Counselling couples and donors for oocyte donation: the decision to use either known or anonymous oocytes

In order to avoid a long waiting period, the Centre for Reproductive Medici ne of the Free University of Brussels suggests that couples in need of dono r oocytes search for a donor among family and friends. Recipient couples ca n choose between two types of donation: known donation, i.e. treatment with the oocytes of the donor recruited by the couple, or anonymous donation, i .e, an exchange of the donor recruited by the couple with a donor recruited by another couple in order to ensure anonymity between donor and recipient s. In total, 144 couples were counselled by a psychologist in the decision- making process with regard to the kind of donation to be used, Some 68.8% o f the recipient couples preferred known donation. This choice was mainly mo tivated by reasons related to fears associated with anonymity such as fear of the unknown origin of genetic material and the trust that couples had in 'their' donor. Almost one-third of the couples opted to use anonymous oocy tes. The desire to establish explicit boundaries between the two families i nvolved was the major motivation for this choice. Approximately 44% of the couples were willing to tell the child about the oocyte donation.