Antonio Urries
Director of the Assisted Reproduction Unit at Quirónsalud Hospital in Zaragoza and president of the Association for the Study of Reproductive Biology (ASEBIR).
All of us who work in the field of human assisted reproduction are aware of the doubts that arise in families when they have to resort to gamete donation, both eggs and sperm, as a last option to achieve a pregnancy.
The genetic link that, theoretically, is lost when they have to resort to a donation is usually a major point of doubt and concern in these families who interpret that they are giving up an important part of their legacy that may have repercussions on the relationship of these fathers and mothers with their offspring.
That is why studies as powerful and well-designed as this one are important to disseminate, as they show that resorting to these techniques does not generate any type of alteration in the relationship, and even show that the sooner it is communicated, the more positive it will be for the family.
Naturally, we are starting from the assumption that the child will be informed of this situation, so it is impossible to establish a comparison with the opposite situation in which these descendants are not informed of their origin by means of donated gametes.
It could be considered equivalent to the control group, but for this reason it is not possible to establish comparisons.
Finally, it should be pointed out that since this is a study from twenty years ago, we can assume that the evaluation is even more positive today, given that these techniques are now more socially normalised than they were twenty years ago.
This study can send a message of normality to those families who have to resort to gamete donation techniques as their only option, giving them extra peace of mind in an already complicated and stressful process.