Blood group A+

[spinduffy]

So my blood group is A+. Should I ideally look for a donor that is A+ or A-?

Egg donor or spent donor? Are you a woman?

Sperm^

I'm not aware of any medical reason why it would make a blind bit of difference.

If you were rhesus negative and had a rhesus positive baby, that could create an issue with rhesus incompatibility, but in practice all that means is you'd be given an injection to prevent any problems. That's a very common thing, because obviously couples don't get together on the basis of blood type! But in your case, since you're positive anyway, it can't happen and wouldn't ever be a consideration.

The other reason some people are very concerned about blood type is if they're wanting to conceal from their future child or others the fact that they've used a donor. For example, a couple who both have type A blood could only produce a child with type A or type O blood, so if they had, say, a child with type B blood, and that child or a doctor or whoever later put the pieces together, it would be apparent that something about the situation didn't add up. (Whether they would conclude 'donor conception' or 'illicit affair with the milkman' is a whole different thing...)

Personally, I'm committed to being open (should I ever actually manage to have a donor-conceived child) about their origin; to me it seems like they have a right to know, and also concealing it looks like an endless series of unexpected hazards as genetic information becomes more everyday (like that fun Marmite genetic test you can get) - I feel like this would probably come out in the end anyway. But if your goal was to keep this information secret, then you'd potently want to look at selecting a donor with the same blood type as whichever parent's gametes they were donating in place of. (You haven't mentioned if you need an egg donor, or a sperm donor because of mfi, or a sperm donor because you don't have a male partner, so I'm not sure which is the case here.)

I have seen some single ladies trying to conceive with donor sperm swear up and down that selecting a donor with their same blood type was the secret of their success, but I'm not aware of any scientific reason why this should be the case (and again, most couples don't compare blood types before getting together) so I'm more inclined to put this down to coincidence.

Hope that helps a bit. Good luck!

(And yeah, I wrote that assuming you're a woman, so adjust as necessary if not.)

I think it can make sense (if practical) to match the blood groups, from a "it's the child's information to share" POV.

Not many people conceal the conception story from their child any more. But parents might want to be more circumspect about the wider world being able to figure it out for themselves.

OTOH they might not mind, but I think it's a valid choice.

People in the wider world don't generally know the blood type of both of your parents, though, to be fair. So in that sense it's still entirely possible to be circumspect and respect your child's privacy, and also pick a donor with a different blood type.

I'm also A+ and to be honest blood type isn't even on my list of things to consider in a donor. Donor choice is already limited for me and I do not want to limit it further unless it is for a really important reason.

I hope I’m not wrong in thinking you’re using an egg donor only?

There’s no reason medically why you can’t have a donor with any blood group. But if you’re not planning to tell the child or are undecided about this, then blood group is a consideration from the point of view of whether it would be possible for you to produce a child with that blood group with your own eggs.

Not knowing what your partner’s blood group is (and again this is assuming you’re not using donor sperm), you should choose a donor who is either blood group A or possibly O positive as either of these groups in your genetic child would be possible unless your partner is group AB which is uncommon and in which case you couldn’t produce a child with blood group O. Fortunately A and O positive are the 2 most common blood groups.

Depending on your partners blood group other donor blood groups may be an option -see link
www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=333077.0

But this is only of any relevance if you’re not going to tell the child about having used a donor.

Thank you all! Yes it’s donor egg I’m looking at- sorry for confusion. I would be undecided about telling.

If you know your partner’s blood group then have a look at the link I put in my last post as that tells you which groups are a “plausible” combination from the 2 of your groups and would give you a wider selection of potential donor blood groups to choose from.

If you don’t know your partner’s blood group then to be on the safe side you should choose a donor who is A+ if you’re unsure about telling the child.

It really doesn't make any difference to success rates. I didn't know my blood type until I was pregnant. It turned out that it was the same as our donor but not something we had asked for.

I really think that matching bloody type is a bit old hat if you are really intent on concealing the fact the child is donor conceived from your child (i.e. lying to them). That aside, DNA tests are the new blood tests - everyone does them, the whole new genetic genealogical industry - which is increasing phenomenally - is based on them. Your child is far more likely to post their DNA to an online site than they are to ever tell anyone their blood type. And that's going to reveal more or less immediately that they are not genetically related to you.