Shopping

I've been shopping over the past couple of days - for sperm. I have used the same donor (the third that I have tried) for all my IVFs, mostly because of my little frozen embryo as I had this dream of actually having...gasp...siblings. I was hoping one of the fresh cycles would be successful, and then that the FET would be successful and I wouldn't have children with different baby daddies. But alas, 'twas not to be.

So now it's on to donor #4. It is beyond time to move on, as I should have moved on a long time ago, but my RE's reassured me that the sperm was not the problem, despite people I know in real life saying "are you sure the problem is with you and not the sperm?" Uh, pretty sure, thanks. Crap, old eggs = crap embryos. Studly young college student sperm does not equal crap embryos. At least choosing a donor is so much easier now. For that first one, I trawled through all the banks' online catalogs. I agonized over whether I wanted more of a math nerd or a jock, or whether I needed an all rounder. With musical ability to boot. Whether the donor would be wiling to be known or not. I debated with myself whether it was really so important that the donor should be over 6 feet tall, or whether I could accept someone in the 5'10" - 5'11'' range. I ordered many long profiles and baby photos. I struggled to find some sort of "connection" in what they'd written so that it would be someone I could like in real life, even though the donors are all college kids and therefore much younger than me. I really cared about this genetic material that would form half of my children.

This time, I went back to the same bank I have been using all along, plugged in the important criteria, pregnancy = yes, blood group = same as mine (haven't done this before, but am trying it just in case it helps immune factors), and then the optional criteria, race, two choices of hair textures and two choices of eye colors. And that was that. The optionals were really just to narrow the field and weren't anywhere near as important as on previous selections - I would have jettisoned any of them in a heartbeat if no-one suitable turned up. I very quickly whittled it down to two top contenders, bought their photos and long profiles et voilà - one was a fugly baby, sorry to say, so his long profile has never even been downloaded from the site. The other is the choice. Done. Donor #4 picked.

Now all I have to do is get the forms for shipping signed by LV Clinic and then fork over the cash.