Anyone needing donor sperm can use BuySperm. However, you must be a patient at a UK HFEA licensed clinic with an active treatment plan to purchase sperm from our catalogue.

We offer three sample types of donor sperm, to match the 3 treatment types below, and all require the clinic to prepare the samples for treatment after thawing, unless otherwise indicated:

• IUI (Intrauterine Insemination) – where prepared sperm are inseminated directly into the uterus

• IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) – where sperm and eggs are mixed together in an IVF laboratory. Embryos are created and cultured over several days in the laboratory and can later be transferred into the uterus

• ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection) – where a single sperm is injected into an egg to create an embryo. The embryo is cultured in the IVF laboratory for several days and can then be transferred into the uterus

Please note: not all sample types from a donor are suitable for all 3 treatment types, so we ask all patients to ensure they know their treatment type before ordering a donor as Semovo will match the sperm to the treatment type. 

ICSI vials contain unprepared or unwashed sperm at a slightly lower concentration as fewer sperm are required to inject individual sperm into the egg(s). These vials are only suitable for ICSI treatment.

IUI vials contain unprepared or unwashed sperm (unless otherwise stated) and are suitable for IUI treatments but can also be used for ICSI treatment.

IVF vials are unprepared or unwashed sperm with a higher percentage of motile sperm for use in IVF cycles where a highly motile sperm preparation is required. These could also be used for ICSI treatment too.

There is no price difference between vials for different treatment types at Semovo.

A Pregnancy or Family Slot is a reservation on a specific donor that allows you to use the same sperm donor for one child or multiple children, ensuring compliance with country-specific family limits. You must occupy a family slot to have treatment with donor sperm. In the UK this is a maximum of 10. Semovo does not charge for a Family Slot; it is included with the purchase of donor vials.

If a patient uses all their purchased vials of a specific donor without achieving a pregnancy, has no stored embryos, or experiences a failed pregnancy, and we have not heard from the patient or their clinic regarding a reorder within 3 months, Semovo reserves the right to remove the patient from that donor’s Family Slot reservation.

Unfortunately, in the UK, neither adult nor baby photos of the donor are allowed. This HFEA policy ensures that the donor remains anonymous until the donor-conceived offspring reach 18 years of age. Advances in technology could potentially enable identification of an individual even from a baby or child photo. As a reputable sperm bank, we adhere to these regulations to maintain the highest standards of privacy.

A donor may no longer be available for several reasons:

• The donor's sperm stock is exhausted (either temporarily until more stock is released, or permanently).
• All allocated pregnancy/family slots for the donor are filled (meaning they are only available for siblings).
• The donor has withdrawn from the program.
• The donor is on hold undergoing further health or eligibility evaluations.

Yes, some Semovo sperm donors may be used overseas. The section “Consented to overseas use?” on the donor’s profile will indicate whether the donor has consented to be used outside the UK.

Please also see the flags under the “Availability” section on the profile as this indicates a donor’s current availability for the UK and other countries.

Semovo has restricted the worldwide limit on families to 20 to ensure ethical use of the donor.

Donor samples, and embryos created from donor samples, can only be stored for the period of time that the donor consented to. When this time has been reached, the samples have met their ‘expiry date’ and must be discarded. Further use beyond the consented storage period is unlawful. See section “Storage period” on the donor’s profile for the year the samples begin to expire.

Pre 2022 all donors could only consent to storage for a maximum period of 10 years (except in very exceptional circumstances). However, law changes in during 2022 have now allowed donors to consent to the storage of their sperm and embryos for any time period up to 55 years. Some of our donors who donated in the past and are no longer donating have been able to amend their storage period to now allow for greater than 10 years storage.

The storage period remaining on your samples is important if you are not intending or able to have treatment straight away, or if you are hoping to have samples stored for future use for a sibling. It is best to check what the remaining storage period or expiry date is for your samples before purchasing them if you are not likely to use them immediately. Semovo will always draw your attention to an expiry date of within 1 year of purchasing your samples.

A sperm donor profile marked with a special alert indicates a precautionary measure taken when BuySperm receives a report of a condition that might be related to the donor i.e. a genetic condition that may have been inherited from the donor.

Our team will investigate to determine if the condition is linked to the donor. During the investigation, the donor will be put on hold and no donor samples can be used or will be distributed. If the investigation concludes the condition is not related to the donor or poses no significant risk, the hold will be removed, and use and distribution can begin again. If the condition is related to the donor, or if it cannot be ruled out, the donor’s samples will be permanently on hold and no further use or distribution will be possible.

In certain circumstances it may be deemed possible for a patient to continue using a donor placed on hold after receiving genetic counselling, such as for a sibling of an already existing child or if embryos have already been created and can be tested. These are very specific situations and usually your clinic will discuss any further use of the donor with you.

A single donor can choose to help up to 10 families in the UK. While there is no international cap, Semovo impose a maximum limit of 20 families per donor worldwide to ensure ethical use.

For those seeking donors with lower family limits, options may be available, please ask one of the team at buysperm@semovo.co.uk.

Once a donor conceived child reaches 16, they can request non-identifying information about the donor and details about half-siblings from the fertility sector’s regulatory body, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), who maintain a record of all registered donors, all patients who had treatment with those donors and any children born from those treatments. From the age of 16 and 18, the donor conceived children can obtain non-identifying and identifying information, respectively, about the donor from the HFEA.

At 16, they can request:

     • The donor’s physical description (height, weight, eye and hair colour) if available

     • The year and country of their birth

     • Donor ethnicity

     • Information on whether the donor had any children, the number of children, and their sex

     • The donor's marital status at the time of donation

     • The donor's medical history

     • A goodwill message to any potential children (if provided). We will redact any information that could reveal the donor’s identity.

At 18, they can request:

     • All the above

     • The donor’s name, date of birth, and last known address.

If someone donated before April 1st 2005, even if the donation was used more recently in treatment, it will still be considered anonymous. 

If a medical condition is detected or suspected in your child and you believe it may be related to the donor sperm, please inform your clinic or Semovo immediately. Contact our team by phone or email so we can take the necessary action and investigate further.

You can find out all about pricing and multi-buy packages on our Pricing page.

This is a completely personal choice, however when making your decision please consider the following:

• If having IUI treatment patients will usually require several cycles to achieve a pregnancy.

• IVF and ICSI have higher success rates than IUI so fewer cycles of treatment are usually required for most patients.

• If you are wanting to expand your family in the future using the same donor, you may wish to purchase these vials now as Semovo cannot guarantee that the same donor will be available in a few years’ time.

Please note that Semovo does not accept returns and refunds on unused vials of donor sperm.

You may order vials from only one donor at a time, but you can purchase multiple vials from that donor in one or multiple orders. Since achieving pregnancy might require several attempts, and many prefer to reserve sperm for future siblings, buying multiple vials is very common.

Additional vials can be procured from the same donor if available. Your clinic can provide specific advice on this. UK regulations limit the use of sperm from UK registered donors to creating up to 10 families (dependent upon the donor’s consent). As an HFEA-licensed sperm bank, we adhere to this limit within the UK.

Yes, our pricing structure offers all-inclusive rates, meaning you pay the same amount regardless of the donor and the treatment type.

We provide free delivery to most mainland UK clinics and do not charge for family slot reservations or enhanced profiles. Additionally, there are no VAT or import fees payable. We also have attractive multi-buy options available.

Please see our Pricing page for more information.

When all of a donor's family slots have been occupied, a donor will be considered available for "re-order" or "siblings" only.

This means that only patients who currently occupy a family slot (i.e. are currently using the donor, are pregnant or have had a successful treatment using this donor, or have embryos/vials from the donor in storage) may order from this donor.

If you have used this donor before and currently occupy a family slot, please select "Yes" on the "Have you used a Semovo/Manchester Fertility donor before?" question on our enquiry form. 

Yes, if your treatment is unsuccessful, we allow up to 3 months for you to reorder from the same donor, if stock is still available. After 3 months, if we haven’t heard from you and you have no material (sperm or embryos) in storage at your clinic, we will assume you do not wish to re-order and we reserve the right to then remove you from the donor pregnancy/family slot.

We therefore recommend placing a reorder promptly if you have an unsuccessful treatment attempt to maintain your allocation for that donor.

Yes, if there is sufficient stock of suitable vials available, you can reorder and have the vials transferred to your clinic ready for future treatment for a sibling. Some patients prefer to include sufficient vials for siblings with their initial order, allowing them to benefit from the multi-buy package discounts.

To ensure timely delivery, please place your order at least three weeks before your planned treatment date. We cannot guarantee that orders placed closer to the treatment date will be fulfilled on time.

If you are a patient at Manchester Fertility, there's no need for your donor sperm to be delivered since we are located on the same site.

We ship our donor sperm to your chosen clinic using nitrogen tanks, also known as dry shippers.  A dry shipper keeps the samples at very low temperatures for up to 12 days ensuring that your samples are delivered safely and arrive in the same condition that they left our donor bank in.

If you are a patient at Manchester Fertility, there's no need for your donor sperm to be delivered since Semovo is located on the same site.

We do not accept returns once the sperm has left our donor bank. We maintain strict control over the sperm from donation until it is shipped, but we cannot know how the sperm is handled by your clinic. There may be exceptional circumstances where we do accept returns, but this is a rare occurrence.

Our donors undergo extensive screening according to the guidelines of the UK professional fertility bodies (ACE, ABA, BAS, BFS, HFEA, and EUTD). This includes analysing the donations themselves, as well as testing for infectious and genetic diseases, and providing a detailed family medical history. Donors also undergo a physical examination and implications counselling. Sperm samples are quarantined for 180 days, or 3 months before release, depending on the type and frequency of screening carried out.

Every donation is analysed to ensure it has normal semen parameters and only those that are normal are kept. Our donors must meet strict sperm quality criteria to be accepted onto the programme.

The screening tests for diseases include:

• Herpes Simplex Virus
• Chlamydia
• Gonorrhoea
• Syphilis
• HIV 1 and 2
• Hepatitis B and C
• HTLV I and II
• Cytomegalovirus (CMV)
• HIV 1/2, HCV, HBV PCR
• Cystic Fibrosis
• Karyotype for chromosomal abnormalities
• Blood-related hereditary conditions such as alpha and beta Thalassaemia

Our more recently recruited donors have been screened for the following additional genetic conditions:

• Inherited deafness
• Spinal muscular atrophy
• Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia

The results of these tests are available to view on the donor’s profile.

It is important to screen donors for the health of the patient having treatment, and their baby. STIs can be transmitted through semen, putting the patient and their child at risk, and genetic conditions can be inherited from the donor through treatment using their sperm. Screening donors therefore helps to ensure their samples are as safe as possible for you and your baby. Whilst we can’t test for every condition, our donors are fully screened according to UK requirements at the time of their donation, and their samples are quarantined before releasing for use in treatment.  

For detailed information on current testing protocols, please refer to our FAQ on screening.

We may have donors available that donated a number of years ago and so have different genetic tests on their profile to our more recent donors. These donors meet all the current guidelines for testing, we have just expanded our genetic testing in recent years beyond that of the guidelines to give patients more peace of mind.

Our sperm donors are tested for some genetic conditions, with more recent donors also being tested above and beyond the current requirements of our regulator and professional bodies. However, even then there can be rare variants of those conditions that aren’t tested for. There are so many other genetic conditions, both known and unknown, that we can never say that a donor has been screened for everything.

It is acceptable in some circumstances for some patients to use a donor with certain known genetic conditions, for example if they already know themselves to not be a carrier of that condition. Appropriate genetic counselling is advised beforehand to assess if there are any increased risks in doing so. You may be advised to be screened for the same genetic condition yourself. Always seek the advice of your clinic before proceeding with a donor with a known genetic condition.

CMV is a common virus that belongs to the herpes virus family. Once a person is infected, the virus remains in their body for life but is usually dormant and doesn't cause symptoms. However, it can reactivate and cause health issues, especially in people with weakened immune systems, or during pregnancy.

Our donors are tested for CMV before, during and after donation to continually assess their CMV status. Donors are not able to donate while they have an active infection. If a donor had the infection in the past, but does not have a current active infection, they are known as a “CMV Positive” donor. If they have never had the infection they are known as a “CMV Negative” donor.

Some clinics will only accept donors who are CMV Negative, whereas others will accept donors who are CMV Positive, but may, as an extra precaution, only allow patients who are also CMV Positive to use these donors. In this instance the patient will also need CMV testing to ascertain their CMV status. If you are concerned about CMV, we recommend talking to your clinic to see if they require you to be screened for CMV.  

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is the UK’s independent regulator of fertility treatment, sperm and egg donation, and research involving human embryos. It ensures that fertility clinics adhere to legal standards and provides information to patients and donors.

If you are having treatment with donor sperm, the HFEA is crucial because they set the guidelines to ensure the safety and effectiveness of your treatment. They regulate the use of donor sperm, ensuring that donors are properly screened and that their information is securely stored. This helps maintain high standards of care, safeguard patient and donor rights, and provide reassurance that the treatment is conducted ethically and responsibly.