Regulated Gamete Donations
The Human Fertilisation Embryology Authority (HFEA) advises that there are now more than 85,000 Donor Conceived People (DCP) who have been conceived through UK licenced clinics since 1st August 1991, when the HFEA was created.
This number doesn’t take into account those DCP who were conceived before the HFEA was created in August 1991, so any DCP conceived between the 1940’s and 1991.
Unregulated Gamete Donations
This number also doesn’t take into account DCP who have been conceived outside of licenced UK fertility clinics.
According to one Research study from 2024/2025, there are over 350,000 members (Intending Parents and Unregulated Sperm Donors) looking to connect over 61 online UK platforms.
In one of these online platforms, Facebook, there is a Facebook group that has more than 40,000 people searching for sperm donors to create Donor Conceived People (DCP) through unlicensed channels.
This implies that there are a LOT of DCP who have been created through the unregulated market of sperm donation.
The Donor Conceived Scandal
There is no way of knowing how many DCP have been conceived in the UK.
At Donor Conceived UK we estimate that there are at least 100,000 DCP who have been conceived in the UK and the majority of these 100,000 DCP do not know that they are Donor Conceived.
However, given the recent research study listed above, of the potential number of unregulated sperm donors and Intending parents trying to connect to create DCP, the 100,000 UK DCP could be a gross underestimate.
This has huge implications for consanguinity and those DCP, UK citizens, who unknowingly have the wrong medical and genetic information.
It’s a ticking time bomb.