Online Sperm Bank Terms & Conditions
Conditions of Use
Herts & Essex Fertility Centre (hereafter ‘HEFC’) and is fully licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, (hereafter, ‘HFEA’). By placing an order on this site you confirm:
You are registered as a patient at HEFC and have attended a Consultation at HEFC with a Fertility Specialist where you:
• Have received verbal and written information about your treatment and had the opportunity to discuss the procedures involved in receiving Sperm as part of your treatment.
• Have received all the relevant information pertaining to your treatment, as required by the HFEA Code of Practice.
• Have been offered counselling about the implications of the use of donated Sperm.
• Have been informed about the screening that the Sperm donor has undergone in line with the HFEA Code of Practice and the limitations of that screening in avoiding transmissible conditions.
Ordering and purchasing sperm
HEFC will provide a unique invitation code to allow you to purchase from the online Sperm Bank. Sperm cannot be purchased without the invitation code.
• An order is considered complete when your payment has been successful and your order has been confirmed via email by the HEFC Laboratory Team.
• Donors can become unavailable or be barred from use after a reservation has been made. In the unlikely event that this occurs after a reservation has been made but before the sample is used for treatment, a refund will be offered.
• See the Refunds and Cancellation policy for further details.
General
• Donor Sperm provided by HEFC (‘Sperm’) may only be used for fertility treatment at HEFC. No Sperm may be transferred to an alternative clinic, except in the event of use for sibling treatment, in which case it may only be transferred to an HFEA licensed clinic in the UK or an appropriately accredited overseas clinic with prior written permission from HEFC.
• HEFC provides Sperm to you for exclusive use for you and/or your partner and you confirm that you will only use it as such.
• Information on donors comprises sensitive personal data for purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998. HEFC will only provide relevant information to you for the purpose of allowing you to select a Sperm donor, without breaching the donor’s confidentiality.
• The number of donors available within HEFC’s catalogue will vary at any given time, according to demand. HEFC sells Sperm on a first come, first served basis.
• It is important that you immediately inform HEFC of any changes to your planned treatment, should they occur.
• These terms and conditions do not override the terms of paragraph 4A of Schedule 3 to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (as amended) (‘HFE Act’) which provides that the Sperm donor may withdraw or vary his consent about the use of his Sperm in treatment at any time. This includes any embryo created using his Sperm at any time until that embryo is transferred to a woman or allowed to perish.
Under the HFEA Act, where Sperm is used in a licensed treatment, the Sperm donor will not be the legal parent of any resulting child/(ren).
• You confirm that you are aware:
i. that non-identifying information about you and the outcome of your treatment will be available to the Sperm donor, which may include the number and sex of any resulting child/(ren); and
ii. of the information about the Sperm donor that will be available to you and your child/(ren) created as a result of the Sperm (for example the number and sex of any resulting child/(ren) including information recorded on the HFEA Register that the child/(ren) are entitled to receive and the circumstances under which they may receive it.
• This Agreement is personal to you and/or your partner. You cannot assign or transfer any rights or obligations under it to any other person.
For more information on Sperm donation please visit: https://www.hfea.gov.uk/treatments/explore-all-treatments/using-donated-eggs-sperm-or-embryos-in-treatment/
Quality standards
All donors available have been recruited and screened in compliance with donation criteria as per the European Tissues and Cells Directive (‘EUTCD’), HFEA standards and professional guidance.
• All Sperm samples have been procured, tested, processed, preserved and stored in compliance with EUTCD and HFEA requirements.
Treatment options available using donor Sperm differ depending on the donor. When requesting to reserve a donor, this may impact the treatment options available to you.
• HEFC will assess the suitability of each individual donor for different forms of treatment according to post-thaw motility. Where deemed necessary, ICSI may be recommended to optimise the chances of fertilisation.
• Very occasionally, at the time of treatment, a thawed and prepared sample may not meet the predicted standard, in which case, should additional samples of the same donor be available, they may be allocated for use within treatment at the discretion of the Laboratory Director. Under these circumstances, additional charges will not be applied however in the event that the same donor be utilised for the same treatment form subsequently, HEFC will recommend upfront purchase of multiple samples.
• HEFC cannot guarantee that a pregnancy will be achieved using Sperm or that any pregnancy or offspring derived as a result of using the Sperm will be free from genetic disorders/defects or infectious diseases.
HEFC donors are screened in accordance with the HFEA policies. This is a non-exhaustive screening and so new medical or familial information may arise after the reservation or use of a donor.
HEFC donor testing is properly administered; however even where the results show normal, the tests have limitations and in very rare circumstances may not be entirely reliable.
HEFC’s recruitment processes (including counselling) rely on the donor providing accurate and correct information about their genetic and general health history. We treat the information provided by the donor in good faith, which cannot be independently verified by HEFC. Evidence of GP approval of the medical information provided by the donor will be required prior to the acceptance of a donor onto the donation programme.
Donor confidentiality
Non-identifying information about each donor is displayed on the HEFC online Sperm Bank. HEFC is unable to provide any further personal information on donors.
Subject to disclosures required as a matter of law, HEFC will keep your personal information confidential at all times. However, in accordance with HEFC’s registration at the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, HEFC may, on request, share health information with healthcare professionals at the clinic and non-health information with HEFC administrators for financial and/or auditing reasons.
Creating families
• According to UK Law, Sperm procured from UK based donors may be used to create up to 10 families within the UK. As an HFEA licensed Sperm Bank we are obligated to ensure that this limit is not infringed.
• The 10-family limit is the maximal number of families that can be created and the donor has the right to restrict the number of families created as a result of his donation to fewer than this, as stipulated in his legally binding consent forms.
• In the event of an unsuccessful treatment attempt, should embryos created with donor Sperm be cryopreserved, HEFC will ensure that the family slot for the donor is maintained.
• In the event of an unsuccessful treatment attempt without cryopreservation of embryos, HEFC reserves the right to release the family slot unless a further reservation is made. In this instance, HEFC cannot guarantee that the same donor will be available for future use.
• Sperm donors are restricted for use by a limited number of families. Once your order is placed it will not be finalised until an embryologist has validated that the donor requested is available for use by your family. The reservation is not final until confirmation has been received via email by the HEFC Laboratory Team
Returning recipient/sibling treatment
If you are reserving Sperm for treatment in an attempt to produce a sibling for a child already born (or an ongoing clinical pregnancy resulting from the use of the same donor), please do not use this portal. For sibling Sperm reservations please contact the Laboratory team directly. Sibling Sperm can be purchased after the 7-week pregnancy scan.
HEFC will reserve a number of units for sibling use only, however cannot guarantee the availability of sibling Sperm.
There is an annual charge payable for the storage of sibling Sperm.
Notification of treatment outcomes
• The ability to track pregnancies is very important to HEFC so we can maintain our legal responsibility to monitor the number of families created by each donor.
• By signing this agreement, you hereby accept responsibility of reporting your treatment outcome in the event of either a positive or a negative pregnancy test outcome.
Following a successful pregnancy and live birth event, you hereby accept the responsibility of providing all requested information to HEFC relating to the birth outcome.
HEFC will maintain a record of all embryos created, transferred and/or cryopreserved using donor Sperm which will be reported to the HFEA in line with our legal responsibilities as a licenced centre.
Refund & Cancellation Policy
We want you to be happy with your purchase. If you wish to cancel your order because you have changed your mind about your purchase, HEFC will offer you a full refund provided that you cancel your order within 5 days of placing the order. Orders cancelled after 5 days will be refunded minus an administration fee of £150.00.
Copyright
The entire content included in this site, including but not limited to text, graphics or code is copyrighted as a collective work under the United Kingdom and other copyright laws, and is the property of HEFC. The collective work includes works that are licensed to HEFC – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Permission is granted to electronically copy and print hard copy portions of this site for the sole purpose of placing an order with HEFC or purchasing HEFC products. You may display and, subject to any expressly stated restrictions or limitations relating to specific material, download or print portions of the material from the different areas of the site solely for your own non-commercial use, or to place an order with HEFC or to purchase HEFC products. Any other use, including but not limited to the reproduction, distribution, display or transmission of the content of this site is strictly prohibited, unless authorized by HEFC. You further agree not to change or delete any proprietary notices from materials downloaded from the site.
Trademarks
All trademarks, service marks and trade names of HEFC used in the site are trademarks or registered trademarks of HEFC.
Limitation of liability
HEFC shall not be liable for any special or consequential damages that result from the use of, or the inability to use, the materials on this site or the performance of the products, even if HEFC has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Applicable law may not allow the limitation of exclusion of liability or incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.
Typographical errors
In the event that a HEFC product is mistakenly listed at an incorrect price, HEFC reserves the right to refuse or cancel any orders placed for product listed at the incorrect price. The HEFC reserves the right to refuse or cancel any such orders whether or not the order has been confirmed and your credit card charged. If your credit card has already been charged for the purchase and your order is cancelled, HEFC shall issue a credit to your credit card account.
Use of site
Harassment in any manner or form on the site, including via e-mail, chat, or by use of obscene or abusive language, is strictly forbidden. Impersonation of others, including a HEFC or other licensed employee, host, or representative, as well as other members or visitors on the site is prohibited. You may not upload to, distribute, or otherwise publish through the site any content which is libellous, defamatory, obscene, threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, illegal, or otherwise objectionable which may constitute or encourage a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party or which may otherwise give rise to liability or violate any law. You may not upload commercial content on the site or use the site to solicit others to join or become members of any other commercial online service or other organization.
Privacy notice
The HEFC is committed to protecting the privacy of our patients. This statement outlines our privacy and data protection policy.
The website (www.hertsandessexfertility.com), its pages and sub-domains is owned and run by us, the HEFC. By clicking the tick box in the pop up that you encountered on first using our website, you signal that you have read this Policy and that you consent to the setting of “cookies” on your computer or device as well as to their subsequent access. This document tells you what they are, why and how we use them and how you can remove them.
What cookies are
A “cookie” is a small text file, containing an anonymous, unique identifier, which is sent from a web server and placed on your computer’s hard drive. Whenever your Internet browser requests a web page from this server, the server detects the cookie. Only the website that placed the cookie on your hard drive can access it.
There are two types of cookie. “Session cookies” expire when the web browser is closed at the end of each user session. “Persistent cookies” are stored by browsers and remain there until the sooner of their expiry date or deletion by the user.
Why we use cookies
We use cookies to help us to identify recurrent users and to analyse their use of our website.
Which cookies we use, and why
We use both session and persistent cookies on our website. This section provides details:
Analytic cookies
We use Google Analytics to produce reports of statistical and other information about the use of our website. Google Analytics’ privacy policy is available here.
Personal information
Your personal details will be collected and processed when you order, purchase, register, subscribe or make use of any of our products or services.
In addition, when you visit our website or use any of our digital applications (such as our iPhone or iPad applications), we also collect website and application usage information (which may include your reading history and any advertisements you may have viewed), and information about your computer or other digital device and your internet connection. This includes your computer’s or digital device’s IP address, the type and version of browser and operating system you use, your internet domain and, if you visited via a link from another website, the URL of the linking page.
This information is collected to help us:
1. Fulfil your order
2. Manage your registration preferences
3. Send you service notifications
4. Personalise web content based on your personal characteristics or preferences
5. Ensure, as far as is practical, that our websites and applications are compatible with the browsers and operating systems used by most of our visitors
6. Conduct customer satisfaction surveys
Security
Rest assured that your sensitive information is safe and sound in our highly sophisticated data centre. Our IT team is always working to ensure that your most important data is never compromised, regardless of the latest technology.
Card Details
We do not store card details, nor do we share customer details with any third parties.
Who we are
Our website is owned and operated by us, the Herts & Essex Fertility Centre a limited company based in England and Wales. Our registered office number is 06382942.
Our registered office is AAP LLP 5th Floor, 11 Leadenhall Street, London EC3V 1LP
