There are many reasons why a man might decide to donate sperm. Some men donate sperm to a bank so that a third party can become pregnant. When donating sperm for another person's use, a donor must go through a series of medical tests and background checks.
Other men will use a bank to store sperm for their own use later in life. For example, sperm banking enables cancer patients to preserve their fertility so they can have an opportunity to conceive after cancer treatments have ended.
There are standard procedures used by sperm banks in order to ensure safety, privacy and precision. Sperm banks will test to determine that sperm is disease-free and that donors are mentally and physically healthy.
Ejaculated sperm is frozen and stored for later use in conjunction with artificial insemination or IVF. The sperm can also be retrieved in several ways, primarily from the epididymis, the passageway for sperm, and from the testes, the male reproductive gland.
Once a specimen is frozen, it will stay in quarantine for at least six months so that it can be tested once more for any infectious diseases.