Long-term follow-up of mental health and satisfaction in a Swedish sample of sperm and egg donors after open-identity donation

RESEARCH QUESTION

How is the mental health of open-identity gamete donors and their satisfaction with their contributions 14-17 years after acceptance as a donor?

DESIGN

The Swedish Study on Gamete Donation is a longitudinal study comprising women and men who were accepted as donors at seven Swedish university clinics between 2005 and 2008. The latest (fifth) follow-up included 215 open-identity donors (response rate 87%): 123 oocyte donors and 92 sperm donors. The donors answered a questionnaire regarding their perceptions, experiences and expectations after gamete donation 14-17 years previously.

RESULTS

The donors were satisfied with the experience of donating, and no differences were detected between sperm and oocyte donors. Oocyte donors were more than twice as likely to feel that family and friends were proud of their donation compared with sperm donors (51% versus 23%, P < 0.001). In total, six donors regretted their donation: four oocyte donors and two sperm donors. Sperm donors were more frequently satisfied with the financial compensation compared with oocyte donors (P = 0.005). No difference in the development of symptoms of anxiety or depression was detected 14-17 years post-donation.

CONCLUSION

Long-term follow-up studies on donors are important for recruiting donors, and for recipients and the children who will be conceived with donated gametes. The results from the current study indicate that donors, generally, have good mental health and do not regret their decision to donate gametes. These findings are reassuring for all parties involved.

Coercion, dissatisfaction, and social stigma: an ethnographic study of compensated living kidney donation in Iran

This article updates the qualitative research on Iran reported in the 2012 article by Tong et al. "The experiences of commercial kidney donors: thematic synthesis of qualitative research" (Tong et al. in Transpl Int 25:1138-1149, 2012). The basic approach used in the Tong et al. article is applied to a more recent and more comprehensive study of Iranian living organ donors, providing a clearer picture of what compensated organ donation is like in Iran since the national government began regulating compensated donation. Iran is the only country in the world where kidney selling is legal, regulated, and subsidized by the national government. This article focuses on three themes: (1) coercion and other pressures to donate, (2) donor satisfaction with their donation experience, and (3) whether donors fear social stigma. We found no evidence of coercion, but 68% of the paid living organ donors interviewed felt pressure to donate due to extreme poverty or other family pressures. Even though 27% of the living kidney donors interviewed said they were satisfied with their donation experience, 74% had complaints about the donation process or its results, including some of the donors who said they were satisfied. In addition, 84% of donors indicated they feared experiencing social stigma because of their kidney donation.

Donor satisfaction with a new german blood donor questionnaire and intention of the donor to return for further donations

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to describe donor satisfaction regarding different aspects of the new German blood donor questionnaire (BDQ) and to assess whether donor satisfaction is associated with the intention to return for further donations.

METHODS

A random number of 6,600 blood donors, donating at the German Red Cross Blood Service Baden-Wuerttemberg - Hessen, were asked to rate their satisfaction with four different aspects of the BDQ. Chi-square statistics was used to test for associations between satisfaction and the intention to return.

RESULTS

Most of the donors were satisfied with format and layout (72.7%) and the clarity of the questions (72.5%). However, only 39.5% of the donors were satisfied with the scope of the BDQ and 44.3% with the questions about sexual risk behavior. The lowest satisfaction seemed to be among experienced donors and among donors from small municipalities. Among experienced and very experienced donors, a significant association between the satisfaction with the different aspects and the intention to return became apparent.

CONCLUSION

When considering the implementation of the BDQ, Blood Donor Services have to weigh up the advantages of increased deferral rates among donors with high-risk behavior against the potential drop-out of dissatisfied blood donors.