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In our first instalment of our LSB Day in the Life blog we follow Dr Gili Band, Lab Manager, who works at our London Bridge clinic.  She talks to us about her time with London Sperm Bank as well as working in the fertility sector back home in Israel.

You might be wondering why we ask all of our donors to abstain for 3-5 days from any ‘sexual activity’ before donating.  The short answer is that we are looking for the best sample that you can provide and studies suggest that saving your sperm for donation results in superior samples.

Many women are in need of donor sperm to have a longed for child. For some women choosing to use a sperm donor is easy as there are no men in their lives e.g. lesbian couples and single women.  For couples where there is a male factor in fertility, it can be a more difficult decision and they are usually looking for a donor with characteristics that resemble the male partner.

Before we get to the compensation let’s talk briefly about the criteria, because sperm banks in the UK won’t accept just anyone that walks through the door. They have to screen the applicants to be sure they are healthy, without serious genetic conditions and have sufficiently good quality sperm to produce a viable pregnancy. The staff at the London Sperm Bank will look at an applicant’s family history and ascertain if they have any familial genetic conditions that might manifest in potential offspring.

Over the course of your life, you will produce around 525 billion sperm cells, 10% of these having obvious defects. If you want to be producing high-quality semen samples you might need to make some lifestyle changes.