Table 6.

Adoption/alternative reproductive options

Theme	Representative quotes
Patient desire to adopt	“I would mostly want to adopt anyway, just because everybody is like, oh, there’s so many kids out there who needs homes and then everybody else is like, oh, let us go have our own kid and I’m -- but there’s perfectly good children who need families and you need a kid, so why do not you just go together?”—19 yo “…honestly I’d prefer it because I know that there are an abundance of children without homes. I personally do not believe that there is any, you know, difference in the love that you’d feel for a child that genetically belongs to you and to one that you have choose to care for and to raise and love.”—19 yo
Parental understanding of desire to adopt	“…we have talked about it and he seems very comfortable with, you know, there are lots of kids out there that need a mom and dad, you know, and I’m - just because it’s not my biological [child] does not mean I cannot love him and bring him into my family. So, that, you know, he feels there’s other options if he does change his mind.”—53 yo mother
Alternative reproductive options	“I would want a sperm donor, but I have not even talked to my brother about it because I feel like I would want my brother to be my sperm donor, if it was okay with him, obviously. I feel like I would have to talk to the person I’m with and then my brother. If that’s okay with them and, like -- my brother’s probably the only the closest thing I have to me so I would definitely want him to be there for that.”—16 yo “We talked about it in the beginning and he said he wasn’t concerned about it, that he could always adopt. Or his girlfriend could just, you know, get a sperm donor or whatever.”—47 yo mother