Attitudes towards disclosure of conception mode in 899 pregnancies conceived after ICSI

Abstract

Little is known about parents' attitude towards disclosure of the mode of conception within families conceived by IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and whether parental disclosure influences the child's emotional adjustment. A questionnaire was sent to 1614 families with ICSI children aged 5–6 years, which included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Data from 899 families (55.7%) could be evaluated. 2.3% (21/899) of the parents had already disclosed the mode of conception. The mean age at disclosure was 4.5 ± 1.1 years. 65.6% (590/899) ‘intended’ to tell their child in future at a mean age of 11.8 ± 3.6 years. The most common reasons for not disclosing were the opinion about a low level of relevance for the child and the wish to ‘protect the child’. There was no evidence of an association between secrecy or disclosure and the emotional and behavioural adjustment of the child. Only a small minority of parents had disclosed the mode of conception by ICSI to their children at the age of 5.5 years. This is similar to what is known about disclosure in third-party reproduction families.