Increasing openness in oocyte donation families regarding disclosure over 15 years

Abstract

Worldwide there is an increasing number of families created by oocyte donation (OD). The aim of this study was to gather information about parents' plans of disclosure to their child and to other people, as well as parents' attitudes and level of satisfaction up to 15 years after their OD treatment. A questionnaire with separate material for each partner was sent to all parents (167 mothers, 163 fathers) who had had a child after treatment with donated oocytes at Väestöliitto Fertility Clinics in Helsinki during 1992-2006. These parents had a total of 231 children aged 1-14 years. Parents were asked if they had told or intended to tell their child about his/her origin and how and when they had done so and about the reasons to disclose or not. Other questions were about openness towards other people, concerns about donor characteristics, counselling and feelings towards the child. Of the mothers, 61.1%, and of the fathers, 60.0%, had told or intended to tell the child of his/her conception. Of children over 3 years of age, 26% had already been informed. There was a statistically significant difference between parental telling in different age groups of children (P = 0.011, χ(2)). In the youngest age group (1-3 years), 83.3% of parents were inclined to disclosure compared with 44.4% in the oldest age group (13-14 years). A high proportion of mothers (86.7%) and fathers (71.0%) had told other people about the nature of their child's conception. The majority of parents did not have much concern about the characteristics of the donor. A higher proportion of the mothers (24%) compared with fathers (11%) thought that the psychological support had been insufficient. They thought that discussions with health professionals should be arranged routinely after delivery or when it was time to inform the child. Parents with young OD children are clearly more inclined to disclosure compared with parents with older children.