Self insemination from donor [blush]

[Finnbar]

I've just joined - and have been trying to get pregnant for the last 5 months with a donor (someone we know). The thing is, recently I've moved away to start studying and our donor is now not within daily travelling distance. Does anyone have any ideas of how to get our vital ingredients via the post, or courrier - and how long does sperm survive for? Should it be kept cool, or warm? As I am nearing the time when the next insemination is due to take place, any suggestions at this stage would be more than welcome. Cheers.

I think Dot1 & Juno did this successfully (twice) and there was at least one, maybe 2 others whose names escape me.

And yes, there is a finbar with one N

uh oh finbar yhis isnt you then

have asked finbar what shes up to!! shes in the pta for god's sake!!!!

Thanks for your comments - I can't seem to find the old thread - have even tried a couple of searches, so any help will be more than appreciated. Also, I'm definitely not in the pta - must be a different Finnbar.

Hi Finnbar
Our 2 ds's were conceived through donor insemination - he lived 250 miles away from us, so we decided the best thing we could do was plot our best TTC days as carefully as possible and then go up to stay near to where he lives for a couple of days. We'd inseminate on one day, then again the next morning, and then drive back home!!

So, I think the sperm should be kept at room temperature and should really be used within 20 minutes. It does survive for longer than that - anything up to a couple of hours, but I think is best used as fresh as possible and preferably within the 20 minute timeframe.

Because of that, we didn't use a courier as we wanted it to be as good as possible - so it might be worth thinking about travelling up at the right time of the month. Although we had family in the vicinity, we often didn't want them to know we were TTC (it's a private thing!) and ended up booking in local hotels etc. A bit weird, but worked well in the end!

Good luck, and let me know if I can help answer any other questions.

Thank you for that Dot. Good advice - not sure if I can manage that though - work commitments etc. Still, we'll see how it goes - if all else fails I may have to find another donor closer to my new home.

Cheers
Finn

Finnbar - re: work commitments - tell me about it..! Bizarrely, when we were TTC for ds1, the times to try fell on weekends, and it only took 3 months. For ds2 (my turn) it took much longer and some months I couldn't go because of work/donor being on holiday etc. - soooo frustrating - I'd be distraught sometimes thinking that month could have been the month. But most months I'd take 2 x 1/2 days annual leave or something (or 'sick' leave) and race up the country and back again within 24 hours. Knackering but had no option.

Good luck!