Lesbian couples requesting donor insemination: an update of the knowledge with regard to lesbian mother families.

Although a variety of ways exist of becoming a lesbian mother, an increasing number of lesbian couples have began to visit fertility centres requesting donor insemination (DI). The practice of inseminating lesbian couples remains a controversial issue within the reproductive medicine world. Lesbian mothers offer their children a familial context, which differs on a number of important characteristics from the traditional heterosexual family. In lesbian families, a father has been absent right from the start, and the child is raised by two mothers. The present article reviews whether there is any theoretical and/or empirical evidence for the most common assumptions with regard to lesbian motherhood. It also reports on a number of studies in which the practice of counselling lesbian couples is discussed. Although many important research questions have yet to be addressed, none of the investigations carried out so far could identify an adverse effect of lesbian motherhood on child development. Counselling lesbian couples for DI should aim to provide information about the practical aspects of the treatment. The requests of lesbian couples, however, differ substantially from those of single mothers and heterosexual couples. Counsellors should respect these differences and focus upon the specific living conditions of lesbian families.