Steptoe clinic connected to use of lab technician's sperm

Two people conceived at IVF pioneer Dr Patrick Steptoe's clinic in the 1970s have discovered that a laboratory scientist is their biological father.

Roz Snyder and David Gertler learned through Ancestry.com that they are half-siblings, and that their biological father is Roy Hollihead, who managed the pathology laboratory at Oldham Hospital, where Dr Steptoe's clinic operated. Their parents attended Dr Steptoe's clinic at Oldham hospital in the early 1970s after having difficulty conceiving.

Hollihead admitted that sperm from medical staff and students was used for insemination. '[Dr Steptoe] used sperm from lab staff, medical students, and doctors... but no records of any were kept,' he told Snyder, according to the Telegraph. Hollihead revealed that his sperm was used to impregnate at least four women during his time at the hospital, but added that hospital authorities might not have been aware.

Historians documenting Dr Steptoe's work have found no record of donor insemination being carried out at the clinic, and the NHS Trust that now runs Oldham Hospital said they have no records of Dr Steptoe's clinic.

'Something definitely doesn't add up. All the research I have done, spending night after night on the internet. I can't find anywhere that Dr Steptoe did artificial insemination,' Snyder told the Telegraph. 'It has been life-changing. It has given me an identity crisis. Who am I? I just don’t know.... I just found out my dad’s not my dad.'

Snyder and Gertler were friends growing up and say they now 'share a special bond' following the discovery. The pair have gone public to uncover more details about these practices, hoping to find others who may have been affected.

Dr Steptoe developed techniques that led to the birth of the world's first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in 1978. His work, alongside Dr Robert Edwards and Jean Purdy, was the subject of a recent Netflix film, Joy (see BioNews 1266). Dr Steptoe died in 1988.

Donor insemination was unregulated in the UK in the 1970s. Legally, donor-conceived children should have been registered as 'father unknown', requiring non-biological fathers to go through adoption procedures. Snyder and Gertler believe their parents were unaware that donor sperm was used, as their fathers were named on their birth certificates and never showed signs of knowing they were not biological parents.

However, Hollihead was insistent that the parents would have known about the donor insemination. This was echoed by Dr Steptoe's son, Andrew Steptoe, professor of psychology and epidemiology at University College London. 'I would be surprised if they didn't know because he [Dr Steptoe] was very open about the way he spoke to patients,' he told the Telegraph.

Despite the controversy, Snyder acknowledged the significance of Dr Steptoe's contributions to reproductive medicine. 'We can’t get away from the fact that he has done an amazing thing by creating IVF,' she told the Telegraph.