Counselling – Part 2

So the outcome of the main counselling session was fine. As previously mentioned, she was really lovely and very helpful.

The next step was to get Genetic counselling. This was done with a genetics specialist who just told me all about the testing done by the sperm banks and what they covered and meant. This was a requirement before getting access to the donors available to me.

What I learnt was so much about genes. But let me tell you, right now, I can barely remember most of it. It’s such amazing technology that they can see what genes the donor carries. And what the banks test for.

The two banks that I would have access to were the European Sperm Bank (ESB), based in Denmark, and Fairfax Cryobank (FF) in the US. I knew I was only going to get a limited selection of donors also. They explained that this was because the banks released a certain amount per state in Australia. Australian laws also said that 1. the donor could not be paid for their donation; 2. the donor was not allowed to have more than 10 families, including his own.

So ESB’s genetic testing was not as thorough as FF. But they did test for 5 main conditions. They also eliminated donors for many other reasons, including low sperm quality and 3 generations history. If you are interested in their screening process, please visit here. Fairfax, on the other hand, tested for over 280 diseases. And as the councillor I was talking to said, the more they test for, the more they find. And one thing I did notice when I was looking at their donors is that they didn’t eliminate donors if they had genetic markers. To see more on their screening, see here.

If I were to choose one of these donors with a positive marker, I would also need further counselling and a genetic test to make sure I was not also positive for the same marker. If both parents have this genetic anomaly, the likelihood of the child having it is high. But if it is only one parent, then the risk is much lower.

I am not a geneticist, nor a scientist of any sort, so all of this information may be completely wrong. But this is what I understood it as at the most basic level. And when you think of this, in “real life”, you meet your partner, fall in love, and have kids there. You don’t ask them for a genetic test before choosing them as a partner. So this is all just a lot of extra science involved. And great that they can do these things now. How amazing is it?

So now that this was all done, I was so excited to get access to the donors. Next post, I’ll talk about my decision process. And who I ended up choosing!