'The greatest gift': DNA kit connects sisters conceived with donor sperm

Two sisters connect for first time Both women were conceived through a sperm donor, and a DNA test brought them together. Suzette Belliveau reports.

Two sisters who live thousands of miles apart have connected for the first time, thanks to an at-home DNA kit.

The women were conceived with sperm from the same donor, and they’re sharing their story in the hopes that other families will open up the conversation about donor-conceived children.

Jennifer Salib-Huber grew up as an only child, but her family circle changed forever last spring when she took a DNA test using an at-home kit.

The test connected her with several half-siblings she never knew existed, including her half-sister Friedel Grant, who lives in the Netherlands.

“It was eye-opening in the most wonderful way to see these people that I looked like and shared so much,” says Salib-Huber, who lives in Dartmouth.

“We have kids around the same ages … to know that my kids now have cousins was really exciting.”

Salib-Huber and Grant were conceived by artificial insemination with donor sperm at the Dalhousie Fertility Clinic in the mid-to-late 1970s. It wasn’t common to share that information with children at the time, and no records were ever kept.

Grant only found out she had been conceived with donor sperm 20 years ago, before her mother passed away. She always wondered if she had siblings, and last May she got her answer.

“I did a test and got the results back. I was shocked to discover that I had, at that time, one half-sister that I knew about, and enough clues that, over the course of the next 10 days, my husband and I were able to figure out who the donor was,” says Grant.

“Over the course of the rest of the summer, I discovered a whole group of new half-siblings.”

As for Salib-Huber, she only learned she was conceived with donor sperm after she connected with Grant.

“If anybody is out there, if they haven’t been told that they’re donor-conceived and they don’t have any reason to do a DNA test, then they may never know, and that doesn’t quite seem right in this day and age,” says Salib-Huber.

The women are aware of five donor siblings, with whom they have connected through AncestryDNA and 23andMe. They believe it’s possible they could have more siblings.

“For me, DNA testing has really been the greatest gift that I could have ever received, because it took me from a situation where I had no possibility to know who my biological father was, or if I had siblings or perhaps, most importantly, my medical history,” says Grant.

“You have to understand, for my entire adult life I have never been able to give my physician a complete medical history.”

The sisters -- who have met in person since connecting online -- say it has been eye-opening to learn their actual medical and family history, and they hope their story will inspire parents to start the conversation with their donor-conceived children.

“I think that if there is more of a culture of openness versus secrecy, that more people could experience what we’re experiencing,” says Salib-Huber.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Suzette Belliveau