Caring Futures Institute, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, 5042, Australia.
School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, Wayville, South Australia, 5034, Australia.
J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2022 Apr;13(2):220-230. doi: 10.1017/S2040174421000210. Epub 2021 May 31.
While donor-conceived children have similar mental health outcomes compared to spontaneously conceived children, there is an inconsistency between studies investigating mental health outcomes of donor-conceived people in adulthood. This study is an online health survey that was completed by 272 donor sperm-conceived adults and 877 spontaneously conceived adults from around the world. Donor sperm-conceived adults had increased diagnoses of attention deficit disorder (P = 0.004), and autism (P = 0.044) in comparison to those conceived spontaneously. Donor sperm-conceived adults self-reported increased incidences of seeing a mental health professional (P < 0.001), identity formation problems (P < 0.001), learning difficulties (P < 0.001), panic attacks (P = 0.038), recurrent nightmares (sperm P = 0.038), and alcohol/drug dependency (P = 0.037). DASS-21 analysis revealed that donor sperm-conceived adults were also more stressed than those conceived spontaneously (P = 0.013). Both donor sperm and spontaneously conceived cohorts were matched for sex, age, height, alcohol consumption, smoking, exercise, own fertility, and maternal smoking. The increase in adverse mental health outcomes is consistent with some studies of donor-conceived adult mental health outcomes. These results are also consistent with the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) phenomenon that has linked adverse perinatal outcomes, which have been observed in donor-conceived neonates, to increased risk of chronic disease, including mental health. Further work is required to reconcile our observations in adults to contrary observations reported in donor-conceived children.
虽然与自然受孕的孩子相比，供体受孕的孩子在心理健康方面的结果相似，但在研究成年供体受孕者的心理健康结果时，研究结果并不一致。本研究是一项在线健康调查，由来自世界各地的 272 名供体精子受孕的成年人和 877 名自然受孕的成年人完成。与自然受孕的成年人相比，供体精子受孕的成年人被诊断为注意力缺陷障碍（P = 0.004）和自闭症（P = 0.044）的比例更高。供体精子受孕的成年人自述更频繁地寻求心理健康专业人士的帮助（P < 0.001）、身份认同问题（P < 0.001）、学习困难（P < 0.001）、惊恐发作（P = 0.038）、反复发作的噩梦（精子 P = 0.038）和酒精/药物依赖（P = 0.037）。DASS-21 分析显示，与自然受孕的成年人相比，供体精子受孕的成年人的压力也更大（P = 0.013）。供体精子和自然受孕的队列在性别、年龄、身高、酒精摄入量、吸烟、运动、自身生育能力和母亲吸烟方面相匹配。不良心理健康结果的增加与一些供体受孕成年人心理健康结果的研究一致。这些结果也与健康与疾病的发育起源（DOHaD）现象一致，该现象将供体受孕新生儿中观察到的不良围产期结果与包括心理健康在内的慢性疾病风险增加联系起来。需要进一步的工作来调和我们在成年人中的观察结果与供体受孕儿童中报告的相反观察结果。
