Options for Donor Conception

The ACCESS Options for Donor Conception group provides contact with people who are considering donor sperm, oocyte or embryo treatment or who are parents of donor offspring, to share their dreams and hopes and difficulties in becoming parents.

The format of the Options for Donor Conception group is to be determined by you.  If meetings are preferred, people may want to involve parents, offspring, donors and counsellors meeting together on an informal basis.  The groups would be formed to reflect the following differences:

• People just starting out on donor programs
• People who have preschool donor children, or Primary school aged donor children, teenage donor children or
• Adults who know they were conceived using donor gametes (sperm or eggs)

Some of the concerns raised include the following:

Sperm and Egg Donors:  

What's involved? Who do my eggs/sperm go to (i.e. loving families, single women).  What are the feelings of others having my genetic child? How will I think about the child as it grows older? With an increasing move towards openness in these arrangements how will I feel about changes in the law that may provide the opportunity to meet the child later or allow the child access to identifying information about me? What will my relationship with the child and his or her parents be?

Considering using Donor Gametes:

Are resulting children normal, healthy, bright? Would I like to meet donor children?  Will I love this child as much as one genetic related to me? During pregnancy I wonder what the child will be like.  How do I approach telling my child, family and friends about this conception? Should I tell or should I not tell? How will I deal with people's reactions?

Children Conceived by Donor Gametes:

I would like to know that I am not the only child conceived in this way. Who was my biological parent and what information can I expect to find about him or her? How do I feel about the donor and my parents?  How do I adjust to being told about the way I was conceived? Do I want to meet the donor or know his or her identity? Can I expect to know about the donor's complete medical history? How are my interests protected?

Parents who have used Donor Gametes:

How do we tell our child? Should we tell and when? Should we tell family and friends? How can we best support our child to deal with this information? How can we deal with fears about the donor coming into our child's life?

To offer you the best support possible would you please email your preference for contact with other members and specific Donor area of interest, along with you name address and membership details and return to us at the address shown below.  We will then send you contact details of other members and a relevant fact sheet.

Once again thank you for your interest in the ACCESS Options groups and please let us know if you have any suggestions in regard to these support groups.  We look forward to providing you with the support you seek.