Question for the parents of donor children

[Guenhwyvar]

Whether you are expecting or already a parent of a donor child I have a question for you.

After LTTTC DH and I finally became pregnant using donor sperm. My due date is on Valentines day for those curious.

Shortly after leaving the first trimester we got an e-mail from our sperm bank saying that our donor has been blocked due to a hereditary disease that is actually very scary and has a high mortality rate.

As if that wasn't bad enough, here just before Christmas we got yet another e-mail from the sperm bank saying that the donor has been blocked yet again. This time due to a child being born with Wilms Tumor (form of kidney cancer that's only found in children).

So my question for you is.... How normal is this? Statistically, if enough children are born there will of course pop up certain problems but what's been your experience using donor? Have you experienced anything like this before?

 

[gingmg]

I'm sorry you are going through this. Unfortunately, sometimes there isn't a way to know this ahead of time. They test for being carriers of some of the most common conditions, but there are so many rare conditions out there that it is impossible to rule the donors out for everything. The wilms tumor happens randomly, so no need to worry there. As far as the hereditary condition you mentioned, hopefully its one of those recessive ones so as long as you are not a carrier as well, your baby will be just fine (aside from possibly being a carrier.) I really hope everything works out okay for you. We are using donor sperm as well, but have not achieved pregnancy yet, so I have no idea what the road ahead will bring. I think there is no way to know a lot of these things. You can screen someone for family history and do testing to rule out some of the most common things (cystic fibrosis for example) but there are thousands and thousands of things that cannot be tested for or known ahead of time. I think the same goes for couples not using donor sperm and find out they are both carriers for a certain disorder after their child is born. I am so sorry you have this added worry. It should be enough when you had a struggle to get there (that's where we are now). I really hope that everything turns out okay, I am sure it will.

 

[Guenhwyvar]

Thanks so much for the reply. I'm sorry for not getting back to you sooner but our little bundle of joy decided to come almost a month early. He's beautiful and doesn't show signs of the first disease but only time will tell.

 

[gingmg]

I'm so happy to hear this. Enjoy this special time and best of luck with everything.