Adolescents with open-identity sperm donors: reports from 12-17 year olds

Donor insemination programs can include 'open-identity' sperm donors, who are willing to release their identities to adult offspring. We report findings from adolescent offspring who have open-identity donors.

Using mail-back questionnaires, youths from 29 households (41.4% headed by lesbian couples, 37.9% by single women, 20.7% by heterosexual couples) reported their experience growing up knowing how they were conceived and their interest in the donor's identity.

Most youths (75.9%) reported always knowing, and were somewhat to very comfortable with their conception origins. All but one felt knowing had a neutral to positive impact on their relationship with their birth mother and, separately, co-parent. The youths' top question about the donor was, 'What's he like?' and >80% felt at least moderately likely to request his identity and pursue contact. Finally, of those who might contact the donor, 82.8% would do so to learn more about him, with many believing it would help them learn more about themselves. No youth reported wanting money and few (6.9%) wanted a father/child relationship. We also discuss differences found among youths from different household types.

The majority of the youths felt comfortable with their origins and planned to obtain their donor's identity, although not necessarily at age 18.