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Health Screening for Sperm Donors

What tests will I have if I donate sperm?

If you are about to donate to a female via a private arrangement i.e. outside of a sperm bank you should visit your doctor and ask to be referred for sexual health screening and semen analysis. This will ensure that you do not pass any sexually transmitted diseases to you recipient and it will also confirm if you are fertile and able to help a women achieve pregnancy.

Here is a general list of pre-insemination screening that you should insist your donor produces before any insemination takes place.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases:

- ABO-Rh blood typing

- Chlamydia by PCR

- Cytomegalovirus (CMV)Antibody

- Gonorrhea

- Hepatitis B surface Antigen

- Hepatitis B core Antibody

- Hepatitis C Viral Antibody

- HIV Antibody (AIDS test)

- HTLV-1 Antibody

- RPR (syphilis)

Gentic Testing

  • Cystic Fibrosis
  • Chromosome Analysis (karyotype)
  • Hemoglobinopathies including sickle cell and thalassemia
  • Tay Sachs
  • Spinal Muscular Atrophy  

Semen Analysis

- Semen analysis (count, motility, morphology)

Additional Testing

Particularly if you are using an African American or Jewish donor you may wish to ask your donor to be screened for some of the following:

- ALT(SGPT)

- Canavan disease carrier screening *

- Chemistry panel

- Complete blood count(CBC)

- Cystic fibrosis carrier screening

- Fanconi anemia carrier screening*

- Gaucher disease carrier screening*

- Niemann-Pick diseasecarrier screening*

- Sickle cell diseasecarrier testing***

- Tay-sachs disease carrier testing**

- Urinalysis

** For donors with Jewishor French Canadian ancestry.

***For donors with African American / African ancestry.

 

What is The Testing Procedure?

The testing procedure is pain free and relatively quick. The results for many of your tests will come back within a week or two, in fact some sexual health screening such as HIV can be returned the same day. However, you will need to be tested again after a 3 month period as some diseases such as HIV will not show up until 3 months after you were first infected.

Related Articles: 

Why should I donate sperm?

Will I get paid for donating sperm?

How do  donate sperm?

Legal facts for sperm donors

Naming a sperm donor on the birth certificate