Introduction

Park Avenue Fertility (PAF) is fully aware of the difficulties associated with choosing an anonymous sperm donor and trusts that this information will help educate, empower, and assist you in the process of selecting a donor.

The acquisition, screening, testing and ultimately, the acceptance of donors into PAF’s Anonymous Donor Program is conducted under the supervision of PAF's Tissue Bank Director, Medical Director and Medical Advisory Committee. PAF adheres to the highest medical, ethical, and moral practices, and our mission is to furnish meaningful information about PAF's Anonymous Donors and provide the highest quality donor sperm.

Please feel free to telephone the laboratory if you have any questions. Our trained staff is always available FREE OF CHARGE for telephone consultations, which we have found to be an invaluable resource for patients coping with the anxieties inherent in the donor selection process. Our staff understands the stress you face and can provide a wealth of experience and a compassionate ear.

We thank you for your interest in PAF's Anonymous Donor Program and wish you success in achieving your pregnancy. We hope that we can be of assistance and welcome you to experience the PAF difference......experience Science With A Human Touch™

Donor Testing

Park Avenue Fertility (PAF), located in New York City, has many colleges, universities, and professional schools from which we recruit our donors. As there is no absolute method of completely ensuring that infectious agents or genetic defects will not be transmitted by donor semen, the possibility of transmission is minimized by requiring that numerous screening procedures be performed on each donor applicant. As such, regulatory agencies such as the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) have developed standards for screening sperm donors. PAF follows established standards and regulations during all facets of the donor evaluation process and imposes additional requirements for donor acceptance.

All PAF Anonymous Donors are:

- routinely tested for HIV I/II (AIDS)
- routinely tested for Hepatitis B
- routinely tested for Hepatitis C
- routinely tested for HTLV-I/II
- routinely tested for syphilis
- routinely tested for gonorrhea
- routinely tested for chlamydia
- screened for Cystic Fibrosis, thereby reducing the risk of being a CF carrier to less than 1%.
- screened for carrier status if they belong to a population at high risk for Tay Sachs, Canavan's, Gaucher's, Sickle Cell Anemia or Thalassemia
- screened for illegal drug use
- screened for prescription drug abuse

For detailed information about PAF’s Anonymous Donor Screening, please refer to PAF
Anonymous Donor Screening - Assessment & Testing.

Donor Specimens

Park Avenue Fertility (PAF) Anonymous Donor specimens must (a) provide a reasonable chance for conception, (b) provide no increased risk of fetal abnormality, and (c) provide a reduced risk of pathogen transmission.

Every donor specimen undergoes a pre-freeze and post thaw semen analysis, and only those specimens deemed acceptable are quarantined for six months. In addition, a strict morphological analysis is performed monthly to verify that the size and shape of the sperm cells remains within normal parameters.

All PAF Anonymous Donor Specimens are:

- subject to a six (6) month quarantine for HIV and Hepatitis
- available in either Standard or Pre-Washed preparation
- available based on the number of vials released from quarantine each month
- subject to the following minimum criteria

	Standard specimen	Pre-Washed*
Volume/Vial	0.8ml - 1.0ml	0.5ml - 0.7ml
Motility	≥30%	≥30%
Motile Sperm/Vial	18 Million	10 Million

* Pre-Washed specimens are processed by gradient separation.

For a detailed outline of PAF’s Anonymous Donor Specimen processing, please refer to
PAF Donor Semen Specimens - From Deposit to Distribution.

Donor Registry

The decision to use an anonymous donor to achieve pregnancy is a highly personal matter. Each individual or couple has particular needs, desires, or concerns relating to their selection of a donor. Some couples desire a donor which resembles the recipient's partner as closely as possible. Some people forego physical characteristics and are more concerned with the donor’s medical and genetic background.

Still, others may require a donor of a particular religion or ethnicity, or one with a high degree of formal education.

Whatever your criteria, PAF’s Anonymous Donor Registry will help you decide which of our donors meet your specified requirements. The registry is a complete list of all donors in our program and provides basic information such as eye and hair color, height, weight and body type, maternal and paternal ethnicity, religion, education, and occupation. The Registry enables you to narrow down your choices in order to discern the donors which are best suited for you.

Donor Profiles

Park Avenue Fertility (PAF) believes that the more information you have about our various donors, the more comfortable and confident you will be when making your donor choice. PAF's Anonymous Donor Profiles provide pertinent non-identifying donor information in an easy to read format. Each profile contains details concerning the donor's physical characteristics, personal information, skills, preferences and personality traits, as well as donor and family health and medical background.

Donor Profiles can be viewed though: PAF Donor Registry

Photo Assisted Donor Selection

Photo Assisted Donor Selection is available for clients who would like their donor to resemble a particular individual. After narrowing down your donor choices, just send in the Photo Assisted Donor Selection Form along with a photograph of anyone you would like your donor's physical appearance to match. This photo can be of anyone - your spouse or partner, relative or friend, or even yourself. Our staff will then inform you which of your potential donors most closely resembles the person in the photograph. Importantly, PAF will inform you if we feel that none of your choices resemble the photo you provide.

Please Note:

A point to consider about Photo Assisted Donor Selection is that it may set up unrealistic expectations for clients. Although a donor may resemble a particular individual, it does not mean that these resemblances (i.e., characteristics) will be passed onto your child. A person’s appearance - as well as other characteristics - is an interplay between genetic factors contributed by both male and female biological parents and their respective families. Children may or may not inherit desirable features from their father and/or their mother. They may also inherit features which are not characteristic of either biological parent. For example, it is feasible for a brown-eyed couple to have a child with blue eyes. Here, the child inherits the genes for blue eyes from both parents, who carry the gene, although neither of them have blue eyes. Thus, understandably, it is impossible to select what your child will look like merely by choosing someone with attributes you desire.

Ordering & Shipping

To establish an account and order specimens from Park Avenue Fertility (PAF) please follow the steps outlined below:

1. Complete the INFORMED CONSENT FOR USE OF FROZEN DONOR SEMEN SPECIMENS form and either mail or fax both pages to PAF. Please note that you must have the Medical Staff Certification portion of the form filled out by a member of the facility's medical staff.

2. Once your completed CONSENT form is on file, you or your physician may order donor specimens. If you are placing the order, it is suggested to first fill-out all of the items on the PAF ANONYMOUS DONOR SPECIMEN REQUEST FORM. If you are uncertain about any of the items on this form, please contact your physician or PAF. Once the form is completed, you may telephone the information into PAF, or fax the form directly to our office.

3. Our staff is available to process phoned or faxed orders from 9:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., Monday through Friday. PAF cannot guarantee the delivery of any order which is placed outside our normal hours of operation or on holidays. PAF requests that orders be placed with at least two business days notice. New York State Department of Health and FDA regulations require that specific procedures be followed and documented concerning specimen distribution, and the two days advanced notice allows PAF adequate time to follow our distribution procedures carefully and accurately. As such, orders placed with less than two business days notice will be subject to an additional service charge.

4. All specimens are shipped in liquid nitrogen containers designed to maintain the appropriate temperature for up to seven days. Specimens may be ordered by the patient, but they can be shipped only to a licensed, practicing physician or designee. To ensure that your specimens are received in time for your procedure, PAF strongly recommends that shipments arrive at least one day prior for procedures scheduled on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. For procedures scheduled on Saturday, Sunday or Monday, shipments should arrive on the Friday before. Please be sure to coordinate the date of delivery with your physician's office.

The shipping methods available are as follows:

method of shipment	arrival information
PAF Courier	Manhattan
Imperatore or other	Metro New York & New Jersey Area 2
DHL Priority Overnight 1	Arrives Next Business Day 2

¹ Service may not be available in all areas.
² Arrival time varies with geographical location.

Payment Policy

Park Avenue Fertility (PAF) will bill the physician/clinic only if authorization is given by the office on your Informed Consent for Use of Frozen Donor Semen Specimens form. Charges will be billed to the physician/clinic on a per order basis at time of service.

If the recipient is responsible for their account, charges must be paid at the time of service. Payment may be made at the time the order is placed by Visa or Mastercard. Personal checks and money orders are accepted, but whatever the method, payment must be received before specimens are sent out for delivery. Sorry, but there are no exceptions. As such, PAF will not be held responsible for any problems or related costs incurred by the patient for missing a reproductive procedure due to specimens not being shipped due to nonpayment of charges.

Refund Policy

Park Avenue Fertility (PAF) strives to provide the highest quality sperm to our clients. PAF follows the standards established and published by the World Health Organization (WHO laboratory manual for the examination of human semen and sperm-cervical mucus interaction, Fourth Edition). PAF uses CELL-VU® disposable counting chambers to perform sperm counts and motility ratings on our semen specimens. Unfortunately, there is no standard method in which to perform a sperm count, and different laboratories using different counting chambers can get very different results from the same specimens.
As such, if your physician/clinic feels that your donor specimens do not meet PAF’s standards, it is important that they notify PAF immediately in order to discuss the matter.

In general, PAF’s refund policies for vials are as follows:
1. No monetary refunds are given for vials which have been shipped.
2. Refunds for vials that have been shipped are issued in the form of replacement vials only.
Replacement vials will be shipped at no charge.
3. No replacements vials or monetary refunds are given for vials which have been thawed incorrectly, mishandled, or subjected to further processing by the recipient’s physician/clinic.

In general, PAF’s refund policies for Order Cancellations are as follows:
1. Monetary refunds in full are issued for orders which are cancelled one day prior to the day of shipment
2. Monetary refunds in full minus a processing fee of $35.00 are issued for orders which are cancelled on the day of the shipment only if the shipping tank has not gone out for delivery
3. If an order is cancelled after the shipping tank has gone out for delivery, the client is responsible for all original charges plus the vial return fee (see Specimen Return Policy).

Insurance Policy

Park Avenue Fertility (PAF) does not bill insurance companies, nor do we accept insurance as payment for services rendered. If you have medical insurance and wish to seek reimbursement, PAF will furnish you with an itemized receipt which can be submitted to your insurance carrier.

Specimen Return

Park Avenue Fertility (PAF) realizes that situations may occur where return of frozen specimens is necessary. In keeping with New York State Department of Health regulations and American Association of Tissue Banks standards, PAF will accept returned specimens providing (1) we are promptly notified that specimens are being returned, (2) the specimens have not been removed from the shipping container and (3) the specimens are returned to PAF within seven days of the initial shipment date. The returned specimens will be maintained in storage for future use by the same recipient only, as returned specimens cannot be used by any other recipient. The recipient/clinic is responsible for the original charge associated with the order plus the fee for specimen return.

Pregnancy Reporting

Park Avenue Fertility (PAF) traces each donor specimen distributed for use by sending a Donor Pregnancy Survey to the recipient's physician. The data allows us to assess the donor's fecundity as well as monitor the number of pregnancies per donor. Importantly, New York State Department of Health regulations requires physician/clinics to report the outcome of assisted reproductive procedures. Additional data requested by PAF, which is optional, allows us to compile statistics for research about donor use and assisted reproductive procedures. Of course, all information obtained about the recipient, her assisted reproductive procedure, and its outcome is strictly confidential. In addition, PAF will not reveal the number of pregnancies per donor, nor can we guarantee that a pregnancy will result from the use of any particular donor.

Donor Siblings

Many successful recipients desire to have additional children with the same donor. The only way to guarantee the availability of a particular donor for future use is to purchase and store the requested specimens. Donor vials can be purchased and stored anytime when available. Park Avenue Fertility (PAF) will be happy to assist you in the process of purchasing specimens for consecutive pregnancies. Please telephone the laboratory for details.

What are the fees for anonymous donor semen?

All fees are payable in full before or on the date of delivery. PAF does not accept insurance as payment for services rendered, but will furnish you with an itemized receipt.

Fees - Anonymous Donor Specimens
Standard Vial - ICI Ready	$185.00 per vial
Pre-Washed Vial - IUI Ready	$225.00 per vial

packing & Shipping
Manhattan Courier	$130.00 round trip
Outside Manhattan/NJ	Call for price
DHL Overnight	Call for price
Packing Only	$45.00 (Personal Transport)

Priority service
Next Day Service 1	$75.00
Same Day Service 2	$100.00
Time Restricted Delivery 3	$55.00

¹ Ordered placed by 3PM, EST and delivered the next business day.
² Ordered placed by 12PM, EST and delivered the same day. Local Only.
³ Order placed for delivery by a specific time.