Parents' knowledge about the donors and their attitudes toward disclosure in oocyte donation

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Oocyte donation is a popular treatment option among women with ovarian dysfunction. Little is known about the amount of information recipients have about their donors and if the amount of information the couple has relates to their plans to disclose. The purpose of this study was to assess the amount of information recipients had about their donors and their disclosure plans. METHODS: Sixty-two sets of oocyte donation parents from ®ve programmes completed a self-report questionnaire. RESULTS: Ninety percent of both men and women knew their donor's age, ethnicity, hair colour, eye colour, height, weight, education and medical history. Signi®cantly more women than men told others about using a donor to conceive, but two-thirds of women and men would not tell others if they had to do it over again. Fifty-nine percent of women and 52% of men planned to or had told their child; 34% of women and 41% of men do not plan to tell. The amount of information known about the donor was related to plans to tell the child for men only. CONCLUSION: Approximately half of couples plan to tell their child of their oocyte donor origin and a majority have told others but many regret having done so. Knowledge about the donor is related to disclosure for men only.

Two Decades After Legislation on Identifiable Donors in Sweden: Are Recipient Couples Ready to be Open About Using Gamete Donation?

“…In Swedish (Gottlieb, et al, 2000;Lalos, et al, 2007;Leeb-Lundberg, et al, 2006) as well as international studies (Daniels, et al, 2009;Hahn & Craft-Rosenberg, 2002;Klock & Greenfeld, 2004;Murray & Golombok, 2003) a considerable percentage of parents (28-70%) had told other persons about the donation, but had not informed their child. This increases the risk that the child finds out about her/his genetic origin by accident or from someone other than the parents, something that has been reported to be a traumatic experience for the offspring (Jadva, Freeman, Kramer, & Golombok, 2009;Turner & Coyle, 2000).…”

Disclosure decisions among pregnant women who received donor oocytes: a phenomenological study

“…Klock and Greenfeld reported a significant gender difference among 62 sets of oocyte donation parents with men, but not women, influenced by the amount of knowledge about the oocyte donor (17). In this study, men who knew more about the donor were more likely to indicate they have or are planning to inform the resulting child of their conceptual origins.…”

“…Her actions provide evidence of speculation by other investigators that oocyte recipient women who prefer non-disclosure are more likely not to participate in research examining their disclosure experience (17). Although the percentage of women intending to inform the resulting child in this study (50%) is comparable to the 56% reported by Hahn and Craft-Rosenberg (18) and the 52% by Greenfeld and colleagues in their sample of anonymous oocyte donation in the United States (14), the actual percentage of women informing their child may be occurring less frequently than indicated.…”

“…This, along with the small sample size may not have adequately captured other factors that influence disclosure decisions. Further research should include a larger, more diverse number of women, including men, who have also been significant in determining disclosure in other similar studies (17)(18)28). Also, the investigation did not capture disclosure decisions made by the women prior to pregnancy, nor did it address possible changes in the women's disclosure patterns made as a direct result of the pregnancy or over time.…”

Perspectives, experiences, and choices of parents of children conceived following oocyte donation

“…A number of studies undertaken in various countries have explored parents' views regarding disclosure to their donor-conceived children of the means of their conception. To date, most of the study populations relating to oocyte donation have been recipients of anonymous donation whose children have been aged up to eight years (Pettee and Weckstein, 1993;Weil et al, 1994;Söderström-Anttila et al, 1998;Baetens et al, 2000;Hahn and CraftRosenberg, 2002;Greenfeld and Klock, 2004;Klock and Greenfeld, 2004;Golombok et al, 2004Murray et al, 2006;Mac Dougall et al, 2007;van Berkel et al, 2007;Laruelle et al, 2012), although one recent Finnish study has included parents of children aged up to 14 years (Söderström-Anttila et al, 2010). These studies have revealed intended disclosure rates of between 26 and 81%, although not all parents indicating an intention to disclose will necessarily do so Golombok et al, 2006;Murray et al, 2006;Mac Dougall et al, 2007;van Berkel et al, 2007), and only three studies have included longitudinal data tracking parental disclosure behaviour.…”