The selection process and the first visit

Wendy here.

Did you know that you can review sperm donors online?!! How trippy is that!!

At first, we were looking at Portland's only sperm bank (at OHSU). There was only one donor that we really liked (they have a very small donor list). When I called to check his availability, I learned that he was sold out with EIGHT people waiting in line for his next "installment". What an ego boost for that dude!!

So we went with Pacific Reproductive Services located in San Francisco. They have lots of sperm donors available. But reading through the donor list is a surreal activity. I would get tickled and start giggling because I could hear The Dating Game theme song going through my head and hear host Jim Lange say "Now Wendy, donor 1555 is a 6'0 tall man weighing 145 pounds. He has brown hair, green eyes and enjoys basketball, surfing and reading!!". Ha, ha, ha... giggle, giggle, snort.

We had our top three donors picked out before we flew to San Francisco on Sunday - a day early for our Monday morning consultation and physical appointment with Pacific Repro. We took in some San Francisco sights (click on the picture to see a larger version):

Transamerica Building - seen from our hotel room:

Castro district

Fisherman's warf

And the Yerba Buena Gardens where there was a cool band playing while some people did some tumbling kind of martial arts.


The whole afternoon, Karen and I would ask one another, "Do you want to shop for anything?" Then we would say together, "SPERM!" We are there for sperm and sperm alone. No other souvenirs required.

On Monday, we drove to the Pacific Reproduction Services office:

And we read the long profiles on our top donor candidates and confirmed our number 1 pick. And we bought us some sperm!
Here's what we know about our donor:
He's of Finnish/Norwegian/German descent.
He is 6' tall and weighs 170
He has brown, wavy hair and hazel-green eyes
He has a square face and a medium complexion
He has a muscular, athletic body
He has excellent health and there are no medical problems in his family.
His blood type is O+
He has a BS in Bioengineering and is working towards a Master's degree in the same field
He scored on 780 on the math portion of his SAT's
He has 20/20 vision
He enjoys weight lifting, fishing and running.
He played high school soccer, football and track
He plays the violin
His mother is a teacher; his father is a carpenter

WOW! Doesn't he sound like a good choice? We certainly hope so!

Karen and I spoke with Lynn, a registered nurse who will doing the inseminations. She explained all about the process and answered all our questions. She also gave me my woman's physical. My blood pressure was 104/70! Yea!

The only down-side of the afternoon was that a fairly new lab person tried to draw my blood. He stuck me once in each arm (without drawing anything) before he called in his supervisor who drew my blood without any trouble. Needless to say, I have a couple of small bruises from the sticks but it's all a small sacrifice to pay. The lab will run lots of tests on my blood to make sure I'm a viable candidate for insemination.

If all goes well, I should return to San Francisco around August 4 - 7 to have my first insemination attempt. I've been told that it is safe for me to fly after inseminations (which saves me a ten-hour drive!) Please send us your prayers and good thoughts on these dates.

More later,
Love,
Wendy