age of disclosure and donor offspring's feelings about finding out they

23% (38) had a mother only, and 15% (25) had same-sex parents. ... offspring from mother only and same sex families. Thirty-three per cent of offspring.
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AGE OF DISCLOSURE AND DONOR OFFSPRING’S FEELINGS ABOUT FINDING OUT THEY WERE DONOR CONCEIVED Vasanti Jadva1, Tabitha Freeman1, Wendy Kramer2 and Susan Golombok1 1 2

Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, UK Donor Sibling Registry, USA

Presented at the 24th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona heard today (7/72008)

INTRODUCTION This report presents findings from the first ever large scale study of individuals conceived by donor insemination who are aware of their donor conception. This has become possible through the Donor Sibling Registry (DSR), a website that allows individuals conceived by donor to search for and make contact with their donor and their donor siblings that is, other donor conceived people who share the same donor and are effectively their half siblings. Through this website we have been able to recruit a sample of 165 offspring conceived by sperm donation. This has allowed us to obtain data from a large sample of offspring aged from 13 to adulthood about their experiences of being donor conceived.

The literature on adoption, as well as studies of donor conceived offspring who found out about their conception later in life, suggest that it is best for individuals to be told about their donor conception in childhood. The aim of our study was to examine whether age of disclosure was related to offspring’s feelings about their donor conception.

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METHOD

On-line questionnaires were completed anonymously by parents of donor offspring, donors and donor offspring themselves. This presentation will focus on the offspring only.

The questionnaire consisted of multiple choice and open-ended questions. Data were obtained on offspring’s experiences of finding out about their donor conception and their current feelings about their donor conception.

RESULTS

PARTICIPANTS One hundred and sixty five offspring conceived by sperm donor completed the survey. They were aged from 13 – 61 (M = 22, SD = 10). Half (82) were aged between 13 and 17 years and the other half (81) were aged 18 or over. Seventy- four per cent (123) were female and 25% (42) were male. Eighty-nine per cent of respondents were currently living in the US (148), with 4 (2%) currently living in the UK. In terms of family type, 58% (96) of offspring reported having heterosexual parents, 23% (38) had a mother only, and 15% (25) had same-sex parents.

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AGE

SEX

CURRENT

MIN

MAX

M

SD

13

61

22

10

Female

Male

74% (n=123)

25% (n=42)

USA

UK

CANADA

AUSTRA LIA

OTHER

89% (148)

2% (4)

4% (7)

1% (2)

.5% (1)

HETEROSEXUAL

MOTHER ONLY

SAME-SEX

58% (n=96)

23% (n=38)

15% (n=25)

RESIDENCE

FAMILY TYPE

Table 1. Participant demographics NB: Not all offspring answered all the questions, therefore the % does not always equal 100

AGE OF DISCLOSURE Offspring were asked at what age they had found out about their conception. Thirty per cent had found out before the age of 3 years, 44% had found out between 3 and 18 years, and 19% had found out after the age of 18. Looking at the different family types, it can be seen that only 9% of offspring from heterosexual families were told about their conception before the age of 3, compared with 63% and 56% of offspring from mother only and same sex families. Thirty-three per cent of offspring from heterosexual families were told of their conception after the age of 18, compared to none of the offspring from the other two family types. Thus disclosure patterns appear to differ between families with and without a father in the family home.

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Fig. 1. Age of disclosure by family type 70 60

%

50 Heterosexual parents

40

Mother-only

30

Same-sex parents

20 10 0 0-3

4-7

8-11

12-15

16-18

Over 18

Age of Disclosure

WHO OFFSPRING WERE TOLD BY

Offspring were asked who had told them about their conception. Twenty- four per cent stated that they had always known, 55% had been told by their mother, 1% by their father, 13% by both parents, and 2% by someone else. Looking at the breakdown by family type, it can be seen that almost half the offspring of motheronly and of same-sex parents reported always knowing about their conception. This corresponds with the higher proportions of offspring from these two family types who reported that they had been told about their conception before the age of 3.

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Fig.2. Who offspring were told by, by family type 70 60 50 %

Heterosexual parents Mother Only Same-sex parents

40 30 20 10 So me on ee lse

Bo th p are nts

Fa the r/c op are nt

Mo the r

Alw ays Kn ow n

0

RESPONSE TO DISCLOSURE Offspring were asked how they felt about their conception at the time they found out. Those who had found out before the age of 3 were not included in the analysis as they were too young to recall their feelings.

Table 2 reports offspring’s feelings from the most common, which is at the top, to the least common. At 72%, the most common feeling reported by all offspring irrespective of age was curiosity.

Comparisons were conducted between those told during childhood (from 4-11 years), adolescence (from 12 to 18 years) and adulthood (after age 18). The highlighted rows indicate the feelings for which differences were found according to the age at which individuals had been told of their conception. Those told during adulthood were more likely to report feeling confused, shocked, upset, relieved, numb and angry.

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Feelings

Curious Confused Shocked Accepting Upset Isolated Excited Relieved Numb Angry Happy Indifferent Ashamed Content Wish hadn’t found out

4-11 n=51 n 36 19 14 16 8 6 10 3 3 6 7 6 6 5 2

% 71 37 27 31 16 12 20 6 6 12 14 12 12 10 4

12-18 n=31 n 20 16 18 11 7 9 8 8 8 4 8 4 2 6 1

% 65 52 58 35 23 29 26 26 26 13 26 13 6 19 3

Over 18 n=32 n % 26 81 22 69 24 75 6 19 14 44 10 31 6 19 12 38 12 38 12 38 5 16 3 9 5 16 0 0 1 3

Total n=114 82 57 56 33 29 25 24 23 23 22 20 13 13 11 4

p

72 50 49 29 25 22 21 20 20 19 18 11 11 10 4

n.s.