‘I want to meet my six sperm donor siblings!’
Lottie is on a mission to meet the man who anonymously helped her – and six other teenagers – into the world
Tasmanian teen Lottie Frohmader grew up knowing her mum conceived her via sperm donation. She always planned to try to find her donor dad, but Lottie never expected to find out that she was one of at least seven children fathered by the same man.
“From a very young age I’ve always wanted to thank him – without him I wouldn’t be here,” Lottie explains.
“I’ve always been told he’s open to contact. I’m interested to see if he looks like me, if he’s a nice person, if we have similar interests. It’s exciting.”
Tasmanian donor-conceived children can legally access information about their biological father once they turn 18. With only six months to wait, Lottie, 17, says while she’s intrigued to find out more, she doesn’t have any expectations of her biological father.
“To me he’s my donor, not my dad,” she says, crediting her mother Carolyn Frohmader, 55, as both mum and dad in her eyes. “But I think it would be really nice to keep an ongoing friendship with him if he was keen.”
The family-of-two were surprised when the state’s fertility clinic TASIVF revealed Lottie’s donor had six more children to five different families, making her one of seven children.
“I was shocked! I didn’t even think for a second that I had half-siblings or donor siblings,” Lottie says, after finding out she’s the eldest of the children, who range in age from 13 to 17. “I felt excited, then a bit sad because there’s no registry to find them like there is in other states.”
Lottie is now calling for state laws to be changed so she can meet her half-siblings.