Personal Stories Archives - Donor Conception and Beyond

Parenting a Donor-Conceived Child – 8 Things I’ve Learned

Posted on January 12, 2021March 28, 2022 by Gail

When my daughter was seven years old, she looked me straight in the eye, tilted her head just a little to the right so I knew something big was coming, and said, “I would never use a donor, Mum”. Now Lola* is a pretty sensitive kind of kid, so I knew she’d given this statement […]

An Open Letter to Anonymous Donors

Posted on May 25, 2020January 12, 2021 by Gail

Using anonymous donors in Australia is not allowed, but many people head overseas to countries where anonymous donors are the only option. Bre’s story (below) is a reminder that your children will grow up one day to be thinking, feeling adults who have the right to know the identity of their biological parents. That not […]

Using a Donor: 10 things I’d Do Differently Next Time

Posted on June 6, 2019January 12, 2021 by Gail

* All names have been changed to protect the individuals’ privacy. When I found out my sperm donor had conceived children in the triple-figure range, I was asked repeatedly by friends, family, acquaintances, “If you had to do it all again, would you do anything differently?” At first, I didn’t really know how to answer […]

Please, Tell Your Children They Are Donor-Conceived

Posted on April 24, 2019September 22, 2020 by Gail

“Now that I think back,” says Cassandra, “my mother did have a sick look on her face when I spat into that tube.” Cassandra was always interested in genealogy and family history, but doing a DNA test was too expensive. One day she discovered that genealogy company, 23andMe, were offering a free test to people […]

Finding Donor Siblings, and Then Losing Them

Posted on February 28, 2019April 28, 2019 by Gail

Guest post by Shannon Louise, author of blog: ‘My Rainbow Tribe‘ Now here is a contentious one for you… I write this entry with as much care and sensitivity as I can muster, having already experienced a taste of the polarising and colourful reactions to this ‘land mine’ of a discussion about finding donor […]

My Sperm Donor Story

Posted on July 19, 2018February 28, 2019 by Gail

I have a beautiful seven year old daughter who has somewhere in the vicinity of 150-200 siblings (although that’s an educated guess because no one really knows; not even the sperm bank). Hi, I’m Gail and I created this blog because I want to share everything I’ve learned about donor conception with you, so that […]