Rules around releasing donor information

On this page we describe what information people conceived from your donation at a licensed clinic can ask us for and when, as set out by law.

However, it’s important to know that it’s also now possible for home DNA testing and matching services, available online, to result in you being identified, regardless of when you donated.

People use these sites to find out about their ancestry, health and/or identify their genetic relatives. Many of the sites also allow users to ‘match’ and make contact with other users on their database with whom they are genetically related, often using their real names.

Even if you don’t use one of these sites yourself, if one of your close genetic relatives and someone conceived from your donation are both signed up to it, you could potentially become identifiable. Your identity could be worked out, if information about genetic ‘matches’ is combined with other publicly available information about you (e.g. information about you on social media). If you donated before 31 March 2005 you may have donated under the conditions of anonymity and expected never to be contacted by anyone born as a result of your donation. It may be a shock to realise that you could be identified or contacted by someone born from your donation.

If you donated after 1 August 1991 at a UK licensed clinic you may wish to contact us to apply for information about the number of children born from your donation. If the donation or treatment took place before August 1991, you may wish to find out more information about the Donor Conceived Register.

The Donor Conceived Register, run by the Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust, helps to connect donor-conceived people who were conceived before 1 August 1991 with their donor and siblings. If you donated before 1 August 1991 you may wish to find out more about peer support and counselling provided by the Donor Conceived Register.

If you donated on or after 1 April 2005

If you donated sperm, eggs or embryos on or after 1 April 2005, people conceived from your donation will be able to find out the following information when they reach 16 and 18 years of age. This is information you will have been asked to give at the time of your donation.

The parent(s) of a donor-conceived person can also ask us for this information any point after the birth of their child(ren).

your physical description (height, weight, eye, hair and skin colour)
the year and country of your birth
your and your parent(s)'s ethnicity
whether you had any children at the time of donation, how many and their gender
your marital status
any relevant personal and family medical history
any additional information you may have provided such as your job, religion, skills, interests, reasons for donating, a goodwill message and a personal description (if you wrote one). We will remove any information that could reveal your identity.

your full name (now and at birth)
your date and country of birth
the most recent address you have provided to the Centre you donated at which we have for you
any other information we may have previously removed because it would have revealed your identity.

The parent(s) of a donor-conceived person can never access this information. They can find out whether or not the donor is still anonymous.

The first donor-conceived people conceived after the change in anonymity law in 2005, turned 18, and became eligible to apply to access their donor’s identifying information, in October 2023.

We’ll try to let you know before we release the information by writing to you at the most recent address we have for you -that’s why it’s so important you keep your contact details up to date with us. We notify donors when the first donor-conceived individual has requested identifiable information about them, using the donor’s last known address. If you have moved home since you donated, but haven’t updated your address, then please let us know.

If you donated between 1 August 1991 – 31 March 2005

Anyone conceived from your donation at a clinic licensed by us between 1 August 1991 and 31 March 2005 has a legal right to ask us for information we hold, but the information we release can’t identify you; we do not give out your identity.

At 16 years of age, anyone conceived from your donation can ask us for the information you gave at the time of your donation.

This information includes:

your physical description (height, weight, eye and hair colour)
the year and country of your birth
your ethnicity
whether you had any children at the time of donation
any additional non-identifying information you chose to supply, such as your job, religion, interests and a brief self-description.

However, if you’d like to give people conceived from your donation the chance to find out who you are, and potentially get in touch with you, you can choose to remove your anonymity.

Find out more about removing your donor anonymity.

If you donated before 1 April 2005, no information which will identify you will be shared with people conceived from your donation. You can, however, choose to remove your anonymity if you wish.

Could my donation still have been used anonymously after 31 March 2005?

We gave clinics a transitional period whereby anonymous donations made before 1 April 2005 could still be allowed for use in treatment up until 31 March 2006, after which they could not be used in treatment except in certain exceptional circumstances. These include:

Where a family wished to create a sibling for their existing child(ren) using the same donor.
Where any stored embryos were created using sperm/eggs from an anonymous donor together with the sperm/eggs of a recipient. In this case the embryo could still be transferred to the recipient after 31 March 2006.

We don't hold any information on treatments before 1 August 1991.

If you donated before 1 August 1991

If you donated before 1 August 1991, anyone conceived from your donation will be unable to find out any information about you through official channels.

This is because we were only set up on 1 August 1991, which means we hold no record of any fertility treatments or babies conceived from treatment before then on our secure fertility treatment database – the HFEA Register.

If you would like to try to find out if your donation(s) were successful you can:

Contact the clinic you donated at (if it’s still open). In some cases the clinic may still hold your records.

Search for a clinic

Join the Donor Conceived Register, which tries to link people conceived before August 1991 with their donor (mainly by DNA). If there’s a match you can contact each other if you’re both happy to do so.

Why are donors no longer automatically anonymous?

Before the law was changed in 2005, we consulted widely with donor-conceived people and donors about how donor anonymity should work. We found there was a strong desire on both sides to leave the door open to potential contact if both parties wanted that.

We recognise that the prospect of being contacted by someone conceived from your donation can give rise to a lot of complex emotions.

Find our more about preparing for possible contact from someone conceived from your donation.

Apply for information

Remove your donor anonymity

Information for donors before August 1991 (Donor Conceived Register)

Find a specialist counsellor (British Infertility Counselling Association)

SEED Trust leaflets

Information, signposting and support for donor-conceived people, donors and others (Donor Conceived UK)

Review date: 28 August 2026