Sperm banks and doing IUIs

[Anonymous]

After a long year of ttc, following a heartbreaking diagnosis of nonobstructive azoospermia for my husband (no sperm) and then medication and surgery to try to find sperm (unsuccessful, physical grueling for my poor husband), we are learning strongly towards donor sperm. We are considering known donors (friends), but the logistical, legal, and emotional complications of doing so make us think that we are going to end up using a sperm bank. My priorities are finding a donor that somewhat resembles my husband (at least broad terms, or more likely doesn't look like him), has some characteristics/interests that are similar to my husband, and is smart. I am also thinking that open access might be the way in order to give our child the opportunity to contact the donor if they have interest or for medical reasons and, perhaps in larger part, for some slight assurance that the donor is the person represented - reading the nytimes articles about Xytec lying about their donors gives me nightmares.

Any experiences or recommendations on sperm banks?

I have been looking at: Fairfax, California Cryos, Seattle Sperm Bank, California Sperm Bank., Pacific Reproductive Sperm Bank. Am I missing anywhere? I have heard good things about California Sperm Bank and I like their non-profit status, but their donor pool is pretty small.

[Anonymous]

Editing to correct: looking to find a donor that "somewhat resembles my husband (at least in broad terms, or more likely doesn't *not* look like him).

[Anonymous]

We have a known donor (we are two women so it's a bit different emotionally and otherwise for us as we needed sperm from an outside source to begin with). However we banked using Fairfax Cryobank. I like using them be cause you can get around paying the shipping fee to have it sent to your clinic if you are willing to go pick it up - which we did many times. Usually fairly easy to get through to them for order/questions/payment. I'm sure they have a large inventory of donors too.

[Anonymous]

I suggest looking at the profiles on several sites and seeing where you find people you like. I originally picked sperm bank of calif but could not find anyone there I was comfortable with. So I started looking at fairfax and calif cryo, and ultimately I found the donor I wanted at calif cryo. In other words, you don't have to pick a bank -- look at several, and you'll end up with the bank that has the donor you like best.

[Anonymous]

I'm a single mom by choice and I used Xytex. I liked Xytex because it wasn't in town (I didn't want to be looking at guys and wondering if they were the donor). I also liked that they had a large number of profiles with adult pictures. And I liked that they profile included a nice sized essay.

For what it's worth, I chose a donor whose baby pictures looked somewhat similar to mine (versus the adult photo) and my son looks quite similar to me (at least for now, he is only 4 months old).

[Anonymous]

We really liked working with the Sperm Bank of California. We liked their lower family numbers and they had a good, but fast moving selection.

Having visited the building and staff at Fairfax Cryobank pretty much ensured I wouldn't use them.