To Tell Or Not To Tell : Donor Conception

I read a really interesting article in the January edition of Focus on Reproduction which is a newsletter published by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). The article brings together various research papers about the families with children born from assisted reproduction technologies (ART) and is very positive.

There are sometimes discussions on forums about when to reveal to your child that they were donor conceived or if indeed you should. The newsletter discusses how people have the best intentions to tell their child they were donor conceived and yet many delay this discussion.  Research undertaken by Cambridge University called the Millennium study looked at 51 families who had used egg donation and 50 donor insemination families. When their child was 1 year old, 56% egg donation parents and 46% donor insemination  parents stated that they planned to tell their child about their genetic origins. However, in a follow up, by age 10 only 41% egg donation and 28% donor insemination parents had done so. This is despite research showing that older children who find out are more likely to report feeling distressed compared to younger children who react quite differently. It is quite an interesting read and you can find it here.