Parents' knowledge about the donors and their attitudes toward disclosure in oocyte donation

Oocyte donation is a popular treatment option among women with ovarian dysfunction. Little is known about the amount of information recipients have about their donors and if the amount of information the couple has relates to their plans to disclose. The purpose of this study was to assess the amount of information recipients had about their donors and their disclosure plans.

Sixty-two sets of oocyte donation parents from five programmes completed a self-report questionnaire.

Ninety percent of both men and women knew their donor's age, ethnicity, hair colour, eye colour, height, weight, education and medical history. Significantly more women than men told others about using a donor to conceive, but two-thirds of women and men would not tell others if they had to do it over again. Fifty-nine percent of women and 52% of men planned to or had told their child; 34% of women and 41% of men do not plan to tell. The amount of information known about the donor was related to plans to tell the child for men only.

Approximately half of couples plan to tell their child of their oocyte donor origin and a majority have told others but many regret having done so. Knowledge about the donor is related to disclosure for men only.