Follow-up study of Finnish volunteer oocyte donors concerning their attitudes to oocyte donation.

A questionnaire was sent to the first 30 Finnish volunteer oocyte donors at 12-18 months after donation to determine their experiences concerning treatment and attitudes to donation. All donations were carried out anonymously and without payment. The donors were recruited by advertising in newspapers. Most donors were very satisfied with the experience. The side-effects of the treatment had been slight and tolerable. In all, 85% of the respondents reported no gynaecological problems afterwards. The problems reported by the other 15% were minor and unrelated to the donation. A total of 67% of the respondents would have liked to have known if pregnancy had been achieved in the recipient, and 89% reported that they had thought about the possibility of a child from their donation. Some 42% of the respondents preferred to receive no information concerning either the child or the recipient couple. Of the respondents, 59% thought the offspring should be told about its origin and 33% thought the child should be given identifying information about the donor. About half of the others would agree to the release of non-identifying information. In all, 96% of the respondents reported that their own feelings were sufficiently taken into consideration during the treatment and 78% would donate again. No-one regretted their donation.