A Letter of Hope to Donor Sperm Families

By Carrie Schram, Medical Director, Natural Conception Program

Dear families,

I wanted to take a few minutes to say hello. I hope you are staying safe. I know many of you are at home and others are working in essential services. Thank you to all of you for doing your part to help us get through this.

I’ve had the privilege and joy of working with families formed with the help of donor sperm since I began practicing fertility nearly a decade ago. For some of you, I’ve been able to care for you from pre-conception, through pregnancy, and back again to grow your families. It truly has been an honour to be part of this journey with you.

I know this journey isn’t always easy. I know coming to a fertility clinic can be intimidating and historically it has been a space that has not always felt welcoming or even respectful of diverse family types. I thank you for putting your trust in us for this important life decision and for helping us, when needed, to do better to support you.

I also know this is a strange and difficult time. All of us are facing challenges in our personal and professional lives which we didn’t anticipate a short time ago. For many of you, you’ve had to put your plans of trying to conceive on hold. And while I will not pretend to know what that feels like, I do know that is a very hard decision to have forced upon you.

What you may not know is this week is Infertility Awareness Week. Although most of you do not face the challenges of infertility many of our other patients face, I am nevertheless thinking of you too. Of how it may feel to have your plans at building your family suddenly put on hold.

But there is hope. We are, I promise, working hard at creative and innovative solutions to try to help you as soon as it is safe to do so. Some donor sperm families have told me they feel unseen in the fertility space. I want you to know that we see you, are thinking of you, and absolutely are working to get you cared for and pregnant as soon as we can.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I look forward to seeing you soon.

About the Author

Carrie Schram MD CCFP MPH
The Medical Director of Hannam’s Natural Conception Program, Dr. Schram has fellowship training in Women’s Health and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Toronto, where she is an assistant professor.