We Are Donor Conceived | Share Your Experience

About

We Are Donor Conceived was launched in 2016 as a resource center for donor conceived people around the globe. It's also a place where donor conceived people can share their stories with each other and the general public in order to inspire greater understanding about the unique challenges we face.

If you are a donor-conceived individual looking to connect with others in the same unique situation, please join our private Facebook group, exclusively for donor-conceived people.

If you are a journalist or producer working on a story about DNA testing or donor conception, please direct your inquiries to wearedonorconceived@gmail.com. We also welcome emails from researchers and academics studying donor conception.

Help & Guides

DNA Testing: 5 Steps to Get Started

Personal Stories

Living My Truth Set Me Free

I have been drowning for two years with two weights tied to my legs, pulling me beneath the surface, dragging me down. The first weight was my biological father ending our relationship, and subsequently being ignored by every member of his family.

I am not for sale. I am your daughter

My heart breaks for my friends and other fellow donor conceived people who have reached out to their sperm sellers and been rejected. To clarify, I use the term “sperm seller” because “sperm donor” does not correctly portray the American industry.

Waiting is the hardest part

I finally found the email of the man who I think is my donor dad. It took me about three weeks to work up the nerve to email him. I finally did, last night.

Why I’m angry about being donor conceived

Donor conceived people are sometimes criticized for being angry. I am one of them, and I’m ok with that.

I have 49 siblings (so far)

"Do you have any siblings?.” I’ve been asked that question so many times that I developed an automatic response: “No, I’m an only child.” Even when asked now, sometimes I’ll cut myself off in the middle of answering, reminding myself of my new reality.

Your dad is still your dad

Donor conceived people hear this a lot. And sure, on paper and in my heart he is, but he’s not in the nucleus of my every cell. He’s not in the chromosomes of my children, no matter how hard or how long I wished he was.

Would you rather not exist?

Those who pose existential questions like this cannot imagine the traumatic and confusing situations that many donor-conceived people regularly experience, and they are unable to see that the question itself is rude, hurtful, and irrelevant.

One child, three parents

“Your parents are the people who raised you,” says everyone who has a complex about that particular thing. I agree. They are. But so is he.

Baby brother

I have an unknown amount of siblings. I just found a new brother. I can't contact him. I want to know him. I mean, why wouldn't I? He's my, from what I can see, baby brother.

Opening Pandora’s box

For most of my life, I have known that I am donor conceived. Yet now that I can look back from this point in time, I see myself as living with thick blindfold over my eyes. Growing up, I didn't really have any remarkable emotions when I thought about my biological father.

I am not your secret

What’s wrong with donor conception? I don’t even know where to begin. To start with, apart from having no medical records, being conceived by ‘artificial insemination’ is just weird.

Familiar Strangers

When I got my first set of test results back in 2012, I made a bargain with myself that if I gave in to my irrepressible desire to find out who I was and where I came from, then I would be satisfied.

VIDEOS

Welcome Message

If you just found out you were conceived using donated sperm or eggs, we want you to know you are not alone.

Relative Identity

When motivational speaker and fitness guru Danny Johnson was only 13 years old, she learned that her biological father was a mystery sperm donor.

The Need To Know

At age 29, Amber Van Moessner shockingly discovered through a 23andMe DNA test that the father she had grown up with was not her biological father.

Donor Siblings Documentary Short

This short documentary produced in Denmark follows Kianni Arroyo's first meeting a with a donor-conceived half sibling in Florida.

buzzfeed-dna-test-dad-not-biological-father

I Found Out My Dad’s Not My Biological Father Through A DNA Test

When Sam got her family DNA tests for the holidays, she had no idea it would completely change her life — via BuzzFeed video.

Donor Dad

In the space of a few seconds, Ken Allen’s life was changed forever. The schoolteacher was on a lunch break when he got the startling news: he was the father of eleven children he never knew he had.

Your Bio Father is a Sperm Donor

Chloe Elizabeth, a donor-conceived person from Australia, shares highs and lows of her journey to discover her full identity.

Insight: Sperm Donation

This episode of Insight explores sperm donation from the perspective of donors, donor conceived adults, parents of donor conceived people, fertility clinic owners, and a legal expert.

Documentaries

The Genius Factory

Learn more about a new feature-length documentary about the Repository for Germinal Choice, a controversial sperm bank that purportedly stocked sperm from Nobel Prize winners.

Father Mother Donor Child

In this documentary film, Maria Arlamovsky talks to the people affected by third party reproduction, including donor-conceived adults, sperm and egg donors, sperm donor clinic directors, and parents.

Donor Unknown

Donor Unknown is a documentary feature that follows the story of JoEllen Marsh, a 20-year-old donor conceived person who is driven to find out more information about her sperm donor father, known only as Donor 150.

Q&As

Q&A: Laura McMillian of donorconceivedsupport.com

Laura McMillian offers coaching and mentoring to donor conceived individuals, their parents, and donors.

Q&A: DNA Detectives

Many DC people use DNA tests to unlock the mystery of their genetic heritage, learn more about their health, and even search for family members. To shed some light on how to go about the latter, we tapped a volunteer search assistant for tips about where to begin and how to get help.

Q&A: Damian Adams

Damian Adams is a biological research scientist at the University of South Australia’s Future Industries Institute. In his spare time, Adams is pursuing a PhD focused on issues of donor conception and has published several academic papers and editorials surrounding donor conception.