Frequently asked questions

There are a few areas to consider as well as the above:

1. How large is the data being collected to derive the statistics? Small numbers of treatment cycles can give higher results just by chance. Our statistics include at least 500-1000 cycles of treatment to give a representative picture.
2. What is the rate of twins and triplets? Many international clinics increase their IVF pregnancy rate by transferring more than one embryo.
3. What proportions of women were stopped before their IVF egg collection? Fertility Associates’ ‘Pathway to a Child’ booklet give this information.

It is useful to look at:

• How large is the data being collected to derive the statistics? Small numbers of treatment cycles can give higher results just by chance. Our statistics include at least 500-1000 cycles of treatment to give a representative picture.
• What is the rate of twins and triplets? Many international clinics increase their IVF pregnancy rate by transferring more than one embryo.
• What proportions of women were stopped before their IVF egg collection? Fertility Associates’ ‘Pathway to a Child’ booklet can you give this information.

Here is a list of possible questions you may want to ask at your first appointment:

• What is the best next step?
• Given my age, what are my chances?
• Given my age, should I wait or act now?
• What lifestyle changes can I make to boost my chance of success (eg, diet, exercise, stopping smoking, etc)? How will these help?
• Who will be the team caring for me? Who should I contact if I have a question?
• What are the treatment costs expected?
• Am I eligible for Fertility Cover?
• What treatments are options? 
• What would you recommend and why?
• What is my chance of having a baby in the next 12 and 24 months without treatment?
• How likely is fertility treatment to be successful for me? (While no doctor can give you an exact answer to this question, taking into account your personal medical information and age, your doctor's past experiences may allow him or her to roughly estimate your chance of success).

Unfortunately, this is not as easy as it sounds because the sperm in the vas and epididymis have been present for a long time because of the blockage and are often old, degenerated and lacking in fertilising potential. Also, sperm numbers are too low to inseminate into the woman therefore IVF technology has to be used. Now that IVF is more successful, it is sometimes a more suitable option than a reversal and so it is always best to discuss your situation with a fertility specialist before deciding on a vasectomy reversal.

A vasectomy reversal in men with less than a 15 year gap may give rise to as good a chance of a pregnancy as one IVF/ICSI cycle, and so a reversal is usually chosen as the first option.

This is called Micro Epididymal Sperm Aspiration – MESA. As my chances with a vasectomy reversal are lower than average because of the long duration from vasectomy. The MESA procedure should not compromise the chances of success from vasectomy reversal.

The most common reason is due to a blockage at the reversal site. Sperm tends to leak out of the operation site on the vas when a reversal has been performed. If excessive, the leakage can give rise to scaring.

The second cause of a failed reversal is where there has been a secondary blockage in the epididymis due to the back-pressure from the original vasectomy. Since some men who have no sperm in the cut end of the vas at the reversal procedure subsequently get sperm in their ejaculate over time, it is usually not possible to diagnose this secondary blockage at the time of the vasectomy reversal operation. An operation to bypass this blockage is called a vaso-epididymostomy and can be associated with a 25 % chance of a pregnancy.

Finally, in a very few men, sperm production in the testes may have ceased following vasectomy. If this is thought to be the cause in your case, then a testicular biopsy should clarify this.

Yes, this would be the use of donor sperm and sometimes couples choose this option. Although much simpler and usually giving rise to a better chance of a family, there are many differences that must be clearly understood before couples choose this option.

The fee for Time-Lapse Embryo Imaging is a per cycle cost. We would be monitoring your embryos from one cycle. With a maximum of 12 embryos per cycle, subject to availability. 

1. Ensure you’ve also completed your first counselling appointment as this is a mandatory part of the treatment process. You can only join the donor database once these two appointments (Doctor & Counselling) are completed as this will ensure you have the medical and legal information at the beginning of the process. If you complete these appointments together during your first visit, your nurse will add you to the donor database the same day. 
2. Alternatively, you can let the Donor Sperm Co-ordinator know once you have completed both appointments so you can be added to the database at that time.
3. Same sex couples: If you have a same gender partner who wishes to achieve a pregnancy in the future, please ensure you are both enrolled in the Donor Database. Sperm donors are allocated to individuals, not to families or couples to ensure we stay within the donor’s maximum number of recipients. 

Your Doctor, Nurse or Donor Co-ordinator at your local clinic will be able to advise you how long the approximate waiting time is. It is important to be aware that the length of time you may need to wait is an estimate, the waiting time can become longer or shorter.  This is because there are many factors contributing.

- The number of women waiting for a donor.

- The number of donors that become available in the future through being newly recruited or when   existing donor sperm recipients return their donor to the clinic selection pool. 

- The donors restrictions: Sometimes a donor may place restrictions about  circumstances eg. Sexual orientation, age, treatment type, relationship status, ethnicity etc.

- There are times when there are no donors available. It is possible that you are at the top of the waiting list but unable to select a donor for this reason.

Publicly funded treatment: If you have been allocated a publicly funded cycle and a treatment month in which to have your cycle, the cycle cannot take place until you are eligible to select a sperm donor. You will be given a deferred treatment month if the wait for a sperm donor is longer.

The current waiting times are available here on our website. The length of time you may need to wait begins from your enrollment date.  The Donor Co-ordinator will contact you when you are near the time when donor profiles will be available to view. You can check in periodically with your local clinic if you would like an update.         

When the time comes to select a donor, you may need to book a follow-up consultation with your Fertility Associates doctor to review your medical information if it has been more than twelve months since your last appointment. When the nurse or donor co-ordinator contacts you, they will be able to book you in for your second counselling appointment and viewing the donor profiles on the same day.

If at any stage since your initial doctor’s consultation you decide that you’re not quite ready to have treatment, please let your clinic know.  We appreciate that your circumstances can change and it helps us to reduce waiting times if we know you’re not quite ready yet. 

You won’t lose your position in the donor sperm database; we simply change your status to ‘not ready’. Then you need to let us know once you’re ready to proceed again in the future and we position you straight back where you were when you went on hold.  This is always dependent on donor availability so there may not always be donors available for you to view immediately when you’re ready to recommence treatment.

It is critical to decide what type of treatment you will have with your doctor - DI or IVF.  The type of treatment you have will have the biggest impact on the length of time you may need to wait for a donor.  Generally, the waiting time for IVF / ICSI sperm donors is much shorter than for DI.  It is not possible to join the donor database without this information.  NB: If you are waiting for a medical procedure prior to making this decision, you can be back-dated on the donor database so you will not lose your original position.

It is not possible to be on both the IVF and the DI waiting list as this would make the waiting times appear artificially longer than they really are.  If you change your mind about the type of treatment you wish to have, contact your nurse or donor co-ordinator so your records can be updated.  You won’t lose your place in the database as this is always determined by the date you enrolled.

We will offer you all the donors we have available on the day of your matching appointment.

You may make requests for specific characteristics for your donor however due to the shortage of donors, we may not be able to fulfill your request and this will significantly delay your waiting time.

It is important to remember that the characteristics you choose may not be the ones your child inherits.  There are no guarantees! There is some genetic information we know can be inherited such as eye and hair colour however there are many ‘environmental’ factors that are not scientifically known to be inheritable. 

We generally have between 25 - 50 donors at any time in total that are fully screened and released for treatment use.  You will be offered a minimum of 3 donor profiles that match your ethnicity, the type of treatment you wish to have eg. ICSI or DI and you will be matched to any restrictions the donor has placed.  For this reason, there may not be more than 3 donors available.

Our donor profiles are being viewed by recipients in all our New Zealand clinics on a daily basis.  For this reason, you will be asked to make your donor selection during the appointment at the clinic and sign your consent form.  You do not have to select a donor if none of the options are suitable.  If you prefer to delay your decision, this means that your preferred donor may not be available in the future, we are not able to hold donors for you.  

If you decide to wait for further options in the future, this is possible however it will significantly increase the time you may need to wait for a suitable option.

The donors are fully screened by Fertility Associates in accordance with Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee RTAC regulations.  All clinic donors have met with both a Doctor and a Counsellor and the stored samples have completed a six month quarantine period.

Sometimes.  It is not mandatory for donors to provide photos of themselves and it is for this reason we don’t have photos of all donors. You will also need to let us know if you would like to see the photos as we don’t routinely offer them since there are some recipients who do not wish to view them. The images must be viewed on site at Fertility Associates with a staff member.

If you are having Donor Insemination you will be allocated 10 inseminations (insems).  This is sufficient for 10 DI cycles. 

If you are having IVF with ICSI you will be allocated 4 inseminations (insems).  This is sufficient for 4 fresh IVF cycles.

If you are 41 years of age or older, you will be allocated 3 inseminations (insems) regardless of whether you are having ICSI or Donor Insemination.   You will need to meet with your Doctor for review if you are unsuccessful after your third cycle and wish to continue treatment.  Fertility Associates keeps an insurance pool for the majority of donors so it may be possible to continue with your original donor but you may be asked to select a new donor especially if you are changing from DI to ICSI or vice versa. 

Same sex female couples who are both wishing to use the same donor to each carry a pregnancy will be allocated two donor allocations.  This is because donors consent to help a maximum of 5 recipients.  This ensures each woman has her own allocation of donor sperm should the relationship circumstances change in the future and the donor’s wishes for a maximum of 5 recipients is adhered to. The partner who is not having treatment first will need to sign a consent to reserve sperm for the future after selecting a donor.  Storage fees apply as there are two donor allocations being held by one couple.

There is no charge for storage of donor sperm while you are actively in treatment (during the 3 month window)

-  You can only hold a donor for 3 months if you are not using the samples in a treatment cycle. If you are allocated a donor and your circumstances change eg. You apply for public funding and become eligible more than 3mths in the future, you require an ECART application for future treatment, then we will not be able to hold your donor for you indefinitely.  Your donor will be returned to the pool and you will be able to select a new donor closer to the time of your treatment in order to be fair to others in the donor sperm database.

-  Donors consent to a legal storage period maximum of 10 years. Your donor may have donated several years prior to you selecting him.  This is usually due to a previous recipient returning samples to the pool.  It is very important to check how many years of storage are remaining when you select the donor.  It is sometimes possible to extend storage of donor samples beyond the 10 year expiry date but this is usually only granted by an Ethics Committee after you have had a baby or if you are storing embryos, to enable you to try to conceive a sibling child.  If your extension is granted, storage fees are applicable.  

-  If you have IVF treatment using donated sperm and you create embryos that are frozen for future use, then those embryos have a legal expiry date also. The expiry date is 10 years from when the donor sperm is frozen, not 10 years from when the embryo itself is frozen.

Yes.

We will write to you after 16 weeks of pregnancy to ask if you would like to reserve sperm from the same donor for future treatment for sibling children. 

Same sex female couples:

Each partner wishing to conceive in the future must have their own reservation as clinic donor sperm is reserved for individuals.  Individual reservation fees are applicable. If reserving an exclusive known / personal donor, a lesbian couple can share storage fees.

Fertility Associates usually have an ‘insurance pool’ of donor sperm which may be available if you use all the sperm in your original allocation.  It is possible that you will not be offered any further clinic donor sperm in these circumstances and you may be asked to recruit your own personal donor.

With regard to beginning treatment, you need to contact our nursing team and they will provide you with the next steps.

No.  The exception to this is when you have had a child with a clinic donor and you wish to transfer sibling sperm to another clinic. 

This can be a difficult area.  We do not restrict personal egg donors as we do for clinic recruited donors, where the choice is with the potential recipient unless we fee the condition would have a significant impact on the child. 

For clinic-recruited donors world-wide, there is expectation that people who have genetic or heath risks above a certain threshold should not donate, and NZ regulations also require clinics to have policies and procedures for donor eligibility.  The threshold depends on the chance of inheriting the condition and the potential impact of the condition.  Please feel free to include your condition details in the criteria form.

No you can access inclusive rate for your first cycle and do not need to commit to 2 or 3 cycles at the first cycle stage. 

The only condition is that if  you wish to do a 2nd cycle – as detailed on the pricing page – your Day 1 for the follow on cycle needs to be within 3 months of the previous cycles pick-up.

If you have had a previous egg freezing cycle at FA, you can access the 2^nd Cycle discounted price if the Day 1 for the second cycle is within 3 months of Egg Collection the previous cycle.

If you have had 2 previous egg freezing cycles with FA, they you can access the third cycle discounted price if the Day 1 for the third cycle is within 3 months of Egg Collection of the second cycle.