Can a person freeze a donor's sperm in a freezer and then use it to inseminate themselves? I know this sounds silly but it is something I am thinking of doing. My husband had a vasectomy while married to his ex-wife. Now, we want a child, and his brother has gracefully offered his sperm. Let me know if our proposed "home" treatment will work.

--Veda

What you're suggesting is interesting, but it won't work. For starters, when reproductive specialists freeze sperm, they do so at a temperature of almost -200 degrees C. (-328 degrees F.), not -4 degrees C. (25 degrees F.), which is the temperature of a typical home freezer.

Moreover, sperm are quite delicate, and they're made up of a lot of fluid. Have you ever left a bottle of water in a glass container in the freezer? If so, you know that the container will explode in just a few hours as the water turns to ice and expands. The same thing would happen to sperm if frozen in your freezer. When we freeze sperm for use in fertility treatment, they are placed in a special type of "anti-freeze" that prevents expansion and explosion.

If you're interested in conceiving, a more conventional route is to talk with a specialist about insemination with donor sperm. A vasectomy reversal for your husband is another possibility.