A donor-conceived woman has discovered she has at least 77 siblings after uncovering her biological father donated more than 300 times.
Lyndal Bubke, 33, from Brisbane, was told she had dozens of brothers and sisters across Queensland, NSW, Victoria and around the world after carrying out a DNA test through a genealogy company in 2022.
The 33-year-old woman had been told by her parents that she and her brother had been conceived via a donor at Queensland Fertility Group when she began looking into her ancestry.
Genealogy results revealed Ms Bubke also had 11 half-siblings, and this number has now risen to 77.
Her biological father was able to donate sperm a total of 325 times.
Ms Bubke has said she believes it’s likely she has even more siblings and the figure is likely to be in the hundreds, if not thousands.
Queensland Fertility Group told the 33-year-old woman’s parents they were unable to provide any information on her donor conception or details about the donor.
The clinic explained the records were lost in a flood.
Ms Bubke had to contact the clinic herself to tell them she was the biological daughter of the donor.
She revealed she suffers from anxiety and fears every day she will be told she has another sibling.
‘I go around and I look at people on the street and I think, I wonder if you could be my sibling, you look like my sister, you look like my brother,’ she told The Daily Telegraph.
‘I can confirm my husband and I are not related … but in those (first) few weeks, there were the horrible thoughts of, what if my husband is donor-conceived and we didn’t know?
‘What if one of my ex-boyfriends is a sibling? I’ll only be happy once I know all of my siblings, and I’ll die unhappy then, because I’ll never get that. There’s just no way for me to ever find them all because the records were … destroyed.’
Ms Bubke has understandably been left horrified over the practices of Queensland Fertility Group and clinics across the country.
The Brisbane woman’s parents felt betrayed by the fertility clinic, who were told each donation would only be used for a small number of families.
Her parents were not told who the donor was or the number of times he donated.
Ms Bubke has been campaigning for improved regulations for fertility clinics and the creation of a database for donor conceived people, donors and recipient parents.
A Queensland Fertility Group spokesperson told Daily Mail : ‘We are aware of and empathise with Ms Bubke’s circumstances.
‘For reasons of privacy, we are unable to comment on the specifics of individual cases, however we are aware of this matter which relates to a period in time over 30 years ago.
‘Three decades ago, there was no legal limit on the number of donations made by a sperm donor and emphasis was placed on the donor’s right to anonymity.
‘Today’s donor conception legislation prohibits anonymous donation and newly introduced Queensland legislation now includes a 10-family limit for sperm donors.
‘Today, QFG’s fertility clinics manage their donor programs under state-based laws; our record keeping today is modern and digital.
‘Queensland Fertility Group supports ongoing IVF reforms that focus on continually improving safety and transparency including the move to national IVF laws.
‘We strongly support establishing a national donor conception registry that will enable donors and donor-conceived people to choose to exchange information.’