Nederland (Colorado): Michelle Jorgenson thought it was odd that her 8-year-old daughter Cheyenne — conceived with sperm from a mystery man known to Jorgenson only as Donor 3066 — was extremely sensitive to sound and walked on her toes.
Jorgenson started checking on the Internet and soon learned of at least six other children around the country who were fathered by 3066.
Out of the six, she discovered to her alarm, two have autism, and two others, Cheyenne included, show signs of a sensory disorder tied closely to autism.
The children's mothers located one another beginning a year ago through the Donor Sibling Registry, a website run out of this Colorado mountain town.
It enables mothers artificially inseminated by the same donor and children fathered by the same man to find each other.
In this case, the women all used 3066, whose sperm was provided by the California Cryobank, based in Los Angeles.
"Pretty much you're thinking this person has a perfect medical history," said Jorgenson, who lives in Sacramento, California.
"Then later I find out that some of the other siblings have other disabilities that are or are not attributed to the donor. I wouldn't have chosen him had I known this had existed," she said.
The website that brought them together is run out of Wendy Kramer's home in Nederland.
"There are people on our website seeking siblings because their kids have medical issues, for sure, and even in a medical emergency the sperm banks won't facilitate any contact, which is kind of frustrating," Kramer said.
So far, the mothers who were impregnated with 3066's sperm have been frustrated in their attempts to find out more about the man and confirm their suspicions that their children inherited their medical problems from him.
But they have formed a support group of sorts, comparing notes on their youngsters and arming themselves with medical information they might need someday.
The website helped Jorgenson find Jenafer Elin, whose 9-year-old son Joshua, another offspring of 3066, is also sensitive to noise and hates wearing clothing with tags.
Cheyenne, Joshua and their 7-year-old half-sister Allyson and their mothers met in Fresno, California, this summer for a reunion.
Donor 3066, a man of Norwegian and German descent and a member of the Screen Actors Guild, filled out a medical profile and reported only that his paternal grandmother had high blood pressure, Jorgenson said.
Medical director and co-founder of the California Cryobank, Cappy Rothman, said 3066 has been put on "restricted" status.
It is a status which means women can still use his sperm, but are warned that problems could arise in their children because a child fathered by him was diagnosed with what Rothman described only as a "metabolic problem."
Rothman said no clients have told the cryobank their child had autism.
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