Before you register with us, please review our Donor Catalog for a donor matching your criteria. As a nonprofit sperm bank with the nation’s lowest family limit, our catalog is diverse but small. Recipients may not always be able to purchase vials from their first choice donor, and we recommend having backup options available.
In the process of choosing your donor? See a summary of key factors to consider and why donor ethnicity matters.
We update our Donor Catalog on an ongoing basis. Please check back frequently to see changes and updates. A donor you chose last month may not be available this month.
If donor inventory is temporarily unavailable and you are already registered with us, we can put you on a notification list. This means we will email you when that donor has more vials available to purchase.
Donor profiles, information, and screening
We offer free donor profiles for each donor. These free profiles summarize each donor’s medical and family history, and include their short personal narrative as well as a staff impressions written by TSBC staff. We also have extended profiles for each donor and childhood photos for many of the donors. You can purchase the extended profiles and photos through the catalog by clicking on the individual donor card, then clicking the green “buy full profile” button and following the steps. They are $40 each and include the free profile, a social questionnaire in the donor’s own handwriting and baby photos if available. The extended profile will be emailed to you. The free profiles are accessible at any time from the donor catalog.
TSBC donors go through a comprehensive donor screening process including STI testing, medical exams, genetic counseling and testing, implications counseling, and other screening interviews.
Please note that the Yes or No for Pregnancies depends on how long a donor has been on the catalog, number of vials retrieved and type of conception method used. It does not speak to the donor’s ability to achieve pregnancies.
CMV is a common a virus that can cause birth defects. An estimated 40% to 90% of adults have experienced CMV infection and test positive for CMV antibodies—even if they are no longer infectious and didn’t know they ever had the virus. Our screening process aims to identify and screen out donors who are positive for an active infection. Donors listed as CMV positive on our catalog are positive for past infection. If a donor tests positive for an active CMV infection, all potentially infected samples are destroyed.
Sibling inventory
We make every effort to provide inventory to families who wish to have more than one child with the same donor’s assistance. However, we are unable to guarantee the availability of sibling inventory. If you are interested in sibling inventory please inquire with a phone counselor. You may also review our current sibling catalog. Please note: The best way to ensure access to the same donor is to purchase vials and store them at TSBC until you are ready to try to conceive again.
The TSBC difference
Identity-Release® Program
TSBC has the oldest, most thoroughly researched open-identity donation program worldwide. Our Identity-Release® Program provides donor conceived adults the option to obtain identifying information about the donor. All donors on our general catalog participate in the Identity-Release® Program. Previously we offered donors the option of always-anonymous donation; however, we stopped that option in 2014 based on feedback from donor conceived adults, families, and donors. The decision to go 100% to the open-identity at 18 option is part of our unwavering commitment to the well-being of parents, donor-conceived people and donors.
Family limits
We have a limit of no more than 10 families per donor, which is the nation’s lowest family limit. Many sperm banks have limits of 20, 40 or more. A lower family limit means that vials from many of our donors – particularly those in the Identity-Release® Program – sell out and donors reach family limit more quickly than at other sperm banks. This can make our catalog look smaller. Also, because we charge comparable prices to other banks, fewer families per donor mean less revenue overall. Nevertheless, because we believe that lower family limits provide better outcomes for families, we choose to maintain a lower family limit per donor. When choosing a donor you can ask how close the donor is to reaching the Family Limit and ask about our policies regarding vial retention to maintain the limit.
It is part of TSBC’s mission to find ways to provide equitable services, including access to reproductive options for our increasingly diverse community. For this reason, we have created our Equity Policy which includes reserving vials of certain donors to better assist TSBC recipients in their family creation efforts. Vial purchase restrictions may occur for a variety of reasons and on a case by case basis.
Genetic counseling
Donors meet with a genetic counselor to review their reported personal and family medical history. Starting in June 2021, new donors are tested using an expanded carrier screening panel including more than 250 recessive genes. Previously donors were screened using ethnicity-based screening panels. Each donor’s genetic testing is available for free through links on our donor catalog. Read more about our genetic screening.