Surrogacy families headed by gay men: relationships with surrogates and egg donors, fathers ’ decisions over disclosure and children’s views on their surrogacy origins

AbstractSTUDY QUESTIONHow do gay father families experience surrogacy in terms of their relationships with surrogates and egg donors, fathers ’ disclosure decisions and children’s views on their surrogacy origins?SUMMARY ANSWERMore families had a relationship with the surrogate than the egg donor, and almost all had started to disclose to their children, the majority of whom expressed limited interest in their surrogacy conception.WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADYGay fathers tend to report greater contact with the surrogate than the egg donor and to disclose only the use of a surrogate (omitting discussion of the egg donor and the respective fathers ’ genetic relatedness). Children’s views on their surrogacy conception to gay fathers are not known.STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATIONThirty-one children and 80 fathers were interviewed as part of a larger in-depth investigation of 40 Italian gay father surrogacy families. Multiple strategies were used to recruit participants.PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODSChildren were aged 6 –12 years and had been born to gay fathers through gestational surrogacy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in participants’ homes with each family member, separately. Fathers’ interviews were presented from the perspective of the father who identified as being most involved with the c hild on a day-to-day basis. Qualitative content analysis was performed and quotations illustrating the findings were reported. Where appropriate, comparisons were...
Source: Human Reproduction - Category: Reproduction Medicine Source Type: research