Men’s preconception health startup Upstream has announced PreSeed Fertility, a database for matching sperm donors.
We have over 120 registered donors and have been open for several months, representing 10% of our current active donor base in the United States. Rather than storing or distributing sperm, PreSeed partners with licensed clinics, sperm agencies, and legal experts to help match intended parents with suitable donors.
Globally, one in six people experience infertility, and nearly half of all cases are due to male factors. When it comes to sperm donation, there is a huge disparity in supply, with far more families looking for sperm donors than there are available sperm donors.
“People are desperate to have children, but their options are relatively limited,” Gigi Brett, founder of PreSeed and Upstream, told Fierce Healthcare.
Sperm donation is a largely unregulated field and there are many ethical considerations. There is guidance from medical associations regarding frequency limits on donations, but this can be difficult to enforce. There is also no national registry of registered sperm donors, although the commonly quoted figure is only around 1,500 active donors nationwide. And parents-to-be won’t be able to know much about their donors beyond basic aesthetic and health information, Brett argues.
“It’s a really unpleasant industry with no transparency…The UI/UX process just sucks for parents,” Brett said. “You have no idea who this man really is, and yet you are making the most important decision of your life.”
Gigi Brett, Founder of Upstream (PreSeed)
PreSeed can be combined with an upstream 10-week preconception health program, allowing the intended parents to cover the cost of the donor. Upstream, we combine sperm and genetic testing, psychiatric evaluation, and detailed medical examinations with personalized health recommendations. Potential donors optimize their health status before joining the matching pool to ensure the best fertility outcomes and long-term child health trajectory.
Upstream has been running for about two years and is supported by a network of clinicians and other experts, such as male fertility specialists and epigenetics experts, who guide the protocols and recommendations. Upstream has seen a 2x to 3x increase in male fertility on its platform, as well as a 41% increase in testosterone.
While sperm banks collect and store sperm, sperm agencies help match donors with families. Intended parents will find a sperm matching agency, which will use PreSeed’s database. PreSeed has revenue sharing agreements with its agency partners and currently works primarily with one agency. In the future, we are considering allowing parents to use the platform directly.
Upstream previously partnered with Legacy, a national home-based fertility clinic, and conducted a pilot with the Military Family Building Coalition to support Navy SEALs through fertility optimization and education. According to Brett, this pilot was an early validation of how the model would work within a very specific population. The results have not been made public.
