Oocyte and sperm donors' opinions on the acceptable number of offspring.

OBJECTIVE To investigate opinions on the acceptable number of donation offspring in a national cohort of oocyte and sperm donors. DESIGN A prospective follow-up study on a national cohort of gamete donors. SETTING Sweden. METHODS Study-specific questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Opinion on the acceptable number of offspring from one donor. RESULTS About half of both oocyte and sperm donors expressed an opinion that the number of offspring from one donor should be limited to between one and 10, and many donors reported having no firm opinion. When controlling for age, educational level, marital status and biological children, oocyte donors were four times more likely than sperm donors to support an upper limit of five offspring. For many sperm and oocyte donors the number of offspring resulting from their donations was unknown (43.2% oocyte, 47.1% sperm). CONCLUSION Oocyte donors have more restrictive opinions compared with sperm donors on the acceptable number of offspring from one donor. Donors perform a very humanitarian and societal act when donating their gametes. In the ambition to have safe and trustworthy clinics we need to have well known regulations to be able to recruit donors in the future.