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Welcome to
THE SPERM BANK OF CALIFORNIA

Since our founding over 25 years ago, we have been dedicated to promoting an open approach to donor insemination and advocating for family diversity. Our Identity-Release® Program is the oldest program in the world that allows adult children conceived by donor insemination to learn their donor's identity. THE SPERM BANK OF CALIFORNIA (TSBC) is the first and only sperm bank in the United States to operate as a nonprofit organization.

To learn more about the values and services that set us apart from other sperm banks, look below or click on the following links:

Statistics ~ Innovation ~ Research Program ~ Information ~
Diversity ~ Quality ~ Ethics ~ Family Services ~ Empowerment


STATISTICS:


Since our inception in 1982

  • Over 2000 families have children through TSBC.

  • 51% of births are boys, 49% are girls.

  • Close to three-quarters of TSBC families have donors in our Identity-Release® Program.

  • Lesbian couples parent two-thirds of all children born through TSBC.

  • Single-mothers-by-choice and heterosexual couples head the rest of TSBC families.

  • Close to 30% of TSBC families participate in the Sibling Program and have more than one child.

  • One in five TSBC families participate in the Family Contact List. Of these, two out of three have matched to at least one other family with the same donor.


    • INNOVATION:

    Our pioneering Identity-Release® Program allows children conceived by donor insemination to learn their donor's identity when they reach age 18. The Identity-Release® Program is the oldest and most thoroughly developed open-identity program available.

    RESEARCH PROGRAM:


    TSBC is the only sperm bank in the US to conduct and publish research on family building through donor insemination. Our research program shapes how we provide family-building options, including how best to provide donor’s identities to adults conceived using TSBC Identity-Release® Program donors, identifying conception methods that work best, and general follow-up on the well-being of families assisted by TSBC.

    INFORMATION:


    As a small donor insemination program, we are able to provide individualized customer service, which includes sharing resources related to fertility, donor insemination, and family building. We provide free donor profiles and staff impressions of the donors on our online donor catalog. For answers to common questions, we invite you to read our Frequently-Asked Questions. TSBC staff are trained in fertility awareness and can advise you in predicting ovulation so that you can most effectively time your insemination attempts.

    ETHICS:


    We are a known ethical leader in donor conception with programs that focus on the long-term well-being of the families we help to create. TSBC maintains a family limit of no more than 10 families per donor and we track all of our pregnancies and birth outcomes. We are the only sperm bank with an ethicist.

    DIVERSITY:



    We support family diversity and welcome all individuals and families. Two-thirds of the children born through TSBC are being raised by lesbian-couple parents and nearly twenty percent by single parents. We recruit a diverse group of men for our sperm donor program.

    QUALITY:


    We are committed to the highest standards of clinical screening, quality control, and confidentiality. TSBC is registered as a reproductive tissue bank with the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration), and our comprehensive screening of donors is performed in full compliance with the FDA's regulatory requirements. We hold Tissue Bank and Clinical Lab licenses in California, Maryland, and New York – the three states that impose the most stringent licensing requirements nationally.

    FAMILY SERVICES:


    TSBC provides ongoing family services, including our Family Contact List, Sibling Inventory program, second-parent adoption letters, and parenting resources.

    EMPOWERMENT:


    Our roots are in the 1980’s feminist women's health movement. Our philosophy is that recipients should feel empowered to take control of their insemination process. We ship directly to women's homes and provide information on how to how to inseminate at home. We were the first sperm bank specifically created to serve lesbian couples and single women. Read more about our history on the About Us page.



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