Titre : Disclosing donor conception: a mixed methods study exploring the experience and attitudes of French sperm donor-conceived adults born within heterosexual couples
Auteurs : Anaïs Martin, Salomé Gallissian, Carole Daoud-Deveze, Audrey Gnisci, Cindy Faust, Agnès Martial, Catherine Metzler-Guillemain
Date : avril 2026
Résumé
Research question
How can the experiences and attitudes of donor-conceived people regarding the disclosure of their conception be understood, given the emphasis on openness and the ongoing challenges faced by donor-conceived families?
Design
A mixed-method exploratory study (March 2019 to September 2020) involving an online survey and in-depth interviews with French sperm donor-conceived adults born to heterosexual couples. The survey included 107 respondents aged 20–54 years, mostly women (86.9%) with high academic standards, informed of their conception at an average age of 18.6 (± 11.9). The interview involved 20 participants aged 21–53 years, most of whom were women (85%) and employed as managers (35%), informed between the ages of 5 and 49 years (average: 19.7 years).
Results
Age was not the primary factor for understanding how donor-conceived participants experienced and perceived disclosure. The circumstances of disclosure emerged as an independent factor, with four paths identified: disclosure as a mutually agreed parental strategy; disclosure perceived as necessary owing to events in the donor offspring’s life; disclosure as a breach in a prior agreement between partners after a family event; and disclosure initiated by donor-conceived people themselves. Additionally, three factors explained the gendered gap that positioned mothers as the main actors in disclosure experiences: the organization of MAR protocols, the social perception of male infertility and the gendered division of labour within families.
Conclusions
A contextualised approach to information-sharing practices is needed. Disclosure should be understood within its temporal and relational context to grasp how donor-conceived people experience learning the facts of their conception.
Citation : Anaïs Martin, Salomé Gallissian, Carole Daoud-Deveze, Audrey Gnisci, Cindy Faust, Agnès Martial, Catherine Metzler-Guillemain, Disclosing donor conception: a mixed methods study exploring the experience and attitudes of French sperm donor-conceived adults born within heterosexual couples, Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Volume 52, Issue 4, 2026, 105474, ISSN 1472-6483, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2026.105474. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1472648326000155)
Mots-clés : sperm donation, donor conception, disclosure, donor offspring, mixed methods, third-party reproduction
