A sperm bank is a medical facility that stores sperm to be used for artificial insemination. Donors are carefully screened for genetic conditions and infectious diseases.
Sperm are frozen for 6 months before being used. This is done so that the donor can be retested to ensure that he does not have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Frozen sperm are generally less successful in fertilizing a woman's egg than fresh sperm.
A sperm bank provides an option for women who want to have a child but who do not have a male partner or whose male partner is infertile.
|Primary Medical Reviewer||Sarah Marshall, MD - Family Medicine|
|Specialist Medical Reviewer||Femi Olatunbosun, MB, FRCSC - Obstetrics and Gynecology|
|Last Revised||May 4, 2012|
WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise