Quality Guarantee

Vial Quality & Price Comparison

Here at Seattle Sperm Bank, quality is one of our top priorities and a constant endeavor. We truly stand behind our products with pride and confidence. If you ever have a problem or question concerning your vial quality, please contact us so we can work with you and your clinic to resolve the issue. Our product promise: every properly thawed IUI vial contains at least 10 million motile cells in a 0.5 ml volume, and every ICI vial contains at least 15 million motile cells in a 1.0 ml volume.

We perform a post-thaw count on one vial from every lot to confirm the sperm survive the freezing process and still meet our high standards.
Our fully trained Biological Analysts┬áperform a post-thaw count on one vial from every lot to confirm that┬áthe number of motile sperm in our vials meets our┬áminimum quality standard┬áof 10 million motile sperm per IUI vial and 15 million motile sperm per ICI vial. Due to the nature of counting a motile biological specimen and the wide variety of sperm counting systems on the market,┬áactual vial counts obtained by an outside laboratory┬ácan┬ápredictably vary up to 25% from our target counts. As such, IUI vials┬ácounted by your clinic with┬áat least 7.5 million motile sperm per vial and ICI vials┬ácounted┬áat┬á11.25 million motile sperm per vial are considered┬áwithin an acceptable┬árange of our target motile sperm count. A variation in count does not mean that the specimen is of poor quality or that a pregnancy won’t result if used for insemination.┬áIf you have concerns about vial quality and┬áyour vial was counted at more than 25% below our minimum quality standard, please have your clinic fill out┬áthis Form┬áand return it to SSB.┬á Please note that any additional shipping and/or handling of the specimens that was not authorized by Seattle Sperm Bank will void SSB’s quality guarantee.

Clients will sometimes ask why we provide 10 million motile cells per IUI vial. The answer is simple and backed by science. Researchers found that if the number of sperm used for insemination was increased, they reached a plateau at 10 million motile cells. This means the addition of more cells did not increase the success rate of achieving pregnancy (Van Voorhis et al.). In another independent study, researchers found no increase in the rate of achieving pregnancy when between 200 thousand and 200 million motile cells were used in intrauterine insemination (Cressman et al.).

Our ICI vials contain more motile cells per vial since clinics will often wash these samples themselves. The extra motile cells provide a margin for clinics since a portion of the cells are lost during processing.