Short answer: as many as you can afford. But the ideal number of samples to store also depends on your future plans. A few questions you might consider:
- Do you plan to or hope to get bottom surgery? If yes, you may want to freeze more sperm, since you won’t have the option to recover your fertility.
- Do you want one child, multiple children, or maybe you’re not sure you want kids at all? How much sperm you should freeze will change depending on family size and how certain you are that you want biological children in the future.
Generally speaking, one vial of sperm is used in each IUI or IVF procedure.
- 1 semen sample = 4 vials of frozen sperm
- 1 vial of frozen sperm = 1 IUI or IVF procedure
IUI pregnancy rates range from 10–25% per cycle; IVF success rates range from 5–50% per cycle. So, you may need multiple attempts to achieve pregnancy.