Belgium’s Egg Donor Crisis: Anonymity Law Sparks Mass Exodus

Belgian fertility centers are reporting a dramatic collapse in egg donor registrations following the government’s decision to abolish donor anonymity, leaving prospective parents like Ine (38) with no options. At UZ Gent, anonymous egg donor registrations have plummeted from 46 in 2025 to just 4 in 2026, according to VRT NWS. Of those four, only three entered an actual donation trajectory.

The Legislative Change

The federal government approved the abolition of donor anonymity on February 27, 2026, on the proposal of Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit). Under the new rules, donor children can request non-identifiable information from age 12 and access identifiable data—including name, date of birth, and nationality—from age 16. The law is expected to take effect by June 30, 2027, and applies to both domestic and foreign donors, as VRT NWS reported.

“Children must get all opportunities,” Vandenbroucke said. “Knowing what you’re made of helps you better understand who you are. It’s important for your mental well-being to stand strong in life. From now on, the child is central.”

The policy change follows a major donor scandal in 2025, when it was revealed that a Danish sperm donor with a cancer-causing genetic defect had fathered 53 children across 38 families in Belgium—far exceeding the legal limit of 6 families per donor. The scandal exposed weaknesses in the oversight of foreign sperm banks and fueled calls for greater transparency.

Alarming Numbers Across Fertility Centers

The decline is not isolated to UZ Gent. VRT NWS surveyed multiple fertility centers and found a consistent downward trend:

• ZOL Genk: Egg donor registrations fell from 15 in 2025 to 3 in 2026
• UZ Brussel: 197 registrations in 2025, but only 81 from January to July 2026; just 6 approved egg donors started treatment in 2026, compared to 42 in 2025
• AZ Jan Palfijn Gent: No registrations for anonymous egg donors in recent years

Sperm donor registrations have also declined significantly across all centers. UZ Gent saw registrations fall from 10 in 2025 to zero through July 2026, while UZ Brussel dropped from 83 to 40.

“At UZ Gent, the number of registered anonymous egg donors has shrunk from 46 in 2025 to 4 in 2026,” said Dr. Frauke Vanden Meerschaut, fertility doctor at UZ Gent. “A registration doesn’t mean the donor is approved. This year only 3 trajectories could be started. So it’s not strange that we can no longer automatically help people like Ine.”

A Personal Tragedy

Ine (38) needs an egg donor after chemotherapy severely reduced her egg supply, and because her own eggs may carry the BRCA gene. Unable to find a donor among family and friends, she turned to anonymous donation—only to be told by UZ Gent that they could no longer help her.

“That they can no longer help me hits hard,” Ine told VRT NWS. “My world collapsed when I read the email. You’ve already been through a whole process against breast cancer. Then you go into a real IVF trajectory, which is also not an easy choice. And suddenly everything seems to have been for nothing.”

Ine has since turned to online forums and Facebook groups to find a known donor, but with limited success. Of 59 responses to her appeal, only two women emerged as potential candidates—one was disqualified due to a cleft lip, and the other could not donate because she was still breastfeeding.

“It all went so suddenly,” Ine said. “The government clearly didn’t think about the consequences of its announcement. Or at least didn’t think about women who need an anonymous egg donor.”

Expert Concerns and Opposition

The Belgian Society for Reproductive Medicine (BSRM) warned that the law could scare off donors, reduce care availability, and lead to care tourism, greater inequality, and a resort to unregulated circuits. The organization also raised GDPR concerns about releasing historical donor data.

The Belgian Advisory Committee on Bioethics advised that the government is moving too fast and proposed a phased two-track approach. “We absolutely agree with the principle that anonymity must be abolished, but we would prefer to see it phased,” said Jan De Lepeleire, vice-chair of the committee.

Federal parliamentarian Irina De Knop (Anders) has been a vocal opponent, arguing that the abolition is the wrong answer to the donor scandal. In her opinion piece, she proposed a multi-track system that preserves anonymous donation while adding an identifiable donor type.

Meanwhile, DonorFamilies, an organization of donor families, supports ending strict anonymity, arguing that DNA technology has made anonymity virtually unenforceable anyway, and that children should have the right to know their origins.

A Pre-Existing Shortage Worsened

Belgium already faced a significant donor shortage before the law change. The UZA (Antwerp University Hospital) reported in 2014 that it had only about 20% of the egg cells needed and 50% of the sperm needed, as documented in magUZA. Belgium is currently 85% dependent on foreign sperm banks. For egg donation, however, Belgium does not rely on foreign banks because egg retrievals are performed locally for quality and ethical screening reasons—making the domestic donor shortage particularly acute.

Dr. Shari Mackens of UZ Brussel emphasized the urgency: “A national government campaign is necessary if we want to counter the donor shortage.” She noted that the uncertainty around how the new system will work in practice is itself deterring potential donors.

“There will very likely be a move to an ID-release system,” Mackens said. “In that system, the donor’s identity remains unknown to the prospective parents and donor child, until the donor child reaches a certain age and can request the identity if they wish.”

What’s Next

The draft law still needs to go through the Council of State and Parliament before taking effect by June 30, 2027. A six-month transition period will allow fertility centers to use existing anonymous sperm supplies. However, fertility centers are currently not allowed to actively recruit donors under existing regulations, and experts say a major public awareness campaign will be essential.

Countries that have abolished donor anonymity—such as the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, and parts of Australia—have seen significant declines in donor numbers, though some have eventually recovered with different types of donors. Proponents point to France, where donor numbers reportedly increased after ending anonymity.

For Ine, the wait continues. “I’ve paused my trajectory for now, but I keep hoping for a miracle,” she said. Whether enough non-anonymous donors will step forward in time to help people like her remains an open question—one that will define the future of fertility care in Belgium.