The room was dimly lit, but that was the point. On an otherwise ordinary L.A. day, the nice lady handed Colton Underwood a small cup and guided him into a room that, in many ways, looked like the place where you might get your annual physical. Except next to the chair covered in paper wrap there was a television—and a couple drawers of porn. Though this wasn’t exactly how he imagined it would go down, becoming a dad was always part of the plan. So after bouncing around a few NFL practice squads, becoming the Bachelor, publicly coming out as gay after said Bachelor season, starring in a Netflix special titled Coming Out Colton, getting married, and now taking the first step toward fatherhood, Underwood had arrived at the doctor’s office to masturbate.

His husband, political strategist Jordan C. Brown, was also in attendance. Much to the couple’s surprise, they were shown into the same room to collect their respective semen samples. “I don’t recommend it,” says Underwood, 32, of the team effort. “It’s a little distracting and also just, like, wasn’t the vibe, because from a medical standpoint you can’t do anything.” (Touching each other could contaminate the sample.) Underwood opted to use his phone instead of the analog porn, though the situation still presented some difficulties, with patients just on the other side of the door talking to their doctors, giving blood, and getting ultrasounds. “It’s very hard to set a mood,” he says. “So for any men that like to have their setup and be specific, it’s challenging.”