If you’ve ever donated sperm, eggs or embryos for donor conception treatment in South Australia, register to access South Australia’s Donor Conception Register (DCR) and learn about law changes and how to get support.
If you have ever donated sperm or eggs (i.e. gametes) or embryos, you may have wondered if your donation resulted in the birth of a child.
Knowing one’s genetic heritage has many health and wellbeing benefits and can be lifechanging. It’s also the fundamental human right of every person, regardless of how or when they were conceived.
The Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 1988 and associated Regulations (donor conception laws) changed in South Australia on 26 February 2025 to create a publicly accessible DCR.
The DCR is a secure online portal for DCR participants and DCR users. Applications to request access to certain DCR information in limited circumstances may be possible.
The DCR provides a safe and supportive environment designed to balance a donor-conceived person’s right to know their genetic heritage with a donor’s privacy.
The DCR uses information sourced from South Australian assisted reproductive treatment (ART) records dating back to the 1970s (where available) to connect people who are linked to a donor conception treatment in our state, that resulted in the birth of a child.
The DCR is not searchable. Your connections are automatically linked to you in the DCR with access provided to your connection’s information in accordance with the law.
The DCR does not offer DNA testing.
If you have ever donated gametes or embryos in South Australia, your connections will include:
To learn more about what information you can access as a donor and what information your connections can access about you, download DCR Access Matrix 1 – for donors (PDF 234KB).
Prior to September 2004, donors were granted lifelong anonymity, whether the donor or the recipient parent of the donation wanted this or not.
If this is you, following law change in South Australia, any donor-conceived people aged 18 and older born as a result of your donation(s) now have a legal right to access your name and date of birth (i.e. identity information) on the DCR.
This means that the changed law does not require your consent for your identity information to be provided.
If you donated prior to September 2004, there may be aspects of the law changes or using the DCR which leave you with a range of emotions and feeling like you need some support. You may need support as the result of:
To learn more and get the support you need from the Donor Conception Register Support Service (DCRSS) visit I donated gametes before September 2004.
Download the DCR Fact Sheet – Historical donor conception information and support – for donors of gametes and embryos (PDF 241KB).
Since September 2004, ART clinics have required donors to consent to their identity information being made available to any person born as a result of their donation, once the donor-conceived person turns 18 years of age.
If this is you, any donor-conceived connections aged 18 and older that seek your information in the DCR, will be provided with your identity information in line with your earlier consent.
Access to your identifying information does not guarantee personal contact between you and your donor-conceived connections as DCR users are required to set their contact preferences in the DCR to let each other know if they are open to contact or not.
The DCR will not disclose:
To learn more download DCR Fact Sheet – Contact preferences and notifications (PDF 234KB).
Protecting the health, safety and welfare of every DCR user is a high priority for the Government of South Australia.
The rules about access to information on the DCR are outlined in the changed South Australian donor conception laws (i.e the ART Regulations).
To learn more visit:
When you register to use the DCR, you can choose to add additional information about yourself that might be of value to your connections.
For example, you can include personal biographical or medical information, 1-2 photos, or a short video.
To learn more download:
The Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 1988 does not apply to private donor conception treatment arrangements.
If you provided a donation as part of a private arrangement without the assistance of an ART clinic and this was disclosed in the birth registration statement and verified by the South Australian Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) registration office, then your donation and connections will be included in the DCR.
It is therefore recommended, as a DCR participant you register to access the DCR to update information about yourself and set your contact preferences.
If you have provided a donation in a private arrangement but this hasn’t been registered on the birth registration statement, then this arrangement will not be included in the DCR. There is no way for the DCR to include information about private arrangements unless details of the arrangement were provided in the birth registration statement.
Information about legal surrogacy agreements is included in the DCR where donated human reproductive material is used (gametes or embryos) in the treatment.
Law change to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 allows donor-conceived people to request an updated birth certificate from BDM. In some circumstances, the donor(s) name(s) may be included on a person’s birth certificate where requested.
Donor-conceived children born on or after 26 February 2025 have their donor-conceived status automatically noted on their birth certificate.
To learn more visit:
Records about donor conception treatments and birth registrations are held by the state or territory where the treatment was conducted or a birth is registered.
The DCR may not contain information if:
If this situation relates to you, contact the ART clinic which sourced your donation, for assistance.
If you are a non-Australian citizen and live overseas, but your donation was sourced by a South Australian ART clinic, you may be unable to complete the required digital identity verification procedure.
Register to update your information and set your contact preferences, by following the instructions on Applications to access DCR information.
To register as a DCR user now, visit Access the South Australian Donor Conception Register.