What is it like to donate sperm in the US?

In my freshman year, I was eager to make some money with my seeds, so I applied to become a sperm donor. There are about a dozen sperm banks in New York City with similar names: New York Sperm Bank, Sperm Bank New York, Sperm Bank International, etc... Since I am tall, mixed race, and smart (their judgment is based on the university), I received a request to provide Sample notification.

The sperm bank I went to was on the middle floor of a building in the city center. There are abstract flowers on the walls and fine graffiti on the ground. They look cool and the sterile environment reminds me of the pediatrician's office I went to as a kid. After filling out the questionnaire, I had a few chats with the all-female staff, and then I was sent to a small "collection room" with the small plastic tube they gave me - it's time to send it out.

Although clinics are not obligated to provide pornographic material, all sperm banks I've been to have "exclusive collections" in order to make collection smoother. Usually a stack of magazines, and if you're lucky, a small wall-mounted monitor and a stack of DVDs. Growing up on Internet porn, I was fascinated by these historical relics, and I had never watched a porn DVD before donating sperm. I'm curious as to which researcher in the white coat chose these films and why he chose them.

Teresa Randolph, the owner of the New York Fertility Bank, told me that preparing pornographic material for a sperm bank is an easy crime. "Obviously you need to have some porn material for the collection room because men need inspiration. So you're going to the AV store to buy this stuff in person. We're not going to let our staff do it because it could be considered sexual harassment, and I My husband did the job." (Note: The New York Fertility Bank is not a sperm bank, but it does have some sperm reserves.)

This is basically the case with most sperm banks and fertility clinics I've dealt with. Ty Kaliski used to work at a sperm bank, and there were a dozen magazines in the collection room that Ty bought online. Ty later jumped to work as CEO at the Manhattan Sperm Bank, where both collection rooms were equipped with small TVs and DVDs. Unlike most sperm bank managers, Ty didn't pick films for sperm donors himself, but entrusted the job to a male clerk.

I asked the caster, who asked not to be named, about the selection process. "Two years ago, my colleague and I had a long conversation, and we spent a week discussing which movies are suitable for sperm donors to watch." As he spoke, he turned on the TV and handed the remote control to me. I looked through and found that every title had the word "creampie" (please translate it yourself). I went on to ask why it was chosen, and it said "to get them into shape, but we don't want them to be in there for too long."

The researcher further explained: "Previously, most of the film covers were white heterosexual scenes. We want to be more diverse: white, black, Asian; heterosexual, gay..."

Owner Teresa said: "We didn't have these stocks at first, and then more and more homosexuals wanted to get sperm, especially foreign friends, whose own national laws did not allow them to have children. We put a sign in the room, Tell people that they can ask us if they're not happy with the film, and we'll do what we can." Today, when Teresa and her husband visit an adult video store as usual, 25 percent of the films they buy are same-sex series. But they don't have much experience in appreciating such films, so the selection is based on the feeling under the cover at a glance.

(Note: Lesbians have made Teresa aware of the needs of gays and have created a gay series for male sperm donors. Image removed to avoid harmony.)

Teresa took me on a tour of their collection room, which has three drawers, each with a "visual aid" sign, and small labels describing the categories inside. Two of the drawers are "Male/Female" and one is "Male/Male". "We didn't want to offend anyone [to show them what they didn't want to see], so we put labels on the drawers," she said as she flipped through the DVD and took pictures of me.

Providing any form of pornography carries certain legal risks, so some institutions, such as the Sperm & Embryo Bank of New York, are very cautious about it. Their business is not just accepting sperm donation, but also preserving sperm for teens preparing for chemotherapy. I went to visit their CEO Albert Anouna to explore the same question.

"I don't want to be embarrassing because we also save sperm for 11 or 2, so we need to get their parents' agreement. Sometimes parents think that's unacceptable, so I'll make sure there's nothing in the room." Albert took me into a collection room and explained what the various objects did. It pointed to a high stool and said: "There are sofas in some places, I like high stools. I think it is more flexible, and it is easier to launch standing than sitting." He pointed to the naked Madonna in the picture frame. I said, "That was when she was 18 or 19 years old, she was gorgeous, wasn't she?"

I flipped through the Playboys on my desk, some of which were old pre-2010 publications. “For the role, their issue doesn’t matter, and we don’t use magazines much anymore, we mostly use DVDs now.” As the agency owner, Albert is responsible for purchasing pornographic material, but he is not very selective about the content. , but filter after extensive sourcing. "I have female staff who understand men's 'comfort zone'. It's not their day job, but they offer me their screening piece if they want to."

“You have to watch these films, I accidentally bought a film once, starring animals and people, and we decided it was not suitable at all.” Similarly, all the clinics I interviewed avoid these films , and of course generally tend to be more diverse in terms of race and sexuality.