For lesbian couples the road to motherhood is more possible today than ever
Today, more and more resources are now available to help same-sex couples overcome the challenges in the process of having a child, and the support for rights of same sex parents is growing stronger.
However, there are a lot of important questions to which same-sex couples need to find an answer before trying to conceive a baby.
Cryos International is the world’s largest sperm bank and has over 30 years of experience in the world of fertility treatment. In this article, we outline some of the basic decisions that needs to be made when same-sex couples want to become pregnant.
Who will carry the baby?
The first step is to determine who will be carrying the baby. Maybe one of you is more interested in carrying the baby? Or maybe there are other factors that can help make the decision, such as age and medical history. Some women may choose to carry their partner’s egg so that they both are involved.
Couples, who want more than one child, choose to switch who is getting pregnant, so they both get the experience at one point. At Cryos you have the possibility to reserve donor sperm for future siblings so that the children will be biologically related.
Where will the sperm come from?
Some couples have someone they know to donate sperm, and this is beneficial in the way that you know the donor’s personality and physical appearance. On the other hand, the relationship with a known donor can be challenging in the future if there is some kind of disagreement of involvement and parental rights.
More and more same-sex couples choose to use a sperm donor. One of the upsides of using a sperm bank, like Cryos, is that the sperm bank requires donors to waive their parental rights to their sperm, so you risk no legal issues there. Another benefit of using a sperm donor is that the sperm bank tests the donors for various transmitted and genetic diseases.
At Cryos you have free access to all the information you need about the sperm donor so even though you do not know the donor personally you can get a lot of information about his medical history, personality, physical appearance, and you have the possibility to see childhood photos of the donor.
What kind of fertility treatment to choose?
There are four options when it comes to methods of insemination:
1. Home insemination: Sperm is deposited in the vagina using a syringe at home.
2. IUI (Intrauterine Insemination): Sperm is deposited in the vagina using catheter that is passed through the cervix.
3. IVF (In Vitro Fertilization): is the process of fertilization by extracting eggs, retrieving sperm, and then manually combining an egg and sperm in a laboratory dish. The embryo(s) are then transferred to the uterus.
4. ICSI (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection): the egg is injected with a single sperm using a tiny needle under microscopic guidance. The embryo(s) are then transferred to the uterus.
If you choose to use a sperm donor, you can learn more about choosing the right sperm quality for insemination on Cryos’ website. You can also visit Cryos’ blog here.
If you have questions about fertility treatment with donor sperm you are welcome to contact Cryos International’s customer service: +45 8676 0699, [email protected].