Welcome home insemination community!

Thanks to Choice Moms sponsor Sepal Reproductive Devices, which offers products and insight for women using home insemination, for these guidelines on working with a known donor.

This woman shared her story on the Choice Moms discussion board, and I thought it was a great reminder to women using a known donor: Make sure you talk about sperm testing before spending too much time trying to conceive.

Whether you are inseminating at home, or with a doctor's care, here are 7 tips to help enhance your fertility, thanks to Dr. Lee Kao of Choice Mom sponsor Laurel Fertility Care:

When you don't have a partner to help you conceive, creating a baby at home can seem like a mystery. How do you do it? What do you need? Choice Moms sponsor Sepal Reproductive Devices will be offering regular tips on this website, starting with this one.

Listen to this growing library of clips and podcast excerpts about home insemination.

There are many things to talk about with a known donor candidate. This Choice Chat podcast covers many of the issues with two unique experts.

submitted by Kenzie
Even before I made the choice to conceive with a known donor, I knew that however I conceived I would be doing it myself with as little medical intervention as possible. After all, it's my body, my fertility, and in the end I'm creating my family. It feels very important to me to take responsibility for and to understand the process, as well as the result.

We asked a few sperm banks about their policies about sending sperm to the home:

A common concern of Choice Moms-in-the-making is how the success rate differs when using fresh and frozen sperm. Do you diminish your chances of success when using frozen sperm? I asked two experts, with two perspectives, about their thoughts.

Whether a woman is using ICI, IUI, or doing home insemination with frozen sperm, she must order either unwashed or washed sperm from a bank.

There are three types of insemination techniques: 1) vaginal (or peri-cervical), which uses a syringe (the kind used to give infants liquid medicine) to place sperm into a woman's vagina, near the cervix, 2) intracervical insemination (ICI), involves the use of a catheter or cannula, to place the sperm directly into the cervix, 3) intrauterine insemination (IUI) involves the use of a catheter, or cannula, to place the sperm directly into the uterus.