Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:46:00.622Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 9 - Counseling Recipients of Nonidentified Donor Gametes

from III - Third Party Reproduction: Assessment and Preparation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2022

By
Patricia Sachs  and
Carol Toll
Edited by
Sharon N. Covington
Sharon N. Covington
Affiliation:
Shady Grove Fertility, Rockville, MD
Get access

Summary

The recipient interview is primarily psycho-educational in nature. The fertility counselor strives to understand the recipients’ family building goals and help them frame their unique “family story.” Preparation for disclosure to the potential child has become increasingly important, due to the technological and genetic impact on donor anonymity and growing openness. Societal changes have brought about expansion in the types of recipients seeking treatment, as well as greater diversity in the cultural background of both donors and recipients. The recent worldwide pandemic has also caused an increase in virtual counseling.Fertility counselors need to be open and flexible while integrating these changes into our work with recipients. Fertility counselors are essential not only at the outset of the recipient journey, but are increasingly seen as a valuable lifelong resource to be consulted at different stages in the experience of being a donor-conceived family.

Keywords

fertility counselingrecipient counselingunknown donorde-identified donordisclosureanonymitydiversitycultural backgroundpsychoeducationfamily story
Type
Chapter
Information
Fertility Counseling: Clinical Guide , pp. 97 - 105
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Practice Committee for the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology. Guidance regarding gamete and embryo donation. Fertil Steril 2021;115(6):1395–1410.Google Scholar
Harper, JC, Kennett, D, Reisel, D. The end of donor anonymity: how genetic testing is likely to drive anonymous donation out of business. Hum Reprod 2016;31(6):1135–1140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, AJ, Coyle, A. What does it mean to be a donor offspring? The identity experiences of adults conceived by donor insemination and the implications for counselling and therapy. Hum Reprod 2000;15(9):2041–2051.Google Scholar
Isaksson, S, Skoog-Svanberg, A, Sydsio, G, et al. It takes two to tango: information-sharing with offspring among heterosexual parents following identity-release sperm donation. Hum Reprod 2016; 31(1):125–132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ilioi, E, Blake, L, Vasanti, J, et al. The role of age of disclosure of biological origins in the psychological wellbeing of adolescents conceived by reproductive donation: a longitudinal study from age 1 to age 14. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2017;58(3):315–324.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zadeh, S, Illioi, EC, Jadva, V, et al. The perspective of adolescents conceived using surrogacy, egg or sperm donation. Hum Reprod 2018; 33(6):1099–1106.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Becker, G, Butler, A, Nachtigall, RD. Resemblance talk: a challenge for parents whose children were conceived with donor gametes in the US. Soc Sci Med 2005;61:1300–1309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culley, L, Hudson, N, Rapport, F. Assisted conception and South Asian Communities in the UK: public perceptions of the use of donor gametes in infertility treatment. Hum Fertil 2013;16(1):48–53.Google Scholar
Homanen, R. Reproducing whiteness and enacting kin in the Nordic context of transnational egg donation: matching donors with cross-border traveller recipients in Finland. Soc Sci Med 2018;203:28–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moll, T. Making a match: curating race in South African gamete donation. Med Anthropol 2019;38(7):588–602.Google Scholar
Hadizadeh-Talasaz, F, Simbar, M, Latifnejad Roudsari, R. Exploring infertile couples’ decisions to disclose donor conception to the future child. Int J Fertil Steril 2020; 14(3):240–246.Google Scholar
Miettinen, A, Rotkirch, A, Suikkari, AM, et al. Attitudes of anonymous and identity-release oocyte donors towards future contact with donor offspring. Hum Reprod 2019;34(4):672–678.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Melo-Martin, I, Rubin, LR, Cholst, IN. “I want us to be a normal family”: toward an understanding of the functions of anonymity among U.S. oocyte donors and recipients. AJOB Empir Bioth 2018;9(4):235–251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pasch, LA. New realities for the practice of egg donation: a family-building perspective. Fertil Steril 2018;110(7):1194–1202.Google Scholar
Benward, JM. Disclosure: helping families talk about assisted reproduction. In: Covington, SN, Ed. Fertility Counseling: Clinical Guide and Case Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, 252–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×