I Spoke To Over 100 Pregnant Women And Here’s What I Learned

One of the most annoying things about being in online private donation groups is that nobody seems to actually know anything but everyone has an opinion.Reliable facts are lacking on the most basic questions such as:

• the odds of getting pregnant in a particular cycle

• what donation method is the most effective

• which of the many hacks we often see discussed can actually improve the chances of conception

You can find discussions filled with hundreds of comments usually split evenly on both sides of every issues. The thing that has been missing from these discussions is an attempt to rigorously gather and analyze data to tease out answers to those question.

In this post, I'm going to share the results of my attempts to do just that. 

Methodology

For approximately six months in 2022, I individually surveyed over 120 women in a Black Sperm Donor Group that have gotten pregnant while they were members of the group.

I have learned a lot of things with this exercise, but I've also dispelled a few myths and confirmed some of the beliefs I previously held about what leads to success in the TTC process.

This is PART 1 of a multi-part series where I’ll share some of the key findings of this epic survey.

Results

At what ages do recipients get pregnant in the group. Recipients ranging from 19 to 42 years old completed the survey. However the age with the most positive pregnancy reported was 30.

most common age recipients reported conceiving is 30 years old

Covid-19 Vaccine

There has been a lot of discussion in the group about the effects of the covid-19 vaccination on TTC process. The survey found that the majority of recipients had taken the Covid-19 vaccine when the conceived.

the ration of vaccinated to unvaccinated recipients that got pregnant

Health Issues

Several recipients reported success despite having health conditions that are known to negatively affect fertility. Below are the percentage of respondents that reported one of several common fertility issues.

percent of pregnant recipients reporting health issues that could potentially affect fertility

How many donors used

In roughly have of the cases, recipients found a single donor and were able to work with him until they succeeded. However in the other half, recipients needed to work with 2 or more donors.

percentage or recipients that use 1 donor or multiple donors

Donation Methods

Artificial insemination (AI only) is by far the most popular donation method used in the group. It's used by 73% of the recipients. Natural insemination (NI only) was the 2nd most popular choice at 10%. 13% of recipients used some combination of the various approaches.

donation method selection by recipients in a private sperm donation group

Diet

Almost 80% of the surveyed recipients reported that they made some kind of change to their diet while TTC.

percent to recipients that changed their diet during the TTC process.

Symptoms During The Two Week Wait

90% of surveyed recipients reported at least 1 symptom during the two week wait (TWW). TWW refers to the roughly 2-week period after insemination until pregnant women hopefully miss their next period.

90% percentage of recipients reporting 1 or more symptoms during the Two week wait.

How Soon Was Pregnancy Detected

A very popular question asked in the group is: how soon should I test after insemination. We saw a very wide range here. For some women the first positive wasn't detected until well into their next cycle. This survey found that 9 DPO is the most common day when that faint line is detected.

9dpo was the most common day recipients first detected a positive pregnancy

Summary

There's a lot of chew on here! I hope you gained some insight into what worked for some of the successful recipients in the group.

In future posts in this series I will go into more detail on some of the items I've covered. I plan on checking to see what factors had the largest effect on outcomes.

Please leave a comment or feedback to let me know what areas you'd like to see me cover in more detail.