The characteristics and parenthood aspirations of single women and lesbian couples seeking motherhood through sperm donation

Abstract

Introduction

In 2021, France authorized access to assisted reproductive technology (ART) for single women (SWs) and lesbian couples (LCs). We aimed to describe these new populations and compare their characteristics with those of the historical population of heterosexual couples (HCs) using ART with sperm donation.

Material and methods

We conducted a monocentric observational retrospective study at the Nancy Regional University Hospital Fertility Center from October 1, 2021, to June 30, 2023. The demographic and clinical characteristics of all the women/couples willing to engage in parenthood with sperm donation, as well as their parenthood aspirations data, were collected.

Results

We included 638 women/couples; 49.7 % were SWs; 44.5 % were LCs; and only 5.8 % were HCs. The mean age of the whole population was 33.4 ± 5.5 years. The SW population was significantly older by 6 years and came from executive and intellectual professions. A total of 18.3 % of the LCs were interested in the reception of oocytes from the partner (ROPA). HCs (77.8 %) and LCs (73.2 %) were more interested in phenotypic matching than SWs (49.1 %) (p < 0.001). Monocentric support was more common in SW patients (88.9 %) than in LCs patients (79.5 %) and HCs (56.8 %) (p < 0.001).

Discussion

In a large cohort, we focused on and discussed the characteristics and the aspirations of these intended parents. We found that new populations favored ART with sperm donation. The overall characteristics of both heterosexual and lesbian couples were broadly comparable, as were the two LCs members. A French multicenter large-scale prospective study and anthropological studies are necessary to confirm and explain this data.