Donor Conception Canada

Helpful Resources

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This page contains a list of periodically updated resources and pointers. Below you’ll find the following sections:

  • Parents & Intended Parents of Donor-Conceived Kids
  • Single Moms by Donor Conception
  • Men Experiencing Infertility
  • Donor Conceived People
  • Donors & Donation
  • Counsellors
  • Lawyers
  • Sponsors

Intended Parents & Parents of DC Kids

Websites & Books

Preparing for Contact

Books & Lists

  • Assisted Reproduction: Books for Children. Patrica A. Sarles maintains this blog that catalogs all books for children about assisted reproduction. Great resource!
  • Bibliography for Children and Parents of Assisted Reproduction. A list providing titles and publication information on books about Donor Conception for Children and Parents (Updated 2014).
  • Creating a Family: Children’s Books about Egg Donation
  • Creating a Family: Children’s Books about Embryo Donation
  • Creating a Family: Children’s Books about Sperm Donation
  • Donor Offspring: Books for Tweens and Teens. Another blog by Patrica A Sarles, this one focusing on how donor offspring are portrayed in fiction.
  • Connecting Mind & Body to Cope with Infertility: 6 Techniques to Heal by Amira Posner. A self-help guide written by DCC friend, Amira Posner.
  • DCN Research Database. Donor Conception Network (UK) has assembled an index of research related to donor conception. Links are provided to the relevant research journal articles.
  • Personalized Donor Conception Story Book. Toronto-area graphic designer, Ken Poon, designs personalized children’s storybooks to read to your child about their own unique donor conception story. For ideas and pricing, please contact Ken via email at neknoop@rogers.com.
  • Storydo Personalized Donor Conception Book. Founder and project lead Sonja Klug developed the BookBuilder platform to help parents create a custom children’s storybook of their unique family story, requiring only uploading photos and answering several prompts. Sonja says that “BookBuilder has been developed with experts and can suggest wordings for every scenario, from anonymous sperm to known embryo donation, reciprocal IVF, non-binary parent(s) and surrogacy. The BookBuilder will create layouts and text that can easily be edited. The finished A4 hardcover books typically contain 50-80 pages (depending on the options chosen) and will be sent to you.” For Fall 2024, Storydo is offering DCC participants a discount. Go to www.storydo.co.uk, start your book and enter the voucher code ‘holiday20’ when prompted at the end of the first chapter.

Intended Parent/Parent Tax Info

Revenue Canada allows what is called the METC (Medical Expense Tax Credit), a catch-all tax credit that covers a list of eligible medical expenses. The list of allowable expenses include Fertility-Related Procedures (including Surrogacy) & In Vitro Fertilization.

From the Revenue Canada website:

“Fertility-Related Procedures – amounts paid to a medical practitioner or a public or licensed private hospital to conceive a child. Certain expenses paid in respect of a surrogate mother or donor (for example, a donor of sperm, ova, or embryos) may be eligible as of 2022 if they are incurred in Canada and are of a type that would be otherwise permitted as medical expenses of the individual.”

“In Vitro Fertility Program – the amount paid to a medical practitioner or a public or licensed private hospital. Fees and other amounts paid to a fertility clinic or donor bank in Canada to obtain sperm or ova (eggs) may be eligible as of 2022. The amounts must be paid to enable the conception of a child by the individual, the individual’s spouse or common-law partner, or a surrogate mother on behalf of the individual.”

This link explains what documentation that is required and how to calculate the taxpayer’s limit METC Calculation.

Single Moms by Donor Conception

Gay Men

Men and Infertility

DCC Chair Vince Londini interviews regularly in the media on his experiences as an infertile man and father of 3 via sperm-donation. Recent discussions include:

Donor Conceived People

Much of DCC’s work focuses on supporting intended parents and parents of young children. While the children of participants grow-up and sometimes participate in support group meetings, the needs of people whose childhood included disclosure are different from those who discover their genetic origins as an adult. These resources can help:

Several excellent podcast series have aired in the last few years from adults experiencing late disclosure: You Look Like Me (Apple podcasts link) by Louise McLoughlin and Half of Me (Spotify link) by Ally. Both can be found on the full range of usual podcast sites. Aviva Coopersmith shares her story, “The Lie That Made Me,” which intersects with Dr. Norman Barwin, the Canadian fertility doctor who used his own sperm to impregnate his patients. Also, Jana Rupnow (mentioned above) regularly interviews adult donor-conceived people on their experiences in her podcast, Three Makes Baby.

Documentaries occasionally attempt to chronicle the lived experience of adults who discover they are donor-conceived. No-one has been at this longer than Toronto-based Barry Stevens who discovered the fact of his donor origins in the late 1990s and has published several documentary films. His most recent, The World’s Biggest Family, aired on CBC in November 2020.

Donors and Donation

If you’re considering donating your sperm and eggs, thank you. We wouldn’t have our children without you. But before you do, please consider the implications. Donation brings some long-term commitments. These resources can help you think those through:

  • Contact Project: The experience of gamete donors contacted by their donor offspring. Drs. Anaïs Martin and Isabel Côté and their team at Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO) interviewed gamete donors to understand how donors experience being contacted by their offspring. The team presents their findings in a comic book format that is artfully illustrated and effectively written. Follow the link to the download a free PDF of the comic book and other project resources.
  • Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm (Amazon.ca, Amazon.com). Rene Almeling’s thoughtful review of what is required of gamete donors provides insights to both would-be donors and intended parents to help readers make sense of the social and medical drivers influencing the practice and pricing of eggs and sperm.
  • VARTA: Becoming A Donor. Victoria, Australia, is one of the leading jurisdictions for socially responsible gamete donation and donor-conception parenting. This page can help donors orient.
  • Random Families (Amazon.ca link). Rosanna Hertz and Margaret K. Nelson share results from a USA study of over 70 DC families with 5 extended families profiled in depth. How do people define family in a donor context? This book can help sort that out.
  • Co-Parenting – is it? how to protect your interests? Known donation is becoming more popular. This article might help you define the boundaries in that relationship. What looks like co-parenting to some might just be a typical friendship for others. While written from a UK perspective, the topics and ideas should be helpful in a conversation with your legal advisors in any jurisdiction.

Counselors

London, ON

Hamilton/Niagara Region, ON

  • Irene Glavac Petric, MSW, RSW – 905-379-3667 glavacpetric at gmail.com.

Kelowna, BC

Toronto/GTA

Vancouver

Windsor, ON

  • Brenda Davie, PhD CPsych – Stewart, Plotnick, & Associates – Private counselling practice – 519.255.9695 ext 4

Lawyers

These legal experts can help with questions and arrangements:

  • Sara Cohen at Fertility Law Canada
  • Sherry Levitan, Barrister & Solicitor
  • Michelle Flowerday at Flowerday Law
  • Chris Knowles at Knowles Family Law
  • Miller Thomson. Our gratitude to Julia Zanetti and Gwenyth Stadig and the entire firm for the gracious donation of pro bono work to assist in the incorporation of Donor Conception Canada as a Not-For-Profit under Federal NFP regulations.

Support Groups

There are many support group conversations on Facebook along with communities on Instagram and other social media sites that can be found by searching on those platforms. Here are a few:

Our Sponsors

To each volunteer:

We want to thank each volunteer who contributes time, energy, or donations to support DCC’s work! With your efforts people are helped in their journey!

To each 2024 corporate sponsor:

We want to thank each corporation for their generosity. Your corporate sponsorship helps us to pay our bills and keep the groups running!

Thank you!