When a woman in France received a phone call one June morning, she had no idea that the news would plunge her and her teenage daughter into a long process of doctor visits, tests and uncertainty. On the other end of the line was the head of the fertility department at a Belgian clinic the woman had visited in 2011 for fertility treatment, at a time when this option was not available in France for single women.
She was informed that the sperm donor used to conceive her daughter was a carrier of a rare genetic mutation in the TP53 gene. This mutation is associated with a very high risk of developing multiple cancers throughout life, often at a very early age. According to the clinic, there was a 50% chance that the daughter had inherited the mutation, for which there is no treatment or cure, and testing was considered urgent.
The results confirmed that the girl was a carrier of the mutation. The donor, identified as 7069, was permanently banned from the European Sperm Bank (ESB) in October 2023 after the mutation was discovered in his samples. However, the woman was notified about a year and a half after the discovery, after the Belgian clinic said it had lost contact details during an IT system migration.
An investigation coordinated by the EBU Investigative Journalism Network, with the participation of DW and other European public broadcasters, revealed that for more than 15 years, sperm from the same donor had been distributed to at least 14 countries. At least 197 children, from Iceland to Albania, were conceived with the sperm of donor 7069, while the exact number remains unknown.
According to experts, some of these children have already developed various forms of cancer, while others have lost their lives. Legally, sperm banks are obliged to notify clinics of any genetic abnormalities, which must then inform the parents. However, the investigation found that some families were never officially notified and only learned about the risk through the media or social networks.
Hereditary cancer experts said it was only in 2024 that the true extent of the problem was understood, when doctors in different European countries discovered that isolated cases had a common source. The ESB has refused to give exact figures, citing privacy, but has acknowledged that in some cases the limits allowed for the number of families per donor have been exceeded.
The fertility industry remains a rapidly growing market, with regulations varying from country to country and without an international database to limit the use of a single donor. The case of donor 7069 has prompted calls for stricter regulations and the creation of a global registry to prevent similar cases from happening again in the future.
The French mother, whose daughter is a carrier of the mutation, says she does not blame the donor, who was unaware of his condition. However, she admits that feelings of guilt and fear for her daughter's future remain persistent as they face a lifetime of medical checks and uncertainty.DW
