Banking on your sperm for fertility and the next generation

What do you do if you are old enough to get married and you've decided to wait for the right moment, but the right moment hasn't arrived yet and you think you are fast getting old for a healthy fertility?

Answer: store your sperm for potential future use, should something terrible happen to you... accidents, premature death, ED or other worst-case scenarios.

Storing sperm are also crucial for people who have a high-risk occupation, or are undergoing chemotherapy, surgery for testicular or prostate cancer or a vasectomy.

But, storing sperm for fertility or other health reasons can be very expensive and tiring.

You think it’s easy to get your wife pregnant all the time? Sometimes yes. But most of the time, after looking at the numbers, it seems surprisingly hit-or-miss.

So, if you are not the 'sharp-shooter' who always misses the bulls-eye, then it's time to visit the sperm bank. A sperm banking keeps a stock of sperm from a donor so that women may have the choice of additional children from the same donor.

First of all you need to find a sperm bank in your country where you need to store or 'freeze' them. The next step is to go for a health check, 4 days prior your visit to the bank to be tested free from STD and this will cost you some money.

Cost of initial consult: US$100-150
Cost of STD lab panel: US$150-200

You also need to abstain from sex and masturbation 48 hrs but no more than four days before each 'session'. If you keep more than four days, dead sperm cells begin to accumulate and cause trouble, as you need a certain ratio of live sperm to dead sperm per 1 cc (cubic centimeter) of volume.

At the bank, you have to 'do it yourself' until you can ejaculate for 6 times (you should make six sperm deposits for each child you’d like to have). Why six times? -- 50%+ of your sperm count is annihilated from the freezing (or storing) process.

The sperm deposit is then transferred into vials which are stored (frozen) in liquid nitrogen for at least six months before being made available for use.

Cost per sample frozen: US$150-200 (x 6 = US$900 – 1,200 per potential kid)
Cost per year: US$300 – 600 (often for all samples)

In Malaysia, the Gleneagles Medical Centre Penang has the facilities for sperm banking and fertility treatment.

Well, unless you're in China (Shanghai) where they have pretty girls to give you a 'hand job'. At the Shanghai Sperm Bank, the girls were reportedly willing to go that extra mile to give you a hand! But in this case, those guys in the pic are not there for storing reasons, they could be there for donations or simply being paid for their sperm (or just having fun getting a free hand-job). The website purportedly said that these donors are getting paid RMB200 (US$30) at the end of each session.

Anyway, if you think this story is true, then read this:

Shanghai Sperm Bank Denies "Helping Hand" Rumor

Related article:  Banking on your Sperm
About Sperm Banking
My fertility preservation choice to freeze embryos with donor sperm

Email to Chief Minister on PDCP regarding Ixora Heights

Dear Mr Chief Minister Lim,
I am an owner of a unit at Ixora Heights, a newly completed project of PDCP, located at Lengkuk Nipah 3. I'm thoroughly disappointed in how the PDCP has handled the issues concerning the OC of my house.

I received a letter asking me to make full payment of the house plus all the interests for late charges (I'm servicing a government housing loan), a 3-month maintenance fee and sinking fee to be fully cleared before receiving the vacant possession. I have hastened all the process for the final payments, plus going to some considerable length to find money to pay all the payments due.

I finally received my house keys just 2 days before Hari Raya. I felt overjoyed, but it was very short-lived when I was told we couldn't start moving in because there was no OC obtained for various reasons i.e.the extra parking lots were not complying to the safety rules by jabatan parit dan saliran. I wonder, how the developer could even consider selling these extra parking lots, like it was an afterthought, and not in the original plan? And secondly, how the architect could miscalculate the distance of the roof from the drains, aren't PDCP using certified architects? This is an obvious incompetence on their part.

I attempted to visit my unit frequently, however was denied entrance many times at the gate because the Guard says he did not have a key to allow us into the compound. What's the use of giving us house keys, if we cannot even enter our house? the maintenance fee was paid for 3 months in full, but we are not even using the service? this is an injustice to house buyers.

My biggest problem is, I'll be leaving for United Kingdom this Monday (19 September 2011). I have arranged my departure to coincide with moving into our new house. I'd like be assured that my family could move out of our rental house and not having to pay rent as well as the loan installments. But all my hope is crushed due to the inefficiency of PDCP. They took 3 years to complete this project, and now the time has long expired. the VP was given to save PDCP from paying compensation, but we're still unable to 'take possession'  of our house in true essence. this is cheating in disguise.

All in all, what is more frustrating is, none of the PDCP top management has made any attempt to address the issues concerned with house buyers. if what i hear is correct, even the "official" front entrance has been identified as a potential hurdle to OC approval, and this will further delay the process.

Mr Lim, i appeal to you to have a serious look into this matter and not let us become the victims of what should be a prestigious state project. I bought this house with the PDCP highly credible name associated with it, and my perception of that is slowly diminishing...

Thank you for reading this email.

With Best regards,
Dr. Bakiah Shaharuddin
USM