Research comments continued here......

[Lexee]

I have read that a study was done in the UK of parents of DI babies that told. They were asked do they regret that decision. Over 70% said that they did and if they could do it over they would not tell. Of course once you tell--you cannot undo it, so I think it is not a decision to rush. I think the sentiment on most boards is for "telling" and that makes the "no tell" group feel like they are in the minority. In fact most people do not tell ( at least when it comes to DI, too early to have many studys on DE), but since they are not disclosing they are also not talking about it.

Lexee,

I have never heard of this study and I have some real skepticism about what you are saying. Could you please tell me either the name of the study or the authors? Do you know what journal it was published in?

Online I always like to know actual sources, and read them for myself. I try to read new research, and what I am reading indicates the opposite of what you are saying...NOT that the parents are regretful. I look and get those sources to share, in case anyone is interested.

Thanks!

Jen L.

[Stefani]

Hi -

This article seems to suggest that most choose not to be open.
http://humrep.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/17/3/830

There are probably many other articles that contradict it; it's interesting to read the opinions of both sides.

Stefani

[Lexee]

Here is one of the articles--
I have to find the other one again and I will post it separately. It supports that position that disclosure is still not very prevalent and this study indicates that non-disclosure does not appear to be detrimental to the child. THere is another article that indicates that a high percentage of parents who have told have regretted that decision. I have a brief exerpt, but since my original post was met with "skepticism" I want to find the entire journal article before I post it-


I am surprised that my original post was seen as controversial in any manner. There is a lot of support on EACH side. My only point is that there is support for both positions and on the boards you only hear or you mainly hear support for "telling" and I wanted to add support for all viewpoints.

http://humupd.oupjournals.org/cgi/reprint/7/1/38

[Stefani]

Hi all -

Here are some more articles. I found them interesting.

This one favors disclosure:
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/91/101433

This one suggests that disclosure and nondisclosure are both viable options:
http://www.dreamababy.com/egg-donation-disclosure.htm

This one argues both sides, but seems to lean toward disclosure:
http://www.asrm.org/Media/Ethics/informing_offspring_donation.pdf#search='egg%20spe rm%20donor%20nondisclosure%20study'

This one suggests that most choose not to disclose:
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache...re+study&hl=en

Have a good evening,

Stefani

[BC-donor]

Lexee,
Your post wasn't necessarily controversial, however, these types of threads (to tell or not tell) have, in the past, gotten extremely heated, leaving some long time members not coming back any more because they were blasted for their decision to not tell. The current pinned thread "To Tell or Not Tell" is meant only to give your own personal reasons for telling or not telling.

I do appreciate your posting the links & being supportive!!

[Lexee]

BC-Donor-I understand what you are saying--

Here is the Journal I was referring to. It is actually 80% of parents that disclosed to the child or another person wished they had not in this study--

Klock SC, Jacob MC; Maier D. A prospective study of donor insemination recipients: secrecy, privacy, and disclosure. Fertil Steril 1994;62:477-84.

Also this Australian study has interesting info for "tellers" and "No tellers" --here is a link--

http://www.politicsandthelifescience...2001-3-029.pdf

Here is another link to a very fascinating article. It also mentions statistics on regretting telling--but has a lot of info--again interesting for those on both sides of the debate--

http://www.americanfertility.com/pdf...ts_of_care.pdf

http://www.asrm.org/Media/Ethics/inf...g_donation.pdf

The Ethics Committee for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine favors openess, but provides information about both openness and non-disclosure in this published article.

You have to have Adobe Acrobat to open in, FYI.

Okay, I went and read these studies about regretful families (disclosed and then regretted). Here is why they were sorry they told: because they were not going to be open with their offspring about using DI and didn't want the child to find out by accident.

This is why it was important for me to read the study/studies and see what was up. My interpretation of your original post, Lexee, was that the disclosing parents told, and bad things happened. But this is not what these studies said. The studies stated that the parents feared accidental, unplanned disclosure by some of the people who knew about the DI besides the child. I already knew that!

Thanks so much for providing links, Stefani and Lexee. Very interesting. I was already familiar with the one study (Golombok, Davis, etc. etc.) Golombok is always pro-openness, FYI.

Jen L.

Lexee, the politicsandlifescience link didn't work for me. Does that one really state that people told the DI offspring about DI and regretted it? The other link below it is for the study that is only about parents' experiences with disclosure, and I discussed that in the post above this one.

Thanks!