Lesbian couples and family creation

As a psychologist I frequently get asked if my job is hard or sad, and yes, sometimes it is, but one of the real highlights of my work is the donor conception counselling I do with lesbian couples planning to use altruistically donated semen.  In the past few weeks I have met some really lovely couples, some of whom are just starting out on their family creation journey, and some of whom are returning to create siblings for their existing children.  Overall, I have found these women to be positive, but realistic about the experience of fertility treatment.  I am happy to say that overwhelmingly, they report broad support from their families and friends about their intention to create families together and it makes me so happy to see that our society is becoming more accepting of all of the varied types of families that exist (so different from only a few years ago.

I frequently direct these couples to the DCNetwork website which contains really excellent information about donor conception specifically relevant to same sex couples.  I am including a link to a personal story from the site here https://www.dcnetwork.org/story/my-story-suzy

And because it’s one of my favourite TV shows at the moment, I thought I would also add the link to this… just in case anyone still thinks there is a problem for children growing up in same sex parenting households (by the way, the research clearly says there isn’t). http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/you-cant-ask-that/LE1617H008S00

(Oh yeah, while I am kind of on the topic, and in case any Australian politicians happen to be reading this, could we please just legalise same sex marriage already – for crying out loud, we really don’t need an expensive plebiscite!)