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The Donor Conception Identity Questionnaire: associations with mental health and searching for and finding donor

Vasanti Jadva¹, Catherine Jones², Sophie Zadeh³

¹Department of Psychology, City, University of London, London, United Kingdom.

Fertility and Sterility

|August 25, 2024

Abstract

Objective:

To understand how the Donor Conception Identity Questionnaire (DCIQ) correlates with mental health and explore differences in the DCIQ between donor conceived people who were actively searching for donor connections to those who were not and those who had found their donor connections to those who had not.

Design:

Cross-sectional survey.

Subjects:

A total of 88 donor conceived adults ranging in age from 18 to 70 (mean, 34.27 years; median, 31 years). A total of 39 participants were actively searching for their donor connections, and 49 were not.

Exposure:

Donor conception identity was measured using a questionnaire and scores were correlated with existing measures of mental health.

Main Outcome Measure(S):

Participants completed the DCIQ and measures of well-being, satisfaction with life, identity, pride, and stigma.

Result(S):

Factor analysis of items from the DCIQ identified four domains: concern and preoccupation; internalized stigma; pride and acceptance; and openness and understanding. The identified factors correlated with scales of psychological and social well-being. Active searchers scored higher than non-active searchers on "concern and preoccupation" and "internalized stigma". Donor conceived individuals who had found their donor connections scored lower on "internalized stigma" and higher on "openness and understanding" compared with those who had not found their donor connections.

Conclusion(S):

The findings of the present study show that scores on the DCIQ correlate with existing measures of psychological and social well-being. Furthermore, donor conceived individuals searching for their donor connections differ from those not actively searching on key domains of the DCIQ. Implications for future avenues of study and support for donor conceived people are discussed.

Keywords:

DCIQ Donor connections donor conception identity sperm donation

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