Anonymous Dutch sperm donors releasing their identity.

This study examined the motivations of anonymous Dutch sperm donors to release their identity. It aimed to increase knowledge and encourage donors to become identifiable through a more informed decision, allowing more donor-conceived persons to contact their donors. Since 2010, anonymous sperm donors in the Netherlands can register in the Fiom KID-DNA Database developed by Fiom and Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital (CWZ). An online survey was sent to donors who registered in the database (May 2015-August 2017). A total of 179 male respondents participated in this study. The motives of most donors to register in the database were child-oriented: donors believe that their offspring are entitled to their physical and social details and/or they want to give their offspring the chance to contact them. Other motives are donor-oriented, such as the curiosity about the number of offspring, their well-being and the desire to establish contact. This research showed that, to encourage anonymous donors to release their identity, one should focus on providing information about the existence of DNA databases. As well as increasing the donor's awareness of problems donor-conceived persons can experience by the lack of knowledge about their descent, answering questions and concerns from donors, and exploring the curiosity about their offspring.

Body-self unity and self-esteem in patients with rheumatic diseases.

Perceptions and evaluations of the own body are important sources of self-esteem. Having a rheumatic disease challenges maintenance of positive self-esteem due to consequences of the disease such as unfavorable sensations as pain and limited (physical) functioning. We expect that a positive experience of the own body in spite of a rheumatic disease (body-self harmony) will be associated with higher levels of self-esteem and that experiencing the body as unworthy part of the own person or as disabler for own strivings (body-self alienation) will result in lower levels of self-esteem. For this explorative study, the body experience questionnaire (BEQ) measuring body-self unity was developed and piloted. One hundred sixty-eight patients visiting the outpatient rheumatology clinic of the Medisch Spectrum Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, completed a questionnaire on touchscreen computers to measure body-self unity (BEQ), illness cognitions (illness cognition questionnaire), pain intensity, functional limitations (health assessment questionnaire disability index), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) and demographics. To analyze predictors of self-esteem, hierarchical regression analyses were employed. The BEQ revealed a two-factor structure with good reliability (subscale harmony, four items, Cronbach's α = 0.76; subscale alienation, six items, Cronbach's α = 0.84). The final model of the hierarchical regression analyses showed that self-esteem can be predicted by the illness cognitions helplessness and acceptance, by harmony and most strongly by alienation from the body. R(2) of the final model was 0.50. The relationship between functional limitations and self-esteem was totally mediated by the psychological constructs body-self unity and illness cognitions. This explorative study showed the importance of the unity of body and self for self-esteem in patients with a rheumatic disease.