• The clinic will take special care to store your sperm. Each vial of sperm will be labelled with your unique number. To avoid contamination, these vials will be kept separately from other sperm and will not be in direct contact with others’ sperm.
  • There is no real time limit on how long your sperm can be safely stored, but most clinics suggest a period of 10 years. If you decide to keep your sperm in storage longer, you may have to pay annual banking fees; provincial healthcare coverage differs.
    • If you know you’ll want it stored for longer, you can specify this in the consent form.
    • After ten years, you can ask to store your sperm for a longer period of time; your clinic should contact you before removing it from storage.
  • Usually, the clinic will contact you every year to make sure you want to continue storing your sperm. Depending on your insurance coverage, they may also charge you a storage fee at this time.
  • You can remove your sperm from storage at any time.
    • It can be destroyed or donated to science.
    • You can do this by signing a form to request your sperm be removed from storage.
    • If you don’t pay the yearly banking fee, the bank may dispose of your sample. If you no longer wish to bank your sperm, it is recommended that you contact the sperm bank rather than just letting your payments lapse.
  • Keep in close contact with your sperm bank. Make sure that you notify them of any changes of address or contact information. This is important in case they need to bill you or tell you about changes in their storage policies.