DCSG | Past donors

Past donors

Donors sharing information

Over the years the DCSG has had many calls from past donors. Most of them ask the question, “Can I find out the results of my donations?” The answer to this question will vary. First of all if you donated many years ago the clinic may no longer have the records. Secondly each clinic has its own policy of what information they will release but most clinics will be happy to give you some information.
We would suggest that the best person to contact at your clinic would be the counsellor or the nurse in charge of the donor programme. The following questions may help when you talk to the clinic:

We would suggest that the best person to contact at your clinic would be the counsellor or the nurse in charge of the donor programme. The following questions may help when you talk to the clinic:

Can you tell me the numbers of children born from my donations?
Can you tell me what the sexes are and in what year they were born?
Can you tell me what information you give to recipient parents about me?

In the past most recipient parents were only given a very small amount of information about donors such as height, weight, eye/hair colour and build. Some clinics may have also added some or all of the following: age, marital status, religion, education, career, hobbies and ethnicity. More recently the information given has expanded and may also include something written by the donor about him or herself.

If you are interested in giving more information about yourself this would be very much welcomed by recipient parents and offspring. If you donated some time ago expanding the information about yourself to include the things that we have listed about would be great. Also an updated medical history of yourself and your parents would be very useful for recipient families. Some clinics suggest that donors write a letter about themselves that can be put in their file so that if any parents or offspring (if old enough) enquire about you a copy of this letter can be given to them. You could also include some photos of yourself. In the case of records being lost or destroyed, some clinics are encouraging donors and offspring to leave a DNA sample on file in order to cross match.

If you are interested in contact with recipient families or offspring we would suggest that you contact the clinic counsellor to discuss this. There have been a number of donors in Australia who have had contact with recipient families either by mail or in person and we feel that it will become more common in the future.

I've now been in hospital twice to donate to a couple and on the second try they conceived and are now about seven months pregnant. I already know a little bit about them and they know a bit about me. Hopefully in future we'll be able to swap letters or photos and maybe one day our families can meet. (Lynda)

I'd be open to not just meeting them (offspring) but a lot more if there was an opening. I didn't think much about relations when I was a lot younger; you choose your friends and not your relations, but as I got older I changed a bit. Previously I had never thought that the possibility could arise of any chance of meeting them but there is some chance, but not a great one. For myself though I'm willing to take risks in life and I have no problem about meeting new people. (Ian)

If you would like to talk more about information sharing with someone at the DCSG please do not hesitate to contact us. Also the Donor Conception Support Group can provide you with the clinic counsellors name and phone numbers.