About the project
The Digital DC Study
The Digital DC (short for Digital Donor Conception) project is a four year, Wellcome Trust-funded research study which explores the practice of informal donor conception (IDC) in the digital age. We aim to develop knowledge about this growing method of having a family, understand the factors which shape people's views and experiences of it and ultimately improve support and outcomes for those who use IDC and their families.
We will do this through interviews with parents and donors through IDC, analysing 'official' responses to this practice and exploring the content and use of platforms used for IDC. Through our advisory board and workshops, we will work closely with stakeholders (including those with lived experience of IDC) throughout the project in order to ensure the research delivers benefits to the people and communities we are researching.
You might also see us referred to as the ‘Mediated Reproduction’ study (this was the title of our research funding application). We use ‘Digital DC’ most of the time to make the focus of our research clearer.
This research is based at the Department of Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield where it is led by Dr Leah Gilman.
What is informal donor conception and how is it changing in ‘the digital age’?
Informal donor conception refers to situations where people make arrangements to conceive with a sperm donor outside of fertility clinics or sperm banks. Sometimes it is called ‘private’ or ‘unregulated’ donor conception. It’s not particularly new. People in the LGBTQ community have been building their families through informal donor conception for decades (partly because they have been, and in some places continue to be, excluded from treatment in clinics).
However, what is more recent is the rapid increase in the use of digital platforms to facilitate informal donor conception. There are now multiple websites and apps specially designed for this purpose. Social media platforms can also be used to find, or express an interest in being, a sperm donor. Digital platforms can be used by egg or embryo donors and recipients too. However, since those procedures require medical procedures, egg donors and recipients will need to visit a clinic.
In the UK, informal donor conception currently sits outside of the laws and policies which govern fertility treatment. Leah’s previous analysis with Petra Nordqvist has found that clinics and the UK’s fertility regulator generally present donor conception in a licensed clinic as the legitimate and safe way to enact donor conception and discourage conceiving with a sperm donor outside of medical institutions.
And yet, growing numbers of people are building families this way. Despite its delegitimised status, informal donor conception, facilitated via digital media, may well now be the most common form of sperm donor conception in the UK (Harper et al. 2017).
Why research informal donor conception?
Informal donor conception is a large and growing practice and thus an important part of changing reproductive practices in the UK (and elsewhere). However, discussions about informal donor conception are often lacking in evidence and becoming increasingly polarised. Frequently, they are premised on (sensationalist) stories in the media rather than systematically collected evidence. We currently know very little about people’s journeys to using informal routes to donate or conceive, how they might vary or their short and long-term experiences of using various online platforms to conceive or donate.
A key objective of the Digital DC research study is to provide evidence regarding how contemporary informal donor conception is practiced and experienced within parent/donor families, and the regulatory, medical and digital contexts which shape these. Such knowledge will help move debates on informal donor conception beyond the current ‘stalemate,’ between policies which advise ‘just say no’ and the reality of a rapidly growing reproductive practice.
The project will encourage professional and personal stakeholders (including donor conceived people), impacted by both clinic-based and informal donor conception, to come together and reflect on:
How can positive outcomes for people involved in or impacted by informal donor conception be encouraged?
What supports should be put in place for people affected by informal donor conception?
What can medical-regulatory organisations and the informal, online sector learn from one another?
Ultimately, we hope this will lead to improved support and outcomes for individuals and families who are involved in IDC and we are working closely with stakeholder communities throughout the project to ensure that the research has this impact.
In addition, we are using informal donor conception as a way to better understand how reproduction, more generally, might be changing in the context of the ongoing social change sometimes called ‘mediatization’. In this way, we hope that the project will provide evidence to explore how we can use and develop digital media technologies and in ways which benefit families through donor conception, as well as donors and their families?
Our Approach
Understanding and explaining not assessing or judging
The Digital DC study aims to understand the values, assumptions and social-technological contexts which shape people's views and experiences of IDC. And this applies both to those who are involved in IDC (i.e. parents and donors) and those who are evaluating and responding to this practice (e.g. clinicians). In this way we hope to explain why medical and regulatory institutions tend to portray IDC as uniquely risky and yet it is a route to having a family or donating which many people are choosing. It is not our aim to judge who is right or wrong but to understand and explain these differences.
Attention to variation and inequalities
We already know there is a lot of variation in the way people practice and experience IDC and we want our research to reflect and explore this. We also expect that the way people approach IDC and the impact it has for them will be shaped by structural inequalities in society, particularly those related to gender and sexuality, ethnicity, income and disability and the ways these shape policies and interactions online and in medical contexts. The Digital DC project aims to understand how such intersecting inequalities shape views and experiences of IDC. This will provide evidence to underpin demands for, and action which promotes, greater equality and justice in assisted conception.
Promoting dialogue
We have noticed that public discussions about IDC can often be quite polarised. Through the Digital DC study, we aim to promote dialogue and mutual learning between those involved with IDC and clinic-based donor conception. This is particularly important because these two forms of donor conception are likely to influence one another and people may move from one form of donation or conception to the other (see Nordqvist and Gilman 2022).
Evidence-led improvement
The Digital DC study will provide evidence about the way contemporary IDC is practiced and experienced and how this is shaped by the contexts in which it takes place - including UK laws and regulation, medical practice, digital platforms and structural inequalities. This contextual, sociological knowledge is an essential first step in order to imagine what kinds of changes (big and small) might improve the experiences and outcomes for all who use IDC. Through our advisory board and online stakeholder workshops (planned for 2026), we are working closely with people who have both professional and personal experience of donor conception to help ensure our research delivers these improvements.