Seedy world of the super sperm donors: Inside America's black market of men who father hundreds... demand 'natural insemination' in motels... and the women so desperate they agree to conceive in public restrooms

by CHRISTOPHER STEVENS
13 April 2024

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.