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 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.

Articles & Selected Resources

Meet the second generation of children being born through sperm donations

Deciding to use a sperm donor is not always an easy choice, but for Heather it was further complicated by the fact she was also conceived using sperm from a stranger. Read the full story on ABC News Australia.

The Man With 17 Kids (And Counting)

After becoming a sperm donor, Tim Gullicksen wanted to get to know his donor kids. Now he invites them all out to a lake in California every summer. Read the full story on The Atlantic.

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‘The broken promise of anonymity’?

Ricki Lewis argues that supporting anonymity for sperm and egg donors is misguided. Read the full story on geneticliteracyproject.org.

DNA detectives and the end of family secrets

Sign up to a DNA site and you might uncover Viking ancestry – or who your father was. Adoptees and donor-conceived people can now make shock genetics discoveries with a simple saliva swab and they're doing it in droves.

The Jarring Experience of Learning You Were Conceived With Donor Sperm or Eggs

People conceived via sperm and egg donation share their personal experiences.

Sperm donor fathers reveal struggle of not knowing who their kids are

Formerly anonymous sperm donors share their motivations for connecting with their offspring and how their attitudes have evolved over time.

Personal Stories

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.

I Was Artificially Created

I am a donor-conceived person. This means that my mom went to a fertility clinic with a sperm bank and was artificially inseminated to get pregnant. As a single mom, she felt this was her only option. She elected to use an anonymous sperm donor.

Anything is Possible

I cannot describe what it feels like to see your father's face for the first time. I was on the couch and the lights were off, TV on, and the whole world stopped.

Dear Donor

Letters from donor conceived individuals to their biological fathers or other genetic family members in search of information and human connection.

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.

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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.

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.

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: Nicholas Isel

Nicholas Isel was conceived using sperm from The Repository for Germinal Choice. His experience as a donor conceived person has been featured in books, radio programs, and an upcoming documentary. Most recently, Isel created an FDA petition that seeks to improve record keeping standards and make personal information about donors more readily accessible.