Donor sperm - where to even start?!

[closephine85]

I'm just wondering if anyone can give me some advice. DH & I are discussing the possibility of using donor sperm but don't really know where to begin. His samples have been consistently poor and we have a failed round of ivf under our belts. We already have a son conceived naturally 6 years ago and can't keep financially crippling ourselves with more ivf that could well prove fruitless.

Can anyone tell me where to begin? Where should we be looking for a donor? Is IUI in a clinic better than home insemination? What sort of costs are we looking at per cycle? Can you literally just get it shipped to your house and do it all yourself?

Also, if there is anyone out there who has conceived one child naturally but then gone on to be successful with a donor could tell me how it worked out/felt for your family I'd love to hear from you.

This isn't something we are going to enter into lightly, we will discuss in depth before making a decision and probably go for some counselling, but in the first instance I'd just like to get my head around how it all works so that I can understand the costs and the process a bit better.

Thank you :)

[Persipan]

I wrote in the recent thread about home insemination a bit about how that works - take a look because you might find it helpful.

My suggestion would be that IUI in a clinic gives you somewhat better odds than home insemination because it's monitored and they can add in meds if needed. Plus, you get counselling as part of the process.

[colourdilemma]

I can't help on the natural conception followed by DC but; all three of ours were DC. Is there no way even ICSI would work? DC is wonderful, but it does throw up stuff you have to think deeply about, especially if one child is DC and one not.