Is sperm donation anonymous?

The donor and the recipient woman or couple will not know each other's identity. Sperm donation is anonymous between donors and recipients. Only the person born of a gamete donation may have access to the identity of his or her donor and to so-called non-identifying data, if he or she so requests, at the age of majority. This right, opened up by the Bioethics Act of August 2, 2021, has been implemented since September 1, 2022. Non-identifying data includes, for example, family situation, profession, reasons for donation, color of skin, eyes, hair, etc....

Since September 1, 2022, the Commission d'Accès des Personnes nées d'une Assistance médicale à la procréation aux Données des tiers Donneurs (CAPADD), the Commission for Access to Third-Party Donor Data by Persons Born of Medically Assisted Procreation, has been responding to requests from persons born of a donation.

This Commission is attached to the Ministry of Health. It manages a register containing data on people who donated their gametes before September 1, 2022. These individuals are invited to contact CAPADD to consent to access to their non-identifying data and identity. Please note that for people who have made a donation after September 1, 2022, this consent is mandatory in order to help people born of a donation in their search for their origins.

Since September 1, 2022, all donors consent to the transmission of their identifying and non-identifying data. After March 31, 2025, all gamete donations come from donors who have agreed to transmit their identifying and non-identifying data. Whatever your year of birth, you can request access to your donor's identifying and/or non-identifying data.

For people born from a donor-assisted MPA carried out before September 1, 2022, there are two possible scenarios:

• Either the donor has consented to the transmission of their identifying and non-identifying data by contacting CAPADD. The person resulting from the donation will then have access to the requested data.
• Or the donor has not consented to the transmission of their data. In this case, the donor will not have access to the requested data.