Personal Stories
We are very grateful to all those who have taken the time to write about their personal experiences of donor conception and issues relating to it. These stories are invaluable in helping to share common feelings around complex issues. Reading about how others have dealt with things is often very reassuring.
Use the drop-down options to search for particular story types. And if you would like to contribute your own story, please do get in touch with us.
Carly's Story - daughter in a solo mum family
Hi, I’m Carly.
My Mum had me through shared embryo donation. This is my story so far.
I have always felt like the most wanted child on the planet
Growing up I have always known that I was donor conceived. We were always very open about it in my family and had talks about it whenever it occupied my mind in different stages of childhood. I have always felt like the most wanted child on the planet.
A Missing Side, with Missing Pieces
My mothers were always really open about my conception, and that is something I appreciate. That way I could form my own opinion about my conception story and the industry around it, and I could talk with them about it.
"Half of Me" - Ally's Story
I discovered through a DNA testing website that I was conceived with a sperm donor. Since then, I've found that I have at least fourteen half-siblings and one donor who is, genetically, half of me.
I needed to know more
"My parents were told it was in my best interests never to tell me, however as time went on my mum felt that it was more important that I knew."
Kate - Donor conceived adult
'I was conceived through anonymous sperm donation and IVF, and born in the nineties to Mum (Andrea) and Dad (Richard). I am an only child in my family, but have eighteen (anonymous) half-siblings from the same donor.'
A Personal Story of Blood and Belonging
by Janice Stevens Botsford, Michigan, USA
Thoughts from Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok: a donor conceived person
In 1945 my father, a surgeon in the United States, arranged for my mother to undergo this procedure at the University of Chicago Medical School. After the second world war DI was introduced as a new technique.
Bills story
Bill Cordray is an American now in his sixties who was told he was donor conceived when he was 37.