A Randomized Pilot Trial of the Donor Conception Tool to Empower Parental Telling and Talking (TELL Tool) with Their Children About Their Genetic Origins

Parents who use donated gametes or embryos to form their families struggle with telling their children about their genetic origins. We developed the Tool to Empower Parental Telling and Talking (TELL Tool) to support parents in disclosure to their children and an eBook attention control. A randomized parallel, two-group, attention-controlled clinical pilot trial was conducted online during COVID-19. Feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects among parents with children aged 1–16 years were examined. Over 10 months, our target of 75 parents were enrolled (85% of eligible [95% confidence interval (CI), 76% to 91%]), and 68% (95% CI: 57% to 78%) were retained at 12 weeks. At 4 and 12 weeks, positive trends were found for parental disclosure, telling confidence, and anxiety compared with attention controls. The study protocol is feasible, and the TELL Tool is acceptable to parents and demonstrates a positive effect on parents’ ability to tell their children. The results support the implementation of a large efficacy trial. •Helping parents think about disclosure and supporting them through it is critical.•The TELL Tool is the first evidence-based tool created to aid parents with telling.•The TELL Tool group showed a positive effect toward telling at 4 weeks compared with controls.•The TELL Tool group had significantly less anxiety at the posttest and 12 weeks.•The study was feasible and acceptable to parents, and it supports conducting a larger trial.