Does using a sperm donor mean I won’t know much about the donor? How do I know it’s safe to use this donor?

Fairfax Cryobank has an industry-leading donor screening and testing process. Because our standards are so high and we have so many processes in place to evaluate potential donors, fewer than 1% of applicants are accepted into our program.  That means it’s harder to get into the Fairfax Cryobank donor program than it is to get into Harvard!

During the application process, we review potential donors’ personal behavioral and medical history as well as their family medical history. Donors complete an extensive personal and health questionnaire and undergo a physical examination.  Fairfax Cryobank performs the most comprehensive infectious disease and genetic testing in the industry.   We also interview all potential donors in person, verify their educational degrees, perform a criminal background check, and partner with mental health professionals to perform psychological evaluations on potential donors.  Only those donors who meet our very high standards are accepted into the donor program. 

We understand that clients and their donor-conceived children often want to know more personal details about their donor, so in addition to making information about donors’ medical history available as part of their online profiles, we also include extensive personal profiles, audio interviews, and photos of each donor.  The medical and personal information that we make available is probably more detailed than what people know about close friends or even family members.  All of this information is available at no cost for anyone who wants to see it.

Our active donors understand that we will follow up with them over time and that we expect them to provide updated medical information even after they leave the program. We have a convenient online system that allows donors to enter updated personal and family medical information. We add all of this information to the donor’s online summary profile. If anything of concern is noted when we receive an update, we investigate immediately and notify clients if an issue has the potential to affect donor-conceived children.

To keep up with more No Silly Questions, follow the Fairfax Cryobank blog.