Seedy world of the super sperm donors: Inside America's black market of men who ... trends now
Every night, Robert ices his testicles.
He takes two cold packs from the freezer and inserts them into pouches in his specially-designed Snowball boxer shorts – $59 a pair.
Robert swears by them. 'I do about two hours of that a night,' he says, 'Icing increases your fertility over time.'
Clearly, it's working.
Robert (not his real name) is a prolific sperm donor, one of the most successful offering his services to desperate women through Facebook.
He frequently posts pictures of positive pregnancy tests and of children born from his sperm, which he charges up to $300 to ship but less for 'in-person' donations.
In general, men become self-described super-donors after fathering eight to 12 children. Robert appears to have lost track of his precise number of offspring.
Until a couple of years ago, he says he offered 'natural insemination' or NI for free.
NI means sexual intercourse.
That's where the world of black market sperm donation takes an alarming turn, as Washington DC author and journalist Valerie Bauman discovered when she decided, aged 38, to become a solo mother.
Some super donors insist they can maintain relationships with all of their children… even Ari 'The Sperminator' Nagel (above), who is 48 years old and has produced 142 children to date in countries across the globe with 15 more on the way.
Every night, Robert ices his testicles. He takes two cold packs from the freezer and inserts them into pouches in his specially-designed Snowball boxer shorts (above) – $59 a pair.
For Robert is one of countless men hawking their wares via this thriving unregulated genetic bazaar where it's unclear exactly what goods and services are actually being exchanged.
The underground sperm trade seemingly exists to bypass conventional insemination and in vitro fertilization [IVF] services offered by mainstream healthcare providers.
Getting pregnant through multiple rounds of IVF can be ruinously expensive – reaching into the tens of thousands of dollars – even though success is far from guaranteed. Men offering sperm via Facebook, TikTok and even dating apps promise a much cheaper alternative.
But regulated clinics hold their donors to rigorous standards – enforcing genetic testing and ensuring, for example, that one man does not father squadrons of babies, particularly within a narrow geographical area.
In a tight-knit community, this increases the risk of accidental incest among 'diblings' or donor siblings. There's no such guarantee with the internet. And, of course, conventional clinics don't put women in contact with men who may not have their best interests in mind.
Bauman says she began lurking on Facebook sites and 'cruising the Just A Baby app, which is essentially Tinder for getting knocked up'.
Just A Baby is popular with some men who have a pregnancy fetish or 'preg-fet'. These donors expect to have full intercourse with women, with the crucial stipulation that sex continues during pregnancy. Others become obsessed with sex only when there is a chance that it will result in conception.
Washington DC author and journalist Valerie Bauman (above) investigated the black market of sperm donation when she decided, aged 38, to become a solo mother.
Just A Baby (the website picture above) is popular with some men who have a pregnancy fetish or 'preg-fet'. These donors expect to have full intercourse with women, with the crucial stipulation that sex continues during pregnancy.
Perhaps, the most common compulsion among donors is for NI: on one Facebook group, 80 percent of men offering to provide sperm will only do it via 'natural insemination' sex. With some even resorting to trickery bordering on the criminal to fulfill their desires.
One aspiring mom, interviewed by Bauman, said she arranged to meet a donor at a motel. But when the man arrived he demanded sexual intercourse or nothing. The woman refused – and after spending her money on gas and her time on the road – was left at square one and no doubt shaken.
Facebook moderators supposedly police their groups, with the power to ban men who send unsolicited 'dick pix' or make sexual demands. But in reality, Bauman found, it is more likely to be the women who complain that get banned from the groups and not the sex offenders.
The alternative to NI is AI or artificial insemination.
If the sperm arrives by mail, it will usually be in a glass or plastic vial, with foam packaging, an ice pack to keep it cool, and a solution of 'yolk buffer' taken from chicken eggs, to feed the sperm with nutrients and keep it alive during transit.
AI-plus is insemination where the donor is present, masturbating into a cup before insemination, usually via a syringe. Sometimes, the woman manually
