Psychosocial counselling in donor sperm treatment: unmet needs and mental health among heterosexual, lesbian and single women

Abstract

completed her Master's Degree at the faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She works as a counsellor at the Center for Reproductive Medicine of the Amsterdam UMC and her PhD project is on psychosocial counselling and informal support in donor sperm treatment.

Unmet support needs in donor sperm treatment: consequences for parents and their donor-children

“…To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first exploring the relationship between parents' unmet support needs and mental health in the population of donor-conceived families. The fact that we found a relationship between unmet support needs and mental health of parents and their children is in line with the relationship that exists between unmet needs for psychosocial counselling and mental health in a population of intended parents who opted for DST (Schrijvers et al, 2020). That parents with more unmet support needs for support from peers, friends and family had more mental health problems as well as their children might be explained by the importance that 'social connectedness' plays in these families.…”

“…The aim of this study was therefore to examine whether unmet needs for psychosocial counselling, peer support and friends/family support in parents are directly and/or indirectly related to mental health of parents and their donor-children. With the present study we build further on our earlier similar work on unmet needs in intended parents (Schrijvers et al, 2020).…”

“…"unmet support needs" and mental health of parents and their donor-children. In the context of DST, we recently completed a quantitative study investigating the unmet counselling needs in women in heterosexual relationships, women in lesbian relationships and single women who opt for DST (Schrijvers et al, 2020). This study, set up to describe unmet counselling needs and mental health in intended parents and to explore the relationship between unmet needs and mental health, found that more than half of the intended parents had missed psychosocial counselling on topics such as choosing a sperm donor and non-genetic parenthood.…”

“…Intended parents had more mental health problems if they had more unmet needs (Schrijvers et al, 2020). Since the mental health of children is related to the mental health of their parents, the presence of unmet support needs in parents may also havedirectly or indirectly through the mental health of parents -negative consequences for the mental health of donor-children (Mensah and Kiernan, 2018).…”

The stability of psychological adjustment among donor-conceived offspring in the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study from childhood to adulthood: differences by donor type

“…Additionally, lesbianidentified women are increasingly using DI to have children (45); thus, some may be concerned about the long-term consequences of choosing an anonymous donor (46), which was the case for some NLLFS prospective parents when the study began (1). This issue is particularly relevant for those offering psychological counseling insofar as unmet needs have been found to be associated with mental health difficulties in prospective parents (47). Likewise, some offspring may voice the need to know their donor's identity, and even contact him, sooner or later in life and feel angry or frustrated if they are not able to do so (8,9,11,12,14).…”