How the Sperm Donor Process Works

If you’ve ever considered donating sperm and want to know more about the process, this post is for you. Below we outline the steps to becoming a donor along with the benefits of being in our program.

How to Become a Sperm Donor

If you’re a healthy man between the ages of 18 and 39, we encourage you to apply. While it’s not easy to become a donor — only about 1% of all applicants are accepted — it can be personally rewarding and a good source of income. The steps for applying are as follows.

1. First, fill out and submit our Online Sperm Donor Application. Shortly after we will send you an email detailing the next steps.
2. After completing the application and receiving the follow up email we ask that you come in to provide up to two initial sperm samples. You will not be paid for these samples.  These are solely for our lab to determine sperm count, morphology (overall sperm health), and motility (how well sperm move). If we determine your counts are high enough for our purposes, you will be moved on to the next step.
3. If you sample quality meets our requirements, you will then be asked to complete a detailed questionnaire about your family, medical, and sexual history through our MySSB online portal. Other questions cover allergies, the medical history of your relatives, international travel experience, age, occupation, education, your time in the military, if applicable, and many other topics. You’ll discuss your answers directly with one of our clinicians for greater clarity and to make sure all questions are sufficiently answered. You also must pass a background check that covers any criminal charges (misdemeanors and felonies), seven years of residence history, and verification of educational transcripts.
4. Once you pass the questionnaire and background check, you will then be given a full physical exam from a doctor that includes a genital exam and color vision test. The physical also includes blood, urine, and genetic testing to screen for a wide range of infectious diseases.
5. Once you make it this far, you are an active donor in our program and start receiving compensation for your donations. Your donations from this point on will be retained and kept in cryo-storage for a minimum of six months. When the six-month quarantine is up, your samples are released and become available for purchase. At that time, you will receive the additional compensation for all eligible vials retained within period.

We are the only sperm bank with a counselor on staff who evaluates all our final donor applicants. This counselor will help you fully understand the donation process. This includes understanding the responsibilities of being an open identity donor, which means you are open to having future contact with any offspring your donations produce. This counseling also ensures us and you that all donors are emotionally healthy and mentally sound.

Benefits of Donating Sperm

As an extra benefit, donors qualify for two physical exams per year as long as they remain an active donor. After you retire from the program, you remain eligible for a free annual physical exam at our clinic. It’s all part of an excellent compensation plan to help keep you healthy.

Donors also qualify for genetic testing. This valuable service provides insights into your medical background that you may not learn about otherwise. For example, it will let you know about specific genetic dispositions you may have to certain conditions, so you can watch for symptoms or make better health decisions for the rest of your life.

Along with helping families conceive a child, donating sperm is also a great way to make extra money. Once you’re approved, you’ll receive up to $130 per donation — you get $100 in cash at the time of donation, and another $30 when we release your approved samples. And since you can donate up to three times per week, that adds up to about $1,500 per month. We’ll even give you an extra $500 when you refer a donor to our clinic.

If you have questions about the process for donating sperm, contact one of our experts at (858) 732-8500 or send us a message.