A woman conceived through assisted reproductive technology (ART) also learned she was conceived through anonymous sperm donation, and that, as a result, she has hundreds of siblings… and more could still be discovered.
Jaclyn Frosolone, a carpenter based in New York, took a 23andMe geneology test in 2021. The results devastated her.
In an interview with USA Today, the 24-year-old said she assumed her sample had been mixed with someone else’s when dozens of siblings appeared. To Frosolone’s knowledge, she had just one sibling — a sister. She began messaging the supposed siblings, and learned they were indeed her biological siblings and that she had been conceived using a sperm donor. Frosolone confronted her mother to get the truth, who tearfully admitted it and told Frosolone she had burned all the donor’s information years earlier to keep it a secret.
“It’s been three years, but I still haven’t really processed this information,” Frosolone said. “I thought it was cool at first, but now I kind of disassociate, like I’m looking through someone else’s eyes witnessing me trying to get through this.”
Frosolone has numerous medical issues she said she could have been warned about earlier; she struggles with a brain-fluid filled cyst in her spine that causes full-body tremors and could eventually lead to paralysis, as well as anxiety, depression, supraventricular tachycardia, ADHD, severe vaginal pain, dermatitis, and more. And since learning the truth about her conception, she’s found out that the majority of her siblings have similar medical problems.
Yet none of those health problems are listed in the donor’s profile.
“All aspects of the human condition exist on a spectrum of heritability,” Jennifer “Piper” Below, a geneticist and professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told USA Today. “But the fact that the majority of people in this pod have the same health problems suggests that a much more complicated genetic interaction might be happening there.”
Today, Frosolone is still struggling to come to terms with this bombshell. “The only people who understand what we are going through are those who are literally going through it too,” she said. “Although it seems like there’s nobody out there, there’s actually too many experiencing the exact same thing I am, which is terrifying.”
A Harvard Medical School study found that 62% of children born after being conceived through donor technologies consider it to be immoral and unethical.
READ: Donor-conceived man: Donor conception is a ‘no win situation’ for a child
One of Frosolone’s siblings, Jamie LeRose, said she has tried to get in touch with their biological father, solely to get answers about her health struggles – but he has refused all contact and will give no assistance. “My donor father didn’t and still doesn’t want anything to do with any of us,” LeRose said. “It’s not like I wanted a father of this man. I just want answers about half of my genetics because I’m lost and no doctors can help me.”
LeRose confirmed Frosolone’s experience with health problems, and that the majority of her siblings share the same issues. “Nobody prepares you to have a life like this. We really are so sick and it sucks,” she said.
Additionally, LeRose said the fear of accidental incest has been weighing on her mind; that combined with her health problems have led her to vow to never have children, although not all of her siblings feel the same way. “I have quite a few gay siblings that would have to go through donors to have children, and I would rather die than find out that one of them had a baby with our dad because they didn’t know,” she said. “I’m 23 and the last guy I was with was 40 years old because I literally look at people my age and I’m grossed out.”
Another sibling, Myah Alanna, had to quit her career as a professional singer due to the health problems they have all been battling. “I’m used to being an anomaly, and so are my siblings. We just cope,” Alanna said. “We’re spending so much money on doctors for no answers. And trust me, we take care of ourselves. We’re desperate.”
So far, there are at least 200 known siblings… and the donor’s sperm is still being sold today. That means more siblings could soon be conceived, and possibly with mysterious medical maladies. And, as is usual with the fertility industry, the rights of the children conceived through it have seemingly been forgotten or ignored.
“I am a human being, yet I was conceived with a technique that had its origins in animal husbandry,” one person, not connected with Frosolone’s group of siblings, wrote in a book for Anonymous Us. “Worst of all, farmers kept better records of their cattle’s genealogy than assisted reproductive clinics … how could the doctors, sworn to ‘first do no harm’ create a system where I now face the pain and loss of my own identity and heritage.”
Going through with this struggle with her newfound siblings has given Frosolone some strength. “This has definitely messed me up a little bit, but I’m trying to work through it,” she said. “From here on out, I just really want to help people.”
