Lucy Solie-Vilker
October 16, 2026
The short answer
In a nonidentified donation, no identifying information is exchanged in either direction. In an identified donation, you and your donor agree to share identifying information with each other on terms you both set. In an Open ID donation, the donor agrees that a child conceived from her eggs may request her identifying information once that child turns 18.
Not every family fits neatly into one of those three categories, which is why we built flexibility into our programs. Below, we walk through what each arrangement involves, the research and legal considerations that shape these choices, and the in-between options with Donor Nexus that let you build an arrangement that fits your family while respecting what your donor is comfortable with.
Nonidentified vs. identified vs. Open ID at a glance
Here is how the three arrangements compare across the questions intended parents ask us most often.
| Nonidentified | Identified | Open ID | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you receive about the donor | Full profile, photos, medical and family history, and for most donors an introduction video, all without identifying details | Everything in a nonidentified profile plus her name and contact information | Full nonidentified profile at the time of your cycle |
| How you are named in the legal agreement | "Intended Parent" and "Egg Donor ID XXXX" | Set by the terms you and your donor agree on | "Intended Parent" and "Egg Donor ID XXXX," with a signed identity-release addendum |
| Contact before or during the cycle | None directly, though a facilitated video meeting is possible in fresh cycles | Direct contact on agreed terms | None directly, though a facilitated video meeting is possible in fresh cycles |
| Contact after a birth | Not arranged, though the Donor Sibling Registry allows ongoing contact without names | Whatever the two of you agreed to, ranging from medical-only contact to annual check-ins | No direct contact is arranged between you and the donor, though the Donor Sibling Registry lets you share updates and ask medical questions without exchanging names, and your child can request the donor’s identity at 18 |
| What the child can request at 18 | Nothing is promised in advance | Depends on the agreement you and the donor signed | The donor's identifying information, on request |
| Available in | Fresh Matching Program and Frozen Egg Bank | Fresh Matching Program | Fresh Matching Program and Frozen Egg Bank |
| Often chosen by | Parents who want privacy between the adults and prefer to keep future decisions open | Parents who want a known relationship, medical updates, or a person their child can meet | Parents who want privacy now and want their child to have the choice later |
| What no arrangement can promise | Permanent anonymity. Consumer DNA databases and social media mean a donor and a donor-conceived person can find each other regardless of what was agreed on paper. | ||
What is nonidentified egg donation?
Nonidentified egg donation is an arrangement in which no identifying information is exchanged between you and your donor. You still see a great deal about her, including childhood and adult photos, her educational and occupational background, her medical and family history, her genetic testing status, and for most of our donors a short introduction video. What you do not receive is her name or any way to contact her, and she does not receive yours.
In the legal agreement, the two parties are referred to as "Intended Parent" and "Egg Donor ID XXXX." Because neither side holds the other's contact information, there is no built-in path to future communication, although the registry option described further down gives families a way to open one later without exchanging names.
Nonidentified donation is still widely chosen in the United States, and it is a reasonable choice for many families. What has changed is how it is described. The intention at the time of the donation is that identities stay unknown, but that intention is not a guarantee, and any program that tells you otherwise is overpromising.
What is identified egg donation?
Identified egg donation, which the field used to call open donation, means that you and your donor exchange identifying information and can communicate directly to whatever extent you both agree on. The terms are written into your egg donor legal agreement, so nobody is left guessing about expectations after the cycle ends.
An identified donation does not automatically mean an ongoing relationship, and this is probably the most common misunderstanding we correct. The arrangements our families build vary widely. Some agree to contact only if a medical issue arises on either side. Some exchange photos and an update once a year. Some agree that the donor is willing to meet the child at a point in the future if the child asks. The scope is set by the two of you, and it is written down.
At Donor Nexus, identified donations are arranged through our Fresh Matching Program, where the donor is currently going through the process and both parties are working with our team throughout. Some intended parents choose this route specifically so the information exists if and when their child asks for it, rather than because they want a relationship of their own with the donor.
What is Open ID egg donation?
Open ID means the donor has agreed in writing that any donor-conceived person aged 18 or older may request her identifying information. She signs an addendum giving the agency consent to release her contact information at that point. Between the adults, the arrangement functions like a nonidentified donation: you do not receive her name during your cycle, and she does not receive yours.
Watch: Erica Latham, Intended Parent Case Manager, explains what contact each option allows and why she encourages families to think carefully about Open ID, since it is a choice you are making on behalf of your future child.
Open ID shows up most often in the context of frozen donor eggs. When you search our Frozen Egg Bank, each donor's profile indicates whether she participated in an Open ID donation, so you can filter for it before you get attached to a particular donor. Open ID is also available in fresh cycles.
The appeal here is straightforward. You keep the privacy that many intended parents want during treatment and early parenthood, and your child keeps a door that they, not you, get to decide whether to walk through. If you are weighing this against a fully identified arrangement, see our companion piece on nonidentified versus Open ID embryo donation, which works through the same decision in the embryo context.
Why did the industry stop saying "anonymous"?
The short answer is that the word stopped being accurate, and the field said so out loud. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine replaced "anonymous" with "nonidentified" in its guidance, and its Ethics Committee opinion on gamete and embryo donation states plainly that "maintaining anonymity of parties cannot be guaranteed since commercially available genetic testing and agencies that allow dissemination of identifying information through social media increases the risk of inadvertent disclosure" (Fertility and Sterility, 2019;111:664 to 670). The same opinion tells programs to caution everyone involved that information-sharing policies can change and that contact from offspring is possible in the future. We wrote about that terminology change when we adopted it, in Is anonymous egg donation still possible?.
The numbers behind that caution keep growing. As of March 2026, the major consumer genealogy databases held more than 54 million DNA kits available for genealogical matching, with AncestryDNA alone approaching 30 million, according to The DNA Geek's database tracking. A person does not need their donor to have tested in order to find her, because a second cousin in one of those databases is usually enough to narrow it down.
The law has started to follow. Colorado's Donor-Conceived Persons Protection Act became the first state law in the country to end anonymous donation. It applies to donations made from 2025 forward, gives donor-conceived adults the right to obtain their donor's identity, caps any one donor at 25 families, requires permanent record retention so that medical history stays reachable over a lifetime, and requires gamete agencies operating there to hold a Colorado license. The act is not retroactive, but it is a clear signal about where policy is heading in the United States.
None of this means nonidentified donation is off the table or that it is somehow the wrong choice. It means the honest framing has shifted from "your identities will never be known" to "no identifying information will be exchanged through us, and we cannot control what genetic testing may reveal later." That is the framing we use with every donor and every intended parent, in every program.
Which Donor Nexus programs offer which option?
We run three programs, and openness options differ across them because the logistics differ. The figures below cover outcomes from 2012 through 2025 across more than 900 egg retrievals and 26,000 eggs retrieved, work that has contributed to more than 2,000 babies born to Donor Nexus families.
| Program | Timeline | Openness options | Published outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh Matching Program Core from $29,600, Select $50,000 to $80,000, Signature from $100,000 |
4 to 6 months from match to retrieval | Nonidentified, identified, or Open ID. Facilitated Zoom meeting available if the donor agrees. | Per donor averages: 28.9 eggs retrieved, 22.6 mature eggs, 18.2 fertilized, 7.2 euploid embryos after PGT-A |
| Frozen Egg Bank $19,500 to $29,500 per cohort of six eggs |
4 to 6 weeks | Nonidentified or Open ID, shown on each donor's profile. Video meetings are not arranged, because the donor has already completed her retrieval, sometimes years ago, and her part of the process is done. | 90.7% of eggs survive warming, 83.1% of surviving eggs fertilize with ICSI, 81.1% of patients reach at least one blastocyst, 60.5% reach two or more. Backed by our Blastocyst Embryo Guarantee. |
| Donor Embryo Program | 2 to 3 months | Nonidentified or Open ID, set by the donating family | 69.5% positive beta, 49.7% ongoing pregnancy or confirmed delivery |
Full methodology and the complete data set are on our success rates page. If you are comparing us against other programs on outcomes and guarantee terms, our breakdown of the best egg donation agencies and egg banks lays out how the major programs report their numbers, which is not always in comparable terms.
How do you know what a donor is comfortable with?
We ask her first, in writing, and then we publish her answers on her profile so you have them before you invest any emotional energy in a match. Every donor in our database responds to the following questions, and her answers appear in the Donor Profile PDF you can open from her listing:
- Are you willing to meet the recipient by telephone, Zoom, or similar?
- Are you willing to meet the children?
- Would you prefer to remain nonidentified?
- Are you willing to have contact with the intended parents if they are successful?
- Are you willing to have contact with the child once the child reaches the age of eighteen?
Plenty of donors have firm preferences, and plenty leave the decision entirely to the intended parents. Having the answers upfront means you can rule a donor out early if she cannot offer what matters to you, and it means nobody is asked to renegotiate something fundamental in the middle of a cycle. You can browse fresh donors or frozen egg donors and see these responses for yourself after you register.
What are the in-between options?
Most intended parents do not want either extreme, and what they describe wanting is usually more than a profile PDF and less than a relationship. Three arrangements handle that middle ground well.
1. A facilitated video meeting with no exchange of contact information
This is our most requested in-between option. We set up a Zoom call between you and a donor you are considering, with our team facilitating, and neither party shares contact details. It is available for fresh donor cycles only, because a frozen egg donor has already completed her retrieval, sometimes years earlier, while a fresh donor is still in the process with us. The donor's willingness to meet is listed on her profile, so you will know before you ask. There is a non-refundable $500 fee to arrange the meeting, and it is credited toward your cycle fees if you move forward with us.
Watch: Erica Latham, Intended Parent Case Manager, explains how video meetings work with fresh donors, including the setup fee that is credited toward your cycle fees if you move forward, and why meeting is generally not available with frozen eggs.
What families tell us they get out of it is harder to put in a profile: how she thinks, how she carries herself, what her sense of humor is like. Our donors record a 60-second introduction video, and a live conversation adds a dimension that video cannot. Families who have done it tell us it changed how settled they felt about the match, even though nothing in the donor's written profile had changed.
2. The Donor Sibling Registry
The Donor Sibling Registry is a nonprofit platform that lets families and donors stay connected without exchanging names. It now serves close to 100,000 parents, donor-conceived people, donors, and other relatives across 105 countries. Both parties create generic usernames, and we suggest including the agency donor ID so the connection is unambiguous, for example "Donor Nexus Intended Parent 1000" and "Donor Nexus Egg Donor 1000."
Once both accounts are active, either side can post: updates on the child, photos over the years, or a question about a medical development in the donor's family. The intended parent typically covers the donor's membership, which is $199 for a permanent membership or $99 annually. For a nonidentified match, this is an inexpensive way to keep a channel open that costs nothing to leave unused.
3. Letters and photos exchanged through us
Some families want a record for their child rather than a channel for themselves. We can hold and pass along a letter from you to the donor, or from the donor to a future child, without either party learning who the other is. It is a small thing that becomes meaningful about a decade later, when your child starts asking questions that a profile PDF does not answer.
How to decide which option is right for you
These four questions can help you figure out which arrangement fits your family.
Is the information for you or for your child? If you mainly want your child to be able to learn about their donor someday, Open ID gives them that choice without committing you to a relationship with the donor now. If you’d like to know her yourself, or keep in touch over the years, an identified arrangement through a fresh cycle is usually the better fit.
How much do you want to decide now? With an identified donation, you and the donor agree on terms before the cycle, such as how often you’ll be in touch and in what form. Some parents find that reassuring because everything is clear from the start, while others would rather not set those expectations yet. Open ID leaves the decision about contact to your child once they’re an adult, since they’re the one it affects most.
How do you feel about the possibility of contact? It helps to think this through honestly, including the chance of contact you didn’t plan for. With consumer DNA testing as common as it is, any arrangement carries some possibility that a donor and a donor-conceived person will find each other later.
What is the donor comfortable with? Her preferences shape every other answer. If a donor has said she wants to remain nonidentified, she isn’t the right match for an identified arrangement, and that’s why each donor’s answers about contact and identity are listed on her profile before you ever reach out.
If you’d like to talk any of this through, our case managers have these conversations every day, and there’s no cost to reach out. Donor Nexus is a member agency of SEEDS, the Society for Ethics in Egg Donation and Surrogacy, and holds a California Tissue Bank license with an FDA-registered frozen egg bank, so our standards for donor consent and record keeping follow those outside requirements as well as our own.
Frequently asked questions
Is anonymous egg donation still available in the United States?
Nonidentified donation, which is what anonymous donation is now called, is still available in most of the country. Colorado is the exception: its Donor-Conceived Persons Protection Act applies to donations made from 2025 forward and gives donor-conceived adults the right to their donor's identity. Everywhere else, nonidentified arrangements are legal and common, but no program can guarantee permanent anonymity given consumer DNA testing.
What is the difference between Open ID and identified egg donation?
Open ID gives identifying information to the donor-conceived child at 18, on their request, and shares nothing between the adults. Identified donation shares identifying information between you and the donor at the time of the match, with the terms of any ongoing contact written into your agreement.
Can I change my mind about openness after the cycle?
Partly. You cannot convert a nonidentified match into an identified one after the fact, because the donor consented to a specific arrangement. You can, however, open a channel later through the Donor Sibling Registry, and you can ask us to hold a letter for a future child. If you think you may want more contact down the road, tell your case manager before you match rather than after.
Does Open ID mean my child will meet the donor?
No. It means your child can request the donor's identifying information at 18 if they want it. Whether they ask, and what happens after, is up to them and to the donor. Many donor-conceived people never make the request.
Do I get photos and medical history in a nonidentified donation?
Yes. You receive childhood and adult photos, medical and family history, genetic testing status, educational and occupational background, and for most donors a 60-second introduction video. What is withheld is her name and contact information, not the substance of who she is.
How much does a video meeting with a fresh donor cost?
There is a non-refundable $500 fee to arrange a facilitated Zoom meeting, and it is applied toward your cycle fees if you proceed with us. The option is available for fresh donor cycles only, and only when the donor has indicated she is open to meeting.
Does the openness arrangement affect success rates?
No. Openness is a legal and relational arrangement, not a clinical variable. It has no bearing on egg quality, warming survival, fertilization, or embryo development. Choose the arrangement that fits your family and evaluate outcomes separately.
Should I tell my child they were conceived with donor eggs?
The evidence supports telling them, and telling them early. Children told before age seven showed better family relationships and higher wellbeing at fourteen than those told later, and ASRM strongly encourages disclosure while leaving the decision to parents. Practically, DNA testing means the information is likely to surface eventually, and hearing it from you at five is a different experience than discovering it at thirty.
Talk it through with us
Every family weighs privacy and openness differently, and there is no arrangement that is right for everyone. What we can do is show you exactly what each donor is comfortable with before you commit to anything, and build the agreement around it. Register for free access to our donor database to see full profiles across our fresh and frozen programs, including each donor's answers on contact and identity, or contact our team with questions. We are reachable at info@donornexus.com and (949) 433-5635, Monday through Friday, 8am to 4pm Pacific.
Sources
- Practice Committee and Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Updated terminology for gamete and embryo donors: directed (identified) to replace "known" and nonidentified to replace "anonymous": a committee opinion. Fertility and Sterility. 2022;118:75-78.
- Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Interests, obligations, and rights in gamete and embryo donation: an Ethics Committee opinion. Fertility and Sterility. 2019;111:664-670.
- Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Informing offspring of their conception by gamete or embryo donation: an Ethics Committee opinion. Fertility and Sterility. 2018;109:601-605.
- Ilioi E, Blake L, Jadva V, Roman G, Golombok S. The role of age of disclosure of biological origins in the psychological wellbeing of adolescents conceived by reproductive donation: a longitudinal study from age 1 to age 14. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 2017;58(3):315-324.
- The DNA Geek. Autosomal DNA database sizes, March 2026.
- United States Donor Conceived Council. Colorado General Assembly clarifies language in Donor-Conceived Persons Protection Act and extends compliance deadline. 2024.
Related reading
Lucy Solie-Vilker
Lucy Solie-Vilker is the CEO of Donor Nexus, where she's helped build one of the most established platforms in egg and embryo donation. Since 2012, her work has contributed to more than 2,000 babies born to Don…
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