Donor Story: “Sperm donation is a worthwhile and rewarding experience”

My fiancé and I agreed together that I would become a sperm donor. With our wedding less than a year away, it felt like the perfect time to start donating before the rest of our lives grabbed hold of us.

I found sharing the donor experience with her to be really useful, as she was totally supportive of me becoming a donor. In a way, her awareness of it certainly stopped anyone else that I spoke to about it from cheapening the experience and making any jokes.

Throughout the whole donation process, the staff in the andrology department at QMC were all professional and yet still incredibly warm and approachable; after all, the donation experience is not without its fair share of awkward moments.

The recruitment process was thorough, and I never felt out of the loop as to what was happening and why (test samples, blood tests, psych evaluations, etc). At the point at which I was told I could begin donating properly, I felt really comfortable with the team and the environment – which meant I could concentrate on the job in hand.

a Flexible process

The regular visits were convenient and always suited to my availability, and the department was totally flexible – especially as work commitments and my wedding approached, requiring me to go on a short hiatus until my schedule was a bit less complicated.

The process of donating is not something I ever felt ashamed to be doing. I think that was mostly because I went into it with an open mind, and was encouraged to ask as many questions and be as nosey as I wanted to be. It was a simple experience that made me feel valued and proud to play my part in creating new families. And by removing any stigmas that might previously have been attached to being a donor, the andrology department have turned sperm donation into a worthwhile and rewarding experience that is, dare I say it, also a lot of fun to take part in.

a proud moment

Overall, we always felt very proud for making the decision to help other people through donation – even more so as we learnt that my samples had been used to create new families.

Now, nearly 3 years later, we have a daughter of our own (and another baby mere weeks away) and our life has changed immeasurably from how it was when I first started donating. And yet that pride still remains, and I feel no regret for having playing my part. In fact, I look forward to telling my children about the experience when they are older – I’m sure that will make for a fun post-dinner conversation!