Frequently asked questions
and terminology

When a potential donor applies, he undergoes a very strict selection and screening process.

First, he completes a comprehensive medical questionnaire and will thereafter go through interviews with our medical staff (nurse, medical doctor and psycologist) with the aim of evaluating candidates based on own health and lifestyle, family medical history, and risk behaviour. Potential donors with a family history of hereditary mental or physical diseases are rejected.

Additionally, a thorough physical examination of the candidate is carried out, and blood and urine samples are tested for infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B and C, chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and HTLV. In our lab, we also do a genetic carrier test for a number of recessive diseases, which means that the donor candidates at the time being are tested for the most common genetic mutations causing:

• Cystic fibrosis
• Alfa thalassemia, Beta thalassemia and Sickle cell
• Spinal muscular atrophy
• Tay Sachs (depending on donor’s ethnicity)

Also all potential donors are screened for normal karyotype (chromosome analysis).

Other blood parameters, Cytamegalovirus status and blood type is also a part of the screening.

All donors who get approved are regularly tested for infectious diseases through the donation period.

All Livio donors are non-anonymous. Donor children have the right to receive some kind of information about the donor, when adult, most often at the age of 18.

The donor remains, however, anonymous to the couple, and the couple remains anonymous to the donor. According to Swedish legislation the donor will never have any legal obligations nor privileges towards the child.

Most countries have in their legislation set a maximum number of children or families to which a donor can contribute. This number differ from country to country. In Livio Sperm Bank the limit per donor is children in a maximum of 25 families word-wide.

In order to ensure that these pregnancy limits are respected, we require that you at your first purchase of straws have to buy a socalled pregnancy slots. A pregnancy slot gives you the right to use the same sperm donor for multiple children within the same family. If you during multiple treatments want to change donor you will not be charged for a new pregnancy slot.

MOT indicates the amount of motile sperm cells, meaning forward-moving sperm cells. MOT is an acronym for Motile Total. MOT is measured in (mio/ml).

All our sperm donors have normal sperm quality accordin to guidelines set by WHO. MOT 10 and MOT 2 straws are therefor not sperm from donors with lower sperm quality than those with MOT 20 straws. The concentration of sperm is diluted to fit into the three MOT categories, proper to the treatment to be performed.

MOT 20- At least 20 millions motile sperm per ml at time of cryopreservation (normally used for insemination since MOT 20 is the straw with highst sperm concentration)

MOT 10- At least 10 millions motile sperm per ml at time of cryopreservation (proper for both insemination and IVF)

MOT 2- At least 2 millions motile sperm per ml at time of cryopreservation (proper for ICSI)

For some donors we offer two different types of donor sperm straws, ICI and IUI straws. Most clinics prefer the IUI straws, however before ordering sperm, you will have to (together wih your clinic) decide on whether to purchase ICI or IUI straws.

IUI is an acronym for IntraUterine Insemination which means insemination in the uterus. IUI, IVF and ICSI treatments may only be performed at a fertility clinic. IUI units are primarily prepared for treatments where the donor sperm is inseminated directly into the uterus and also well suited for IVF- and ICSI treatments.

ICI is an acronym for IntraCervical Insemination. With this treatment, a syringe is used to inseminate the donor sperm vaginally. ICI units should not be used to inseminate directly into the uterus (IntraUterine Insemination). Some clinics also prefer to do the preparation process themselves and therefore want you to buy ICI-straws.

We will protect the donor who have provided us with their personal information from random web searches and unauthorised access. Therefore you need to create an account in order to gain access to the donor profiles. It is free and takes only a few minutes, whereafter you will have access to our donor profiles.

Once your account is set up, you can save your search history so you always can return to your preferred sperm donors.

Livio Sperm Bank are using well known, international shipping partners practicing quality assurance for all shipments. This helps us to ensure that your straws will arrive safe and on time.

Each unit of sperm is shipped frozen in a device called straw. Straws are specifically made for safe cryo-storage of human sperm in liquid nitrogen and nitrogen vapour. We ship our straws in socalled 'dry shippers' where a stable temperature is secured for up to 1-2 weeks.

When you order straws online, you can choose between shipping your straws directly to your treatment clinic or to have them stored at Livio Sperm Bank. If stored with us is chosen at checkout you are asked about your prefferred length of storage.

In case you did not need all straws bought during the fertility treatment, you can choose to store the additional straws in case you want to have a second child later on. If you don't want to use the straws that you have in storage with us, we'll refund part of your expenses for buying the sperm. You'll get back 75% of your initial cost until 3 years after your date of purchase - following that, the refund will decrease gradually. You can read more about sperm straw refunds in our terms and conditions.

If you want to store straws for potential siblings, we recommend reserving the straws as soon as possible. If you wait, there is a risk that the sperm donor will no longer be available.

If your straws are shipped to the clinic, they cannot be returned.

If you make a reservation of straws for later use (could be for later siblings), they are stored in Livio Sperm Banks facilities. In such cases the unused straws may be returned and refunded.

When you make a reservation, you pay for the straws and a reservation fee for having the straws stored at Livio Sperm Bank for the chosen period.

If you don't want to use the straws that you have in storage with us, we'll refund part of your expenses. You'll get back 75% of your initial cost until 3 years after your date of purchase - following that, the refund will decrease gradually. You can read more about sperm straw refunds in our Terms and Conditions.

If you decide to cancel the reservation before shipped to your treatment clinic, we offer to refund 75% of the straw price. You can read more about cancellation of sperm straw in our Terms and Conditions.

We indeed hope that you succeed with your fertility treatment and have a positive pregnancy test. If so, the fertility clinic where you have been treated should report this back to us. It is our legal responsibility to register all pregnancies and deliveries of a donor.