Shipping: not worth it! Just travel to the donor.

When a potential recipient asks me about shipping, my answer is always the same: you as a recipient should not bother with shipping.

You will be better off (less risk AND likely less cost) simply traveling to where the donor is, for in-person AI donation, rather than trying to deal with shipping. Why?

Costs of shipping


  • As I calculated here, a single shipping (cost of shipping kit + delivery to you) ranges between $210 to $420 for a single shipping, depending on quality of shipping kit, whether you overnight or do 1 day delivery, and where you are located.
  • You may need to do more than one insemination to succeed, especially since shipped sperm may not work as well - especially when opting for cheaper options.

Risks of shipping

You never met the person, so you don't know who you are working with. 
  • You have no guarantee that the person used their own sperm (worst case, could be someone else's with STD)
  • Second worst case, they simply demand pre-payment and disappear and never ship.
  • I have read online horror stories of non-human sperm being shipped, but you can't always trust all you read online especially horror stories :)
Shipping sperm is less likely to result in conception than fresh donation.
  • Sperm can get damaged because it's not fresh
  • If using Cryo, freezing/thawing may damage it
  • Test Yolk Buffer (used in most kits) wasn't designed for insemination human sperm so not best at it.
  • Test Yolk Buffer contains an antibiotic, which may affect you.

Benefits of just traveling to the donor

  • You get to meet the donor and evaluate them
  • You are guaranteed that the sperm you get in a jar is donor's sperm. Not some other man, or an animal, or some sperm looking goo.
  • If the donor flakes out (look, let's be honest, it's a risk), you still have traveled to an interesting destination and can have a good vacation.
  • If you want to try to inseminate 2 or 3 times, the costs may actually be cheaper (see below)
  • If you are lucky you can arrange backup donors or simply inseminate from more than one donor, for same cost.

Costs of shipping vs vacation

Let's say you want to try to inseminate 3 times in 5 fertile days (once every other day) and you live in Ohio.

As discussed here, it would cost you $630-$1260 to ship 3 times depending on quality and distance, with all the associated risks and downsides.

For travel, you can book a cheap round trip flight for 5 day period 1 month in advance for ~$200; and 4 nights in a hotel in New Jersey near NYC cost ~$400, total $600 - BUT, you get an amazing 5 day long NYC vacation included in same price AND all the benefits of traveling to a donor listed above.






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