Oocyte donors’ experiences of altruistic known donation: a qualitative study

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the experiences of women who had donated oocytes to a known recipient. Background: Altruistic known donation between friends or family members is the predominant form of oocyte donation in Canada due to legal prohibition of donor compensation. Methods: Data were collected from a hospital-based IVF clinic located in a Canadian city. Semi-structured interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Results: Fifteen donors took part in the study either face to face or by phone interview. Among them, seven were a friend, six were a sister, one was a niece of the recipient, and one donated twice, once to her sister and once to a friend. Nine donations had resulted in a live birth – from newborn to seven years at the time of interview. Of these, four were intra-familial donation and five were friend-to-friend donation. Conclusions: The findings provide little evidence of relationship difficulties between donor and recipient during or following the donation and no evidence of coercion. Other than an altruistic desire to help a recipient and a self-evaluation of her own capacity to donate, the welfare of the intended child was in the mind of most donors during the decision-making phase.

Keywords:

• assisted reproduction
• qualitative methods
• oocyte donation
• donor conception
• infertility

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express appreciation to Janice Betts BA, Rhonda Harris MA, RN, Gabriele Klimstra BSW, and Frisco Yee for assistance in data collection, data coding and data management. Special thanks to all the participants who generously offered their time to participate in the interviews. The first author is grateful to the support of Dr Ellen Greenblatt and Dr Peter Leung to make this research project possible.The study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) - Creating families through altruistic known oocyte donation: A follow-up qualitative study of oocyte recipients and their known donors (IGO#86114).