Policies on donors donating to multiple banks ?

cbale

I would like to know what is California Cryobank policies on donor who have previous donated to another sperm bank? I know most banks have limits of 20-40 family units. If a donor have been known to have donated previous, will California Cryobank make it client aware?

cryo-admin

Hi CB -

Our maximum goal is 25-30 family units per donor worldwide. The average is about 12-15 families per donor.

We ask all applicants if they have ever been donors at another bank and disqualify those that say yes.

If we believe a donor has donated at another bank, we contact that bank to determine if it is true. If a donor still has vials remaining, we restrict them for sibling pregnancies.

We do not notify clients in these situations, as some may have no interest or prefer not to learn about other families. The decision to pursue information or make contact with other families is up to the individual.

Regards,

Nicole
CCB

cbale

CCB(Nicole)-
Thank you for responding so quickly. The reason I asked my previous questions was because I notice a similarity between one of your donors(13680) and a previous Fairfax donor (2754). They could be the same or different donor, I just thought it is something to consider.

I understand the reasoning behind your decision to not informed clients, but I would hope at the minimum you would informed the clients who participate in your sibling registry. I would also like to say that even though it up to your clients to pursue information about donors, it unethical to withhold knowledge about something that can impact a donor child and their family life.

http://donorsearch.fairfaxcryobank.com/donorinfo.cfm?oh_donorid=5801

jjr3

Those donors are exactly the same right down to the hobbies of gardening and chess. It seems like all cryobank should have a collective data base of donor dna that they can all access to check that a donor isn't bouncing from bank to bank. It seems plausible that a donor would flat out lie and say they never donated. CCB is awfully trusting when they take everything the donor says at face value. There needs to be more checks and balances.

ArielF

I actually contacted farifax about this, and the lady I talked to and checked. She verified they are different people. After all, eye color and heritage is different. However, she talked to her director to make sure. She said it was almost impossible for that to happen, considering the Fda and Dea check this. She also told me, she has access to their social security numbers and put me on hold, coming back to tell me they are absolutely not the same person. I hope everything she said was true, but I guess if someone wanted to purchase both pictures and interviews we could find out.

cbale

I guess it possibly that their different donor, but the fact that CCB didn't respond back to my post make me wonder if something else is going on.
Regardless I already decided to not use Cali Cryobank in the future based on their policies on withholding information from clients. I wasn't able to find a picture from Cali Cryobank, but found one for Fairfax Cryobank. The donor(2754) is the second one at the bottom.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8ZMXYJ7

ArielF

OH MY GOSH. Cbale...is the bottome donor from Fairfax cryobank? If so..that's the same picture from California Cryobank!! I have the California one...

Sweettheartt

That photo is the one on CCB

Sweettheartt

Guess that donor is donating at two banks.

jjr3

Well I am not shocked at this point. No checks and balances in this system at all. Between this and finding out CCB does not verify basic information they put on their site as factual donor information with no attached clause makes me want to throw up my hands. It is so interesting to since I keep having issues. I used a previous donor for my three kids and was told information about his appearance and rating etc at that time. Now as I am trying to find another donor as our previous one is retired, I find out information about our previous donor that I was never told. We can never forget this is a business. What is a personal and difficult process for us is a financial business to cryobanks. I feel wiser now though and will approach this decision with much more caution and skepticism which is such a bummer.

Sweettheartt

What new information did you find out about your previous donor?

jjr3

It was just basic appearance stuff. The way he was described then is entirely different then how he is described now. We were trying to match a donor to my husband back then and come to find out this donor is far from looking like him. I called a couple times then to get a breakdown of his appearance and now much of what I was told then is counter now. Granted we did not do donor matching so maybe we should have. I love my kids and they are gorgeous but there has been a bunch of genetic issues one of which is more than one autism diagnosis across siblings. I know they can't make the donor be honest about medical stuff or he may not know. I guess that is why it bugs me so much that simple information requests that anyone could get are not being verified. They could ask for a yearbook showing the donor as a soccer star for example. Anyone good enough to lie their way through the program are genes that I would not want to pass to my child. I am sure many to most donors are honest with slight exaggerations but if they think CCB will request info then they may be that much more honest. This overlap of multiple donations is so worrisome. That guy has his own kid too. How can he feel good about producing that many siblings for his own child? That is a selfish person who I would never want my child sharing genes with.

Sweettheartt

I am certainly sorry to hear of your children's medical issues. Have you spoken to any parents of half siblings? Do they have similar issues?

jjr3

I know of other siblings with the same or similar issues. I have one kiddo diagnosed with autism there are two other siblings diagnosed from two other moms and one other one that I suspect. Lots of speech issues and possible dyslexia. One sibling I know of wears leg braces. Again, this part isn't CCB's fault as it is luck of the draw but being that it has occurred across donor siblings I know it isn't me. Plus we have 2 kids who are grown with no issues. My kids are awesome beautiful and brilliant so I am not complaining. This is more about controlling the things that CCB does have control over as so much is out of their and our control.

cryo-admin

Hi Everyone -

I'd like to clarify a few things:

We take donor screening and limiting offspring very seriously.

We investigate any reported medical/donor information issues and react accordingly. Often times, families do not share medical issues with us. Sometimes we find out more reading message boards and Facebook than from actual reports. It is critically important to stay in touch with your sperm bank and always report any pregnancies, births, or medical updates on your child. We can only share information with you that is shared with us.

Please keep in mind that there is an increase in the likelihood of issues like autism in multiple births (twins, etc.) or pre-mature births. All these factors need to be taken into account when assessing the risk of a possibly inherited issue.

We spoke with Fairfax this morning for the first time since the serial donor was brought to our attention. We have been waiting for them to get back to us. The reason we did not respond sooner is that they had not responded to our requests prior to ArielF's posting. The information Ariel was given appears to be incorrect. I don't know what Fairfax told her or why. Neither the FDA or DEA have anything to do with monitoring at which banks donors donate.

We are still trying to get accurate information from Fairfax, but have restricted further sales of CCB Donor 13680 effective immediately.

CCB does not withhold information from our clients. We choose to verify information before reporting so that we know what we are talking about. The health and well-being of the families using our services has always been our #1 priority. We are the only national sperm bank without excessive numbers of offspring reported per donor on the Donor Sibling Registry; we are the only sperm bank with 5 full-time genetic counselors; our Medical Board of Directors are nationally recognized experts in genetics, communicable diseases, andrology, and pathology; we are the leading proponent and major financial backer of a National Gamete Donor Registry which will establish a data base of all sperm and egg donors. We operate twice as many facilities around the country as any other sperm bank to provide maximum donor selection while keeping costs in line with the overall industry.

In short, we do everything within our power to provide the absolute best service possible. We continue to review policies and practices, and make changes when necessary (additional genetic or STD screening, changes to donor information, etc.) Some of this change is internally motivated, and sometimes it is a reaction to the changing needs of our clients.

35 years ago, our clients and services were very different than they are today. Things will continue to evolve. We welcome client input and appreciate your constructive criticism.

Regards,

Scott
CCB

jjr3

Great Scott, that is good information to have it if sounds like CCB is on top of some real flaws that exist across cryobanks in general. Nicole tried to address this but I would love to hear your take on my CCB does not require verification or proof of things like gpa, SAT scores and so forth? Either addressed here or in the other thread about this. Can you also point me to the place on your website where you state that you don't verify this but just do a series of interviews to get the information? Had I been aware of that previously then the interview would have held much more weight in my decision. Also, to clarify, my son having autism is not an issue for me. I know there is no way CCB could have known this but hopefully you have let the donor know. I have reported everything to CCB all along and I have been told other parents have as well. That piece is out of your control and I know it. I am more upset about the oversight of the simple expectation of verifying donor information like grades and the like. We don't have the luxury of knowing these guys and must base a decision to have a child with certain criteria that is limited. It would be great to know that criteria was accurate. CCB gave my husband and I three of the greatest blessings ever and we plan to have one more using a donor. I am indebted to you and have trusted you. This information regarding donor info has been shocking. If you could address more the process and rationale behind why you do it this way I would appreciate it.

jjr3

Please ignore all typos above as autocorrect on my Samsung is out of control.