More and more people are using DNA testing and matching services online to find out about their ancestry, health information or to identify and potentially make contact with their genetic relatives. We added guidance to our Code of Practice (Guidance Notes 11, 20 and 30) in 2019 relating to donor anonymity under the HFE Act and the potential impact of direct-to-consumer DNA testing and matching services. The guidance requires clinic staff to have a basic understanding of how services offering DNA testing and matching operate, in order to provide appropriate information to sperm, egg and embryo donors and patients.
Clinics must discuss DNA matching services and their implications for donor anonymity before they seek consent from donors and those thinking of using donation in treatment. This is to include the fact that these services can allow donors, donor-conceived people and their close genetic relatives to become identifiable to each other, or for their identity to be inferred at any time. This can be the case even if a donor or donor-conceived person has not themselves signed up to a direct-to-consumer DNA testing website. If their close genetic relative has used such a test and is signed up to a ‘matching’ service, this may still mean the donor or donor conceived person can become identifiable by inference.
The information revealed by direct-to-consumer DNA testing and matching services can be unexpected and life-changing. Individuals, who may have signed up to a site wanting to know which parts of the world where their ancestors originated from, or to find out more about their health, may find out about their donor conceived status for the first time through taking a test. Donors who donated expecting anonymity, may find they are directly contacted by their donor offspring (or their parents in the case of a child) after matching services have been used. This information is likely to also have a wider impact on a donor’s or a donor-conceived person’s family.
Clinic staff can use the resources on this page to learn more about direct to consumer DNA testing and matching services and their implications for donors, donor-conceived people and their families.
More guidance
Our Code of Practice:
Read the Code of Practice here
Podcasts:
The HFEA donor team - Accessing donor information
The HFEA donor team explains how donors and donor-conceived people and their families can access their donation information through the HFEA and the support on offer. You’ll also hear about how some donors and donor-conceived people are (intentionally or inadvertently) identifying each other, or inferring each other’s identity, as a result of their or others’ use of direct-to-consumer DNA testing and matching services.
Dr Lucy Frith explores the impact of direct-to-consumer DNA testing on the donor-conceived community
Dr Lucy Frith, Reader in Bioethics & Social Science at the University of Liverpool, gives an overview of direct-to-consumer DNA testing and matching, explores its impact on the donor-conceived community and asks whether the rise of direct-to-consumer DNA testing means the end of anonymity.
*Correction: the Donor Conceived Register was referred to as the Donor Conception Register in this podcast.
Our website information for patients and donors:
Donor-conceived people and their parents
Rules around releasing donor information
Using donated eggs, sperm, or embryos in treatment
Further information
Donor Conception Network - Support for donor-conceived people and their families
British Infertility Counselling Association (BICA) - Accredited fertility counselling
BICA Consumer DNA Testing Leaflet
The International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) - Extensive information aimed at preparing donors for contact with their donor offspring, including where contact is made following use of DTC DNA testing and matching services
Publication date: 1 April 2026