Abstract
STUDY QUESTIONWhat are the perspectives of adolescents conceived using surrogacy, egg or sperm donation regarding their conception and the third party involved?SUMMARY ANSWERThe majority of adolescents described feeling indifferent about their conception, and yet simultaneously reported an interest in the third party involved, or were in contact with them.WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADYThere is an assumption that children conceived through reproductive donation will feel negatively about their origins in adolescence. However, little is known about the views of adolescents who have been conceived through different types of reproductive donation.STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATIONForty-four adolescents, all of whom had been told about their conception in childhood, participated in a semi-structured interview as part of the sixth phase of a longitudinal, multi-method, multi-informant study of assisted reproduction families in the UK.PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODSAll adolescents were aged 14 years, had been conceived using surrogacy (n = 22), egg donation (n = 13) or sperm donation (n = 9) to heterosexual couples, and varied in terms of their information about, and contact with, the third party involved in their conception. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in participants’ homes. Interviews were analysed qualitatively to determine adolescents’ perceptions of their conception, and their thoughts and feelings about the surrogate or donor involved.MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCEAdolescents were found to feel positive (n = 7), indifferent (n = 32) or ambivalent (n = 5) about their conception. Amongst adolescents not in contact with the surrogate or donor, most were interested (n = 16) in the surrogate or donor, and others were ambivalent (n = 4), or not interested (n = 6) in them. Adolescents in contact with the surrogate or donor expressed positive (n = 14), ambivalent (n = 1) or negative (n = 1) feelings about them.LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTIONOf 56 adolescents invited to take part in the study, 47 consented to take part, giving a response rate of 84%. It was not possible to obtain information from adolescents who do not know about their conception.WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGSThe findings contradict the assumption that children conceived through reproductive donation will feel negatively about their origins in adolescence and suggest that it may be helpful to draw a distinction between adolescents’ feelings about their conception in general, and their feelings about the surrogate or donor in particular.STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S)This study was funded by the Wellcome Trust [097857/Z/11/Z]. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Highlights
Reproductive donation is a form of assisted reproduction in which a third party assists in the conception of a child, either through donated gametes or by hosting the pregnancy, either using their own egg or the commissioning mother’s (Richards et al, 2012)
The different genetic and gestational connections that children born through reproductive donation have with their parents have formed the basis of much psychological research into parent and child wellbeing and parent–child relationships, showing that families formed through reproductive donation generally do not differ from their non-assisted counterparts in terms of parents’ psychological wellbeing, children’s psychological wellbeing, and the quality of parent–child relationships
The data analysed in this article are from the sixth phase of the UK Longitudinal Study of Assisted Reproduction Families that has examined the impact of reproductive donation on children’s psychological wellbeing and parent–child relationships from infancy to adolescence (Golombok et al, 2017; Ilioi et al, 2017) Mothers were the primary point of contact and had been asked for permission to be contacted for follow-up at the previous phases of the study
Summary
Reproductive donation is a form of assisted reproduction in which a third party assists in the conception of a child, either through donated gametes (sperm or egg) or by hosting the pregnancy, either using their own egg (traditional surrogacy) or the commissioning mother’s (gestational surrogacy) (Richards et al, 2012). The different genetic and gestational connections that children born through reproductive donation have with their parents have formed the basis of much psychological research into parent and child wellbeing and parent–child relationships, showing that families formed through reproductive donation generally do not differ from their non-assisted counterparts in terms of parents’ psychological wellbeing, children’s psychological wellbeing, and the quality of parent–child relationships. It is still assumed that children conceived using reproductive donation, and in particular, surrogacy, will feel negatively about their origins as they grow older (Golombok, 2015). The only study to have sought the perspectives of donor-conceived and surrogacy children raised in heterosexual two-parent families is the UK Longitudinal Study of Assisted Reproduction Families (Blake et al, 2010, 2014; Jadva et al, 2012). This article reports findings from the same longitudinal study when the children reached adolescence
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