Poster Session
OBJECTIVE: To compare the experience and feelings regarding egg donation of donors who experience motherhood to those who haven’t. CONTEXT: Oocyte donation in Spain is altruistic and anonymous and is performed by healthy women 18 to 35 y.o. There is no requirement to be mothers to donate, however most donors experience motherhood at some point. Few reports investigated the motivation and psychological impact of donating oocytes in donors and no studies investigate how motherhood informs the experience and feelings about egg donation in former donors. METHODS:Anonymous telephone survey of 121 women having donated their oocytes in their 20s-30s. Inclusion criteria were to be ≥40 to encompass most of the donor reproductive life, and speaking Spanish as mother tongue. PATIENTS-INTERVENTIONS: The survey consisted of 20 structured questions and were carried out by 3 ART nurses between June and November 2016; 141 former donors were contacted and 121(85.5%) agreed to participate in the survey. 82 former donors had children at the time of the interview (DC) while 39 did not (DW). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Former donors were 42.2 y.o. at the time of interview, and more DW had university degrees compared to DC (32.4% vs. 25%).The majority of women in both groups reported positive aspects and feelings about the donation (DC 79, 94% and DW 32, 86,4%); however, more DW (18, 48,6%) mentioned negative feelings than DC (28, 33,3%), mainly related to the physical discomfort at the time of donation: injections (DC 9, 10,7%; DW 11,2, 7%), pain (DC 11, 13,1%; DW 16,2%) and hormones (DC 5, 6,6%; DW 13,5%). In general, DW shared more their donation experience with their partner (DC 17, 20,2%; DW 12, 32,4%) and colleagues (DC 7, 8,3%; DW 6, 16,2%). Importantly, both feelings of regret and concerns about the destiny of their oocytes were similar among groups. Women with children seemed more receptive to use eggs from a donor in case of need (DC 68, 80,9%; DW 26, 72,7%), perhaps indicating a change in the perceived value of a genetic link with the child after motherhood has been achieved. CONCLUSIONS: The vast majority of former donors in both groups regard their donation as a positive experience with the passing of the years, while DW reported more negative aspects. Donors with children tended to share less their experience with the partner and in the workplace. As the number of DW is limited, further studies are needed to solidify our conclusions.