How to Pick the Right Sperm with Angelo Allard of Seattle Sperm Bank

Joining me on the show today is the amazing general supervisor of the Seattle Sperm Bank, Angelo Allard. He’s here to tell us everything you need to know in order to pick the right sperm for you, what to expect from a sperm bank’s supply and how to know you’re getting a quality specimen.

Angelo started out doing diabetes research after college, but when he saw a posting for a sperm bank he applied just for the heck of it. When he started at Seattle Sperm Bank, he was only a lab tech. But a year and a half in, they gave him the opportunity to run the operations and compliance of the business, and he is now the general supervisor.

This conversation was so informative and just plain fun. We got to talk about how hot Jane Fonda is, singing a cappella, and what it really takes to be a sperm donor. Angelo cares so much about what he does for the families that come to Seattle Sperm Bank and I learned so much from him — I know you will too!

Dr. Aimee: Tonight’s episode is titled How to Pick the Right Sperm. Who better to have on tonight’s show than the general supervisor from the Seattle Sperm Bank, Angelo Allard?

Hi, Angelo. Thanks for being here tonight. I appreciate it so much.

Angelo Allard: Hi, Dr. Aimee. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Dr. Aimee: I think you have to have a pretty good sense of humor to be in the sperm business and really have to love what you do.

Angelo Allard: Yes. I would say it is if not the most important, probably right up there on the resume portfolio requirement for working at a sperm bank.

Dr. Aimee: Right. What does it mean to be a general supervisor? Can you describe a day in the life of Angelo at Seattle Sperm Bank? Talk to me.

Angelo Allard: We interact with over 40 countries all around the world, so I’m getting emails, voice messages, offline chat messages all through the night. I usually leave the office around 4:30 local time, but from 4:30 until I get here at about 7:00 AM every morning, it’s just a compiling of emails, calls, voicemails, etcetera. As soon as I sit at my desk in the morning, it’s correspondence. After correspondence, when the rest of my staff starts arriving, it’s delegation and duties for the day.

Compliance is about 50% of what I do. All tissue banks are governed by the FDA here in the US. It’s donor eligibility determination, reviewing risk assessment forms, and blood test results. I usually end my day with special projects that need to get done as we look to continue to improve our donor program.

Dr. Aimee: Basically, you make sure that you’re sending out sparkling sperm to 40 countries.

Angelo Allard: Sparkling, yes, absolutely. I am the ultimate sparkling swim coach.

Dr. Aimee: That is awesome. But 40 countries?

Angelo Allard: Yes. About 44 at last count. We just did an audit of distribution about a month ago, and it was 44 countries that we sent our donor specimens to.

Dr. Aimee: When I hear that, what I’m thinking is basically if one of my families here in San Ramon uses one of the vials that potentially there could be a half-sibling in another country.

Angelo Allard: Absolutely.

Dr. Aimee: One really cool thing that I love about your bank is how you can connect families with donor siblings. Tell me about that program that you guys have.

Angelo Allard: We started our own in-house sibling registry. We named it SSB Connects, Seattle Sperm Bank Connects. Anytime that a recipient anywhere in the world reports a birth with us, they then have the opportunity to gain access and a login to our in-house sibling registry that would then place them into the donor group that they were a recipient of.

If you used donor 9999 and then you reported a birth for 9999, then you could be in the group for 9999.

Dr. Aimee: Do these people hang out together, share pictures, have there been group meetups? Tell me more about that.

Angelo Allard: Yes. Actually, every year for the past three years, we have hosted an annual picnic where our owner and a few of our staff here get together and send invites out to recipients who have used our donor specimens. They come to an annual picnic where they’re not just meeting half-siblings, they’re meeting other children by other donors that they themselves didn’t use. But, yes, they use SSB Connects and the annual picnic as an opportunity to learn about these things.

Dr. Aimee: That’s really good for families. I’m really glad that you guys do that. There are so many reasons why I like Seattle Sperm Bank. Anytime a patient comes to me and they’re looking for donor vials, I always say you have to look at Seattle Sperm Bank just because they’re so nice and they clearly love what they do, and they’re really good at it.

I think customer service is so important. When you’re going through something like a fertility struggle or you’re trying to find the right sperm donor, when you pick up the phone, you want someone on the other end of the line to be really friendly and willing to help you. I just want to say thank you for being so kind and wonderful to all of my patients over all these years.

How long has Seattle Sperm Bank been around? Tell me a little bit about the history.

Angelo Allard: We opened doors in 2008 and we began collecting donor specimens. We had to wait well into 2009 until we had specimens released from quarantine and ready for purchase and distribution.

When we first began, most of our distribution was actually international. The domestic market share was really well captured by other sperm banks in the US, so we used the opportunity to gain some revenue and some growth by shipping specimens internationally. As we had more resources, then we began investing into the domestic market share. We’re really happy to see now that we have been able to distribute to over 600 clinics here in the US.

Dr. Aimee: That’s awesome. Most of your donors, I’m assuming they live in the Seattle area.

Angelo Allard: Yes. Our main location when we opened in 2008 was here in Seattle. In late 2015, we opened our first satellite donor collection facility in Tempe, Arizona. And since then we have opened other satellite collection facilities in La Jolla, California and Denver, Colorado.

Dr. Aimee: I didn’t know that.

Angelo Allard: The only places where the donors are collected at this point are either in Seattle while they’re in the program or in Tempe while they’re in the program.

Dr. Aimee: Nice. I didn’t know that. How do you recruit donors, how do you find donors for your sperm bank?

Angelo Allard: The university ads are number one. Advertising on the university newspaper or online periodicals or classifieds, that’s number one. About 60% of the population is a student, either undergraduate or graduate position, etcetera. Other recruiting efforts are paid Facebook ads, paid Google ads, the light rail, the tram.

Dr. Aimee: It must be maybe where I am on Facebook that I don’t see these ads. What does an ad say? I’m just curious. Do you love yourself and think you’re the awesome-est genetic specimen ever and want to donate sperm? How do you recruit donors?

Angelo Allard: Spread your genes everywhere around the world like Genghis Khan. No, I am kidding. A paid Google ad or Facebook ad would be something along the lines of our mission statement, how we want to help families all around the world have happy, healthy children, and do you want to be a part of it.

Dr. Aimee: That’s so awesome. How much does a donor get paid, typically? That’s honestly one of the most common questions that people ask me.

Angelo Allard: Sure. There are different restrictions based on compensation for all around the world. Typically, in the US, the donors are going to make around $70 to $100 per donation.

Dr. Aimee: Okay. Then how often can a guy even come in to donate?

Angelo Allard: Every 48 hours if their quality allows for it. The sperm cells will be ready and provide quality specimens for some guys every 48 hours, and for other guys it’s every 72 to 96.

Dr. Aimee: Nice. What is that quality threshold, what does it take to be a sperm donor from a count standpoint?

Angelo Allard: The first bottleneck, the first filter that the potential donor applicants go through is just initial semen analysis of how potent is the specimen itself, and 90% of the potential donor applicants at that point are screened out. Only 10% of the guys that even come through the door have enough sperm cells, a high enough concentration motility to go through our washing process, freezing process, thawing process, and survive to the point where it will be ready for distribution.

Dr. Aimee: I’m assuming it’s not just that, it’s also they have to go through a psych evaluation, they have to do a genetic screen, there’s more to it.

Angelo Allard: Yes. Like I said, 90% of the guys are gone right away. Of the 10% that are left, we then begin screening for family medical history, psych evaluation, genetic testing, physical exam, infectious disease screening. They meet with a master’s in social work and get counseled so that they fully understand the implications of being a donor and what it means that you could be contacted 18 years later. The amount of screening these guys go through, I wouldn’t put myself through it, it’s a lot.

Dr. Aimee: You guys have a pretty good relationship with your donors, so if people have questions for them down the road. Like I just sent you a question the other day and you actually said, “Let me ask him and I’ll get back to you.”

Angelo Allard: Yes.

Dr. Aimee: I think that’s really a special connection. If you treat people well, your donors, they’re going to be willing to still be contacted and if you ever have questions, you can reach out to them.

Angelo Allard: To us, the donors are as important, if not more important than our clients, because our donors just aren’t the product, they’re the lifeline, they’re the heart of this business.

Dr. Aimee: Right. I want to go to my questions now. I want to start off with a question about what I’ll call the sperm alphabet soup. You hear all of these names thrown out, IUI, ART, ICI, washed, unwashed. Can you break that down for me, what does that all mean?

Angelo Allard: Our nomenclature that we’ve chosen to use, like for IUI, ICI, ART, etcetera… IUI, for example, is a washed specimen–it’s ready for intrauterine insemination.

Dr. Aimee: Turkey baster people, for those of you who don’t know.

Angelo Allard: So, we’ve chosen to use that nomenclature because clinics all around, that’s nomenclature they use, so when they tell their patients, “You’re going to have an IUI treatment, go get an IUI vial.” If they say, “Go get a washed vial,” we find there’s a lot more questions about what does washed mean. Always happy to answer those questions.

Dr. Aimee: Who doesn’t want washed sperm? No one would be like, “Please give me the dirty stuff.”

Angelo Allard: You’re absolutely right. ART means assisted reproductive technologies. What we’re saying there is that this is still a washed specimen, but the cell count in this specimen is a little bit lower than the standard or what would be considered industry standard at 10,000,000 or 20,000,000 per milliliter. In that case, we’re saying there’s less concentration here, you can use this for treatments like IVF or ICSI.

Dr. Aimee: Right. What I’ve done before, if let’s say someone really likes a donor, and let’s say they only have ART vials, you can actually combine them together to do one IUI potentially even.

Angelo Allard: Yes. Pellet them out and resuspend them, and there you go.

Dr. Aimee: Exactly. The other question that I have is, you mentioned washed versus unwashed, can someone get any of these vials for home use?

Angelo Allard: Absolutely, yes. The only thing that we require for home use, if we’re going to be delivering directly to your home and not to a clinic address, is we require that a physician or licensed medical practitioner sign off on a release form to allow you to receive the specimens to your home address.

Dr. Aimee: Got it. A licensed medical practitioner could be a nurse midwife, a nurse practitioner, a PA, your OBGYN, your primary care doctor, just basically anyone who is saying, yes, you’re medically cleared to do this at home.

Angelo Allard: Absolutely. Because even with the amount of screening that we do, with any pregnancy there is risk.

Dr. Aimee: Right. When they do it at home, do you provide them a special kit in case they want to get higher up beyond the vagina? And I just said vagina.

Angelo Allard: You did.

Dr. Aimee: Did that make you uncomfortable? I know you’re so used to sperm and penis talk. It’s okay. You’re not blushing quite yet, but you’ll get used to me.

Angelo Allard: Not yet. I’m sure there are more questions that might make me blush here in a minute.

Dr. Aimee: Oh, there are. You just wait.

Angelo Allard: No, we do not provide a catheter or speculum for anything past the cervix. We do provide a needleless syringe for cervical insemination.

Dr. Aimee: Got it. You leave that up to the medical professional. Makes total sense.

Angelo Allard: Yes.

Dr. Aimee: If someone does use it at home, what is the best vial for them to use?

Angelo Allard: Our statistics show that there’s really almost no difference in using a washed or unwashed specimen for at-home insemination. It’s slightly — and by slightly I mean less than half a percent — towards unwashed. But what we see is that at-home inseminations have a very similar success rate to just traditional intercourse. It’s about one in five or one in six.

Dr. Aimee: That makes sense. That’s what I quote my patients as well. You mentioned something about 10,000,000 or 20,000,000. Is that close to what your guarantee is, and what does that mean when you say a sperm count guarantee?

Angelo Allard: The thing that I always want to tell the clients is you know it only takes one.

Dr. Aimee: That’s true. I tell them it takes one egg, but 40,000,000, but that’s okay.

Angelo Allard: That’s a different conversation. The industry standard at this point in time all around the world is that the IUI specimen should have 10,000,000 motile cells in total. Most IUI washed specimens are going to have 0.5 milliliters of volume. That’s just what is normal for the catheter, it’s very little volume. What we then do is we set the concentration to 20,000,000 per milliliter and then in half a milliliter of volume you get 10,000,000 motile cells. That’s what we are going to set as our standard, our guarantee for our standard IUI specimens.

For the unwashed specimens, since typically the only other use besides at-home insemination for unwashed specimens is for it to be sent to the clinic or to the lab for them to wash it. The standard for that then is actually a little bit higher, there’s going to be at least 15,000,000 motile cells because they’re going to try to wash it for other treatment use and you want to make sure there’s enough cells there still to use.

Dr. Aimee: What are they washing when you say they’re washing it? I mean, I know, but I’m saying for my viewers I want you to say it.

Angelo Allard: They’re washing away seminal fluid. If they’re using a density grading, you can wash away things like dead cells, round cells, blood cells, and any other particulates.

Dr. Aimee: Basically, they’re getting it sparkling clean before it goes into the uterus.

Angelo Allard: There’s that sparkling sperm.

Dr. Aimee: There you go. And then the reason why it’s 0.5 milliliters of volume is because the uterus is a muscle and it’s just not nice to push a large volume of fluid into someone’s uterus because that can really hurt.

Angelo Allard: Absolutely.

Dr. Aimee: Then you guys make sure that you use the right cleaning products. I know they’re not cleaning products, I’m just being a smart-aleck here.

Angelo Allard: We use the natural organic Method cleaner here.

Dr. Aimee: But seriously, that’s a good question. I didn’t even have it on my list. What kind of things do you guys use to clean or wash the sperm, what’s the media that you use?

Angelo Allard: We use Vitrolife. The first step in the process is to get the semen analysis, get the counts at the raw specimen, and then at that point you begin adding things to it to wash it. To wash it is putting it through a density gradient which pulls just the motile sperm cells through a matrix of other materials and then it pellets down at the bottom. After it pellets, you can then resuspend it in what’s called a wash media. At that point, the wash media’s goal is to get rid of all of the density gradient media that is still remaining after that separation. Then you dilute it down to the right concentrations.

Dr. Aimee: You lost me at “matrix,” but that’s okay. Tell me about how you freeze it. You must have tanks that are taller than I am, and I’m pretty tall.

Angelo Allard: We have upgraded our storage system over time. When I first began here and I was working in the lab, the lab had 30 tanks. A year later, it had 100 tanks. You are just walking on tanks. But yes, we have these gigantic freezers that now hold 20,000 specimens.

Dr. Aimee: That’s a full-time job for lots of people to make sure that everything is properly stored and labeled.

Angelo Allard: Yes. We have three people just in cryo-logistics and distribution.

Dr. Aimee: Same thing with liquid nitrogen tanks. I bet you have a company that drops off liquid nitrogen in a big truck often.

Angelo Allard: Twice a week, six canisters each.

Dr. Aimee: You hear about, sadly, these awful natural disasters with hurricanes and fires. What would happen if there was some sort of natural disaster in Seattle, what would happen to the Sperm Bank if something like that happened?

Angelo Allard: One of the most brilliant things about liquid nitrogen and what the specimens are frozen in for long term cryo-storage is that if there was a major disaster, they’re fireproof, they’re waterproof, and they will hold that liquid nitrogen for about 18 days to 20 days without being at risk.

Dr. Aimee: That’s really good to know. Does the freezing process damage the sperm at all? Could it potentially cause a birth defect or anything like that, that you know of?

Angelo Allard: No. What can happen during the freezing process is that little ice spicules would form and they would kill the sperm. If the sperm is killed, it can’t swim, it can’t fertilize the egg. Only those healthy sperm cells that have survived the washing, freezing, thawing process will make it to the egg.

Dr. Aimee: Got it. So, now for some questions that might embarrass you. What happens when a guy checks in? You told me about the day in the life of Angelo, but I want to know what happens at the appointment for one of your donors?

Angelo Allard: Sure. When they get here, they’re checked in with a fingerprint scanner that identifies them uniquely.

Dr. Aimee: Kind of like my cellphone, so no one can get into my phone, there’s a fingerprint thing. That’s pretty cool.

Angelo Allard: Right. But there’s no manual code either, unlike your phone, it has to be the fingerprint. That fingerprint then brings up their picture and their identifying information.

Dr. Aimee: Is that because someone might fake it, that they might say that they’re that guy?

Angelo Allard: It’s actually something that I created about three years ago. I wanted to have an assurance for our recipients that we take the chain of custody of the identity of the specimen very seriously.

Dr. Aimee: That’s so important. You hear of these crazy stories out there. So there’s never going to be a crazy story with Seattle Sperm Bank in the news, ever.

Angelo Allard: Well, I sure as hell hope not. So, they get finger-print scanned. There’s a five-step double verification process. Every time the specimen changes vessels or changes containers, it’s double verified by two employees. You can’t do any manual input of donor ID, it’s all done by barcodes and computers and scanners.

Dr. Aimee: I bet you like Star Wars.

Angelo Allard: Can you see the picture behind me?

Dr. Aimee: I was wondering. That kind of looked like a mess of dead sperm, but I didn’t want to say anything.

Angelo Allard: That was actually gifted to me by a donor who knew that I loved Star Wars. It’s a painting of some of my favorite villains from the Star Wars universe.

Dr. Aimee: Very nice. I noticed that I think we’re kind of twinsies here. I think you’re wearing an Egg Whisperer shirt. I love it. Thank you so much for doing that. That’s super fun.

Okay. We’ve checked in, we’re getting past the verification. Then what? They go to a room?

Angelo Allard: After they’re verified, they receive their specimen cup and then they go to a donor room.

Dr. Aimee: Do they ever come with a friend?

Angelo Allard: Or their mom.

Dr. Aimee: Seriously?

Angelo Allard: Yes.

Dr. Aimee: Oh. This is awesome. Go on…

Angelo Allard: They go into the donor room, they provide the specimen, and then they walk to the lab. We have a drop-off window at the lab, they leave their specimen there. Then they’re out the door.

Dr. Aimee: You skipped a step. What happens in the room?

Angelo Allard: The magic.

Dr. Aimee: Do you have materials?

Angelo Allard: Yes.

Dr. Aimee: Is it live porn, is it recorded porn?

Angelo Allard: Actually, we use Rokus and it’s streaming porn over a Roku device.

Dr. Aimee: Okay. That’s nice. No VR bangers or anything like that.

Angelo Allard: I’ve had one PD bring it in, and it took more than half an hour just to figure out how to hook it up to our wi-fi. It just didn’t go well.

Dr. Aimee: That’s really not worth it. Is there a help button in the room if a guy is having trouble?

Angelo Allard: No. The reason why is because for the safety of our front desk staff. If they’re having issues, we would require them to be fully clothed and come out and speak to us.

Dr. Aimee: That does make sense. I want you to know these are not questions that I have come up with myself.

Angelo Allard: These are good. I like it.

Dr. Aimee: Let’s see here. Have you ever had weird porn requests?

Angelo Allard: Yes.

Dr. Aimee: Can you share?

Angelo Allard: Let me think of a weird one that I can share.

Dr. Aimee: We’ll wait as long as we need to.

Angelo Allard: You know, 18-year-olds requesting porn of 70-year-olds.

Dr. Aimee: No?

Angelo Allard: Oh yeah.

Dr. Aimee: I’m not saying 70-year-olds aren’t hot. Jane Fonda is hot.

Angelo Allard: Yes, she is.

Dr. Aimee: But wow, that’s something. I need to think about that. Or maybe I don’t want to think about that right now.

Angelo Allard: Keep this in mind. That’s the one that I could share.

Dr. Aimee: I don’t want to know what you can’t share. All right. Let me go back to my questions. That was just awesome.

Let’s talk more about the screening. You mentioned psych. Do you ever do a background check of your donors? That was a question someone asked me.

Angelo Allard: Since the beginning of time in 2008. Since we opened the doors, we’ve always done criminal background checks. We also do school transcript verifications.

Dr. Aimee: I love it. If someone said they went to this university, you’re going to make sure that they’re not committing fraud and they actually went there.

Angelo Allard: Yes. The big one is when they claim to be doctors, physicians, PhDs.

Dr. Aimee: Right. Because of course people would want to pad their CV so that they get picked, so they can make $70 to $100 every 48 hours. Right?

Angelo Allard: There you go.

Dr. Aimee: CMV, what the heck is CMV?

Angelo Allard: I’m over it.

Dr. Aimee: I know. I’m so over it. It’s like getting the flu. I’m like just don’t worry about it. But you obviously can’t say that because the FDA is watching.

Angelo Allard: So, cytomegalovirus, by age 65, 80% of the population has been exposed to it, like chickenpox. The way that we look at it is the FDA just says you have to have a policy regarding cytomegalovirus. Now, donors can test positive as in: they have an active infection, they can test positive as in: they’ve been exposed to it, or they can test negative as in: they’ve never been exposed to it.

Dr. Aimee: What’s the process that they test? What if they test positive as if they currently have an active infection, but they’re an awesome donor?

Angelo Allard: They’re deferred until it’s no longer active.

Dr. Aimee: How long does it usually take, do you find?

Angelo Allard: Some guys, it can be a chronic thing. It’s actually kind of linked to chronic fatigue syndrome. If their IgM antibodies, which is indicative of an active infection, if it’s chronically active, we just have to say sorry, you can’t be a donor because we can’t prove you don’t have it.

Dr. Aimee: That makes sense. I’m so glad we learned that today. I didn’t know that.

Angelo Allard: We have to wait until they’re fully seroconverted, meaning they no longer have the active infection with the IgM antibodies. Once they have just the IgG antibodies so that they don’t get the virus or the infection again, then they can be actively donating.

Dr. Aimee: Got it. Sperm donation and eggs have been around for a really long time, but the CMV thing is more recent. Isn’t it?

Angelo Allard: It is, yes. It’s because of the research that has been done and the findings that have been made about if you and your partner, or the sperm donor or the egg donor, had an active CMV infection, and the fetus got that infection, that can be dangerous to the fetus. But then there was some research that came out in the ’90s and early 2000s about how they thought just being positive for the antibodies against the virus could cause an allergic or an immune reaction because sperm is so rich in leukocytes. The problem is that with donated sperm that’s washed, there shouldn’t be leukocytes, there shouldn’t be an abundance of antibodies.

Dr. Aimee: If you’re doing IVF and you’re picking out a single sperm cell and putting it into the egg, it’s kind of a nonissue.

Angelo Allard: Yes.

Dr. Aimee: Okay. Good. How much does one vial cost? I had a lot of fun joking around about the sperm donors and what they go through and how they can bring their mom to the bank to sign them in. But how much does one vial actually cost for someone like me who wants a vial?

Angelo Allard: If you’re going to be doing intrauterine insemination, the vial cost is $995, and shipping is dependent on your location. For example, shipping from Seattle to California is $180, so for one vial and shipping, it’s $1,175. Our prices are very competitive to the other US banks, if not lower.

Dr. Aimee: You guys deal with a lot of sperm emergencies, I imagine, frantic men and women calling from all over the world saying, “I’m ovulating, I need my sperm.” You probably deal with that a lot.

Angelo Allard: A lot, yes. Here in the Seattle area, it’s really nice. We work with some local fertility clinics. I think you had one of the doctors…

Dr. Aimee: Yes, we’ve had Laura and Julie on previously.

Angelo Allard: In those instances, we can help them, we can get it over to one of the Seattle area fertility clinics the same day. But if you’re writing to me or calling me and telling me, “I’m ovulating right now, I need sperm today,” and you’re in Alaska, it’s not happening.

Dr. Aimee: You guys have a bike that looks like this sperm.

Angelo Allard: We do.

Dr. Aimee: I imagine you guys riding the bike and couriering it to the fertility centers in Seattle.

Angelo Allard: The head of the sperm that you were just grabbing on the bike is actually a canister, and you can put a tank inside of the head of the sperm, and ride it and deliver it.

Dr. Aimee: That’s really cool. I have a feeling you invented this, too. Is that your design?

Angelo Allard: No comment.

Dr. Aimee: Okay. Let’s say we buy a vial, we get pregnant, and I want to use the same donor from before, and maybe their vials aren’t available online. What are my options?

Angelo Allard: I’ll tell you, the hardest conversation that I have to have with recipients is, “Sorry. The donor that you have a child with is no longer available.”

Dr. Aimee: If you get pregnant, you just go back and you buy more vials right away. That’s kind of what I recommend, too.

Angelo Allard: Yes. We have an article on our website about family planning. We understand that there are financial restrictions to these types of situations. If you are thinking about having more than one child, the best thing that you can do is to purchase as many specimens as are financially feasible for you and place them into long term storage with us.

Dr. Aimee: Right. Do you guys have a buy-back program? Let’s say someone buys six vials and they end up wanting just four kids. Would you buy back the other two if they got pregnant with the first four and didn’t need the other two?

Angelo Allard: Yes, absolutely. If the specimens are still here in our storage and they haven’t left our facility, we’ll buy them back at 75% of the original purchase price.

Dr. Aimee: Excellent. You just mentioned something that made me think. Does anyone ship them to off-site storage and then ship them back to you to buy back?

Angelo Allard: Unfortunately, because of the continuity relationship that is defined by the FDA, once I’ve distributed a specimen outside of my facility, even though it’s highly unlikely, I can’t guarantee that what’s in that sperm container is what I shipped out. The only thing I can do is if I ship it out and they do want to send it back to us, we can store whatever they send back to us for them, but I can never buy it back and I can never put it back into general inventory.

Dr. Aimee: That makes sense. You guys hand-hold my patients so well and really help guide them about the donors. Who is the person there that patients should talk to if they just want a little bit more attention, a little more help trying to find the right donor, who’s their guy?

Angelo Allard: That’s a good question. I do all of the audio interviews for the donors, so I know them really well. I also oversee and manage our client service team. They’re all terrific and they know the donors very well.

Dr. Aimee: Basically, if someone calls up and says, “I’m looking for this donor. I went to your website. Can you help me sort through which of my top six I should really be looking at?” any one of your employees would be able to help them.

Angelo Allard: Yes. We offer things like photo matching, we offer things like telling us what is most important to you in your donor, and we’ll narrow that list from 50 down to three real quick.

Dr. Aimee: Photo matching would be like maybe providing a picture of Luke Skywalker.

Angelo Allard: There you go. I got one today for David Beckham. David Beckham is not a sperm donor, honey. He’s just not.

Dr. Aimee: That’s true. I think that’s all of my questions.

Angelo Allard: Great.

Dr. Aimee: I had all these questions, and I hope I didn’t embarrass you. I really appreciate you just being ready for anything that I had to throw at you and all that good stuff. I heard a rumor that you’re also not just a general supervisor of Seattle Sperm Bank, but you’re actually also a singer. Tell me about the group that you sing with.

Angelo Allard: I am, yes. I sing in a six-person a capella group called Restless Vocal Band. We won the 2016 Northwest A Capella Championship. We’ve competed at nationals. We do a lot of things like weddings, corporate events, and charities. We love it.

Dr. Aimee: I don’t want to put you on the spot and ask you to sing me a tune, but I might have promised people in the teaser for tonight that I would get you to sing. How would you feel about that?

Angelo Allard: I can do it. I’ll do it.

Dr. Aimee: Go for it. Let’s do it.

Angelo Allard: [singing Stand By Me]

Dr. Aimee: I wanted more. That was beautiful. We usually have an applause track, but it wasn’t working tonight. Imagine that you hear cheers. That was beautiful.

Angelo Allard: Thank you.

Dr. Aimee: Angelo, thank you. Have an awesome night. I really hope that we can get you on one more time in the future. I’ll find some other topic related to sperm that we can talk about. Just any excuse that I have to call you up and get you here on my show, I’m going to go ahead and do that.

Angelo Allard: Absolutely. I’d love to.

Dr. Aimee: Okay. Thank you again, Angelo. Have a great night. Thank you for helping healthy families grow in the Bay Area and beyond. Goodnight.