Hi There!

My husband and I hoping to be pregnant soon, with the help of Donor Sperm. (my husband had cancer when he was a kid so because of chemo he's got absolutely no swimmers).

It's been a bit of a long-ish road, but we're getting there. We always knew we were going to have to use a not "normal" method of having children, whether it be adoption, abduction [;-)]etc... We've had fantastic assistance from our Fertility Clinic. They import their sperm (apparently now that Australia has laws that ensure that Donor details must be made available to the child - if they wish - once the child is 18, finding Australian Donors isn't that common).

We've reviewed the profiles of donors (the 'catalogue'), made our selection and now we're just at the mercy of my cycle as to when we go in for our "basting".

Over the past 8 months or so, my wonderful husband and I have spoken heaps about what it will be to use a sperm donor. At the end of the day, we were fully prepared to adopt a child, so adopting sperm isn't really any different....but we get a chance to "grow" a baby ourselves.

The cost is a bit of a bugger. The sperm itself is $850 a pop, and none of that can be claimed on medicare. The procedure (in my case - a "turkey basting") is about $750-ish, but by the time you claim medicare, you're out of pocket about $350. so $1,200 per go. which is ok...but if you then start having difficult in falling pregnant, it can turn into something quite expensive (that's without even getting into the emotional difficulty).

Anyway, so I'm just starting the process myself...the turkey basting is happening in about 2 weeks. It's all a bit exciting/daunting. I found this website while on the hunt to find out what to do and what not to do while trying to maximise the chances of conception...I don't know a great deal of this baby caper - but I can atleast contribute to this donor chat thread!

Best of luck with everything Aimswervy...even if I have not helped that much, at least you can see there is someone else out there using donors...

Cheers!