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Highly selective process, 15-25 percent accepted
You may have seen or heard the ads offering money for sperm or egg donation. As a college town, Boulder is filled with people in the ideal age range for this way of making money. It sounds great - helping an infertile couple achieve a dream and earn some cash - but it's not as easy as it may seem.
Donors need to first consider a few things. For one, the criteria for being an egg or sperm donor are stringent. The application processes take three weeks to a month, and very few are actually approved as donors.
According to Betsy Cairo, founder and director of Colorado's only commercial sperm bank, CryoGam Colorado LLC, her company denies nearly 85 percent of sperm donor applicants. CryoGam's main office is located in Loveland, and it also has offices in Boulder and Denver.
Dr. William Schoolcraft, director of the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, said his facility accepts about 25 percent of those who apply to be egg donors. There are a variety of reasons applicants are turned away, ranging from health and lifestyle issues to the quality of their sperm or eggs. CCRM is located on the campus of Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, and has three additional offices located on the campuses of Avista Hospital in Louisville, Rose Medical Center in Denver and Sky Ridge Medical Center in Lone Tree.
Sperm donors must be between the ages of 18 and 35,...