Getting information about your donor can be an emotional process. Think through how this knowledge could affect you and your family.

For donor-conceived people

• What information you can get from the HFEA: It’s natural to want to know about your genetic origins. The HFEA has a record of all births as result of assisted reproduction from licensed UK fertility clinics from 1 August 1991. Alternatively, see information if you were conceived before 1 August 1991.
• Get support and advice: Finding out about your donor, and about any donor-conceived genetic siblings you may have, can be an emotional process. We encourage you to undertake this journey with the support of others.
• Apply for information: Once you have had a chance to think about what it may mean to access information about your donor and/or donor-conceived genetic siblings from the HFEA, you will need to complete a formal application.

For parents of donor-conceived

• Talk to your child about their origins: If your child is donor conceived, telling them about their origins can be a sensitive topic to discuss. However, if done honestly and if discussed at the right time, the issue need not be a difficult one to broach.
• What you can find out about your child’s donor: As you are in the best position to pass information to your children at an age when they can understand it, you are entitled to details of your child’s donor.
• Apply for information: Once you have had a chance to think about what it may mean to access information about your child’s donor and/or donor-conceived genetic siblings from the HFEA, you will need to complete a formal application.

Donors who donated anonymously before April 2005 have the right to remove their anonymity by re-registering to be identifiable.  If you previously applied for information from the HFEA register and your donor was anonymous, you can now check our information for past applicants page to see if they have since re-registered as identifiable.

From 1 October 2012 the HFEA will be changing the way it provides donor information to parents and donor-conceived people.

Find out more about the new process:

• For donor-conceived people
• For parents of donor-conceived 

If you have any questions about applying for donor information, or would like further advice, contact us:

Phone: 020 7291 8200
Email: openingtheregister@hfea.gov.uk