Founded in 1986, in Missoula, Montana, to provide infertility related services, and superior frozen donor semen at reasonable costs. We now have a second location in Spokane, WA. and provide many products and services, including personal sperm banking and home freezing kits, laboratory testing, egg donors, sperm donors, supplies needed for human artificial insemination, and ovulation and fertility test kits in our web store. Please enjoy our web-site, and feel free to send suggestions on what you would like to see available here to make your surfing more productive. Our office hours are 8:30 AM till 5:00 PM Pacific Time Zone.

Artificial Insemination is the generic term covering any procedure that introduces sperm into the female reproductive tract by means other than through intercourse and ejaculation. This usually involves the use of a syringe and catheter(small tube) or other specialized device that serves the same basic function. The sperm are deposited at the base of the cervix in the vagina (vaginal insemination), in the cervix (intracervical insemination, or ICI), or all the way into the uterine cavity (intrauterine insemination, or IUI). Vaginal inseminations require no special preparation of the sperm prior to placement at the cervix, while IUI requires the sperm cells to be washed free from the fluid that they are ejaculated with, the seminal plasma prior to placement. The semen, comprised of the sperm cells and seminal plasma can not be placed directly into the uterus, as the raw semen contains hormones called prostaglandins which can cause the uterus to cramp, sometimes severely. Some semen contains more prostaglandin than other specimens, and some women are more sensitive to protaglandin than others are. Under most circustances, sperm washing in the lab will remove enough of these prostaglandins to make IUI safe for your doctor, nurse, or midwife to perform without causing painful uterine cramping. AI is performed for many reasons and is the most common application when using donor sperm to achieve a pregnancy.

Side Effects and Risks Associated with AI
Although IUI is very common, is relatively non invasive, and generally safe, the side effecs and or risks associated can range from almost non existant to potentially very severe. The first and most obvious and desired risk involved with AI is pregnancy. Pregnancy does put strains on the body and one should always act prudently and wisely by having a complete physical exam with their health care professional prior to trying to achieve a pregnancy. Physical discomfort from AI may be caused by the procedure itself which includes the use of speculum, the placement of the catheter and specimen, and sometimes the use of tools to hold the cervix. Other risks involved in AI with donor sperm includes the risk of infection. Bacteria and virus are commonly found in semen specimens produced through mastubation (outside and skin contamination) as well as being found in the vagina or associated fluids. These can be pathogenic (disease causing) or non pathogenic. Infection rates from introduction of bacteria into the uterus through IUI procedures is rare at only 0.2%. Sperm donors and the specimens that they provide for use are routinely and repeatedly tested for pathogenic organisms (please see "donor testing and standards" webpage. In fact the regulation and testing of commercial sperm donors has worked so well that there are no know cases of HIV transmission from using quarantined donor sperm specimens. Reaction/cramping can also occur. This can be caused by individual reaction to any of the several ingredients found in the media to suspend and to protect the sperm during the washing or freezing processing that they have been put through. You can also have cramping from minute amounts of prostaglandin that may still be in the specimen after washing if you are one of the few with extreme sensitivities.

We can ship frozen donor sperm direct to either physicians or patients without problem. Sperm is prepared frozen in both IUI (intra-uterine) and ICI (intra-cervical) formats. We can ship to almost all US locations and somet worldwide locations. (We can ship most anywhere, but many countries impose restrictions on imports of this product.)

IUI (intrauterine insemination) can only be performed by your doctor or nurse practitioner. This procedure has a slightly higher success rate per cycle (about 5% higher), because the doctor will help optimize the timing of the insemination, as well as place the sperm closer to the fallopian tube where fertilization takes place. These donor insemination specimens have been processed (washed) through a density gradient to isolate the most motile and morphologically normal sperm from the other ejaculate contents. This must be done for IUI use because raw semen contains prostaglandins which would cause the uterus to contract, sometimes violently. Most doctors will use just one unit of sperm per ovulatory cycle. These specimens are concentrated into a smaller volume than the ICI specimens, (0.5cc vs 1.0 cc) so that the doctor can place the entire volume into the uterus which will only hold 0.5cc. These washed specimens are great for either IUI through the doctor or for home vaginal inseminations. IUI should only be performed by your professional health care provider (doctor, midwife, nurse practitioner, or PA)

ICI (intracervical insemination) These donor insemination specimens contain the raw semen and are twice the volume of the IUI specimens. They are good for IVF cycles, vaginal (home insemination) or intracervical insemination only (unless they are washed after thawing by a doctor). These specimens can contain all of the naturally occuring ejaculate fluid and cells. You still receive plenty of motile sperm, but all of the dead sperm as well. Your cervix and cervical fluid will act to let only the highly motile sperm up into the uterus and fallopian tubes, just as it would through intercourse. Home inseminations have a bit lower success rate because the sperm have further to go and many are lost. It's for this reason that many clients doing home artificial inseminations will use mutiple (2 to 4) units of sperm per cycle, and use our home insemination kits. Although donor semen is frozen in both formats, they may not be available on all donors at all times. Either format works great for home vaginal inseminations, but IUI specimens should be ordered for doctor assisted IUIs unless they specify otherwise. Check with your doctor.

Recent Success Statistics

Of the last 804 pregnancies reported to us, the following statistics were determined. These statistics do not include those patients that did not achieve or did not report a pregnancy.

Age of females reporting pregnancies: Range: 21-47 years of age. 274 were above the age of 35, including 53 between 40 and 47 years of age. Overall average age of clients reporting pregnancies remains at 31.5 years old.
Pregnancies achieved through insemination at, Home AI 62%, Doctors' office 38% (IVF less than 1%). Most clients doing home inseminations used the syringe/catheter for the insemination and timed their 2 inseminations at 12 and 36 hours past LH surge detection (24 hours between). For doctor assisted IUI, most inseminations were done the day following LH surge detection.
Number of vials of sperm used / cycle Range 1 to 6 vials Average was 1.8 vials used per cycle.
Number of cycles of AI to achieve pregnancy: Range 1- 10cycles. Overall average for all pregnancy reports was 2.54 cycles.
In this group, there were a total of 342 (43%) pregnancies reported on the very first cycle attempt.

If you are interested in finding and using a sperm donor,
follow the general guidelines below.

• Review our donor standards
• Examine our donor listings, and review their history
• If an appropriate donor is found, check on availability (call or email).
• Submit the required release forms.
• Once the release forms are on file with us, you may order specimens by phone.
• Specimens should be ordered as early as possible. Click here for Ovulation Calculator
• Payment is required prior to shipping. Please see our payment options webpage for details through this link.

Licensed Clinical Laboratory Scientists: Marty Guthrie (#553CLS, MT), Sam Henrichs (#26CLS, MT)
Office Manager: Marina Bogdan
Order Desk/Shipping Consultants: Derek Vickers & Zack Easley

SPOKANE, WA
Washington State Dept of Health License #MTS-3728
CLIA #50D0969027
California Tissue Bank License #CNC 80402

MISSOULA, MT
CLIA #27D0867972

We are registered with the FDA as a tissue bank supplying reproductive tissues under #3003115192

Individual Professional Memberships Held By Management or Laboratory Personnel:

American Society of Andrology (ASA)
American College of Gynecology (ACOG)
American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)
American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB)
American Society of Clinical Laboratory Scientists (ASCLS)