A child of "hers": older single mothers and their children conceived through IVF with both egg and sperm donation.

OBJECTIVE

To study the decision to have a child alone, the experience of gamete donation, the issue of disclosure of the donor link to the child, conception-related health and sociodemographic characteristics of the mothers, children's socioemotional development, and mother-child relationships.

DESIGN

Qualitative study.

SETTING

Prior clients of a sperm bank.

PARTICIPANT(S): Eleven single women in their late forties who gave birth to children aided by IVF involving both egg and sperm donation, i.e., the children are not genetically related to the mothers.

RESULT(S): Not only were there differences among the participants, but they also differed from the only previous study focusing on single women becoming mothers by choice and using advanced reproductive technologies.

CONCLUSION(S): Similarly to previous studies, we generally found that the impact of assisted conception on parenting and child development gives no undue cause for concern while the children are still young. However, the young age of the children in our sample prevented us from answering many questions about the children's socioemotional development and about disclosure of donor conception to children born to older single women using double gamete donation and IVF.