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Single Women and Lesbian Couples

The work-up focuses on the woman, often including a sonogram, hormonal testing, evaluation of the uterine cavity, tubes and ovaries. A comprehensive but focused evaluation will allow us to select the most effective treatment for you.

Donor sperm is needed. The good news is that there are thousands of donors available and the sperm is fairly inexpensive and rapidly accessible. Sperm often comes from young donors with a normal semen analysis, who are healthy and free of sexually transmitted infections. These donors are tested multiple times and the sperm is quarantined for your safety. You will have the opportunity to select sperm from practically any ethnic background and physical characteristic. Most of the time you are provided with the pictures of the donors as children and/or adults, as well as their professional and personal interests, a peak into their personalities and beliefs. Donors are anonymous, however some donors (Open ID) would allow your child to contact them in the future.

Treatment options include:

IUI – Intrauterine Insemination with donor sperm. The sperm is ordered and saved at subzero temperatures and thawed right when you are at your peak fertility. We perform the IUI at the time that you ovulate by inserting millions of sperm into your uterus using a very thin catheter (flexible tube). This procedure often feels like a pap smear and is painless. With intercourse a few thousand sperm make it into the uterus, while with an IUI millions of sperm are inserted. We can perform donor sperm IUIs during a natural cycle, or often after giving you medication to enhance your fertility by inducing and improving ovulation, or by helping you produce more than one egg. At Repromed we will perform your IUI the day of the month that you are most fertile, regardless of the day of the week.

Lesbian couples may conceive simultaneously or at different times with sperm from the same donor via IUI.

For more information on IUI:

ASRM Fact Booklet

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ASRM Resources

Click here to view ASRM Resources

ASRM Resources on Donor Sperm:

Click here to view ASRM Resources on Donor Sperm

IVF – In vitro fertilization using donor sperm. Often due to tubal blockage or scar tissue in the pelvis, we bypass the tubes with the aid of IVF. We extract your eggs and fertilize them with donor sperm in the laboratory. We then transfer into the uterus 1-2 embryos, and freeze the rest of the embryos for use at some point in the future. IVF creates exciting opportunities for lesbian couples as we are able to help you conceive in more ways than a heterosexual couple could.

  • Embryos made with your eggs are transferred into your own uterus. You carry your own biological embryos.
  • Embryos made with your eggs are transferred into your partner’s uterus. Your partner carries your embryos, gives birth and is able to breastfeed your genetic child!
  • Both women are pregnant simultaneously or at different times from embryos from a single IVF cycle from one of you.
  • A woman may carry embryos from both partners simultaneously. Both women undergo IVF and a single woman carries the pregnancy. This can be done as singletons in different pregnancies, or you may be able to carry babies from you and your partner simultaneously!
  • Both women undergo IVF and each partner carries each other’s baby Reciprocal Surrogacy.

For more information on IVF:

Click here to view For more information on IVF

ASRM Resources:

Click here to view ASRM Resources

Sperm Banks

These are some of the Banks that we have worked with, you may choose a donor from these or any other

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