UDPATED: I strongly urge all couples to get health insurance for their surrogate. In most cases it’s a legal requirement. In many other cases it’s a personal requirement of the surrogate herself. She will definitely need to know you will take generous care of all the prenatal requirements, and she won’t get stuck with any of the medical bills.
Category Archives: Ask the Surrogacy Experts…
Questions from the Sensible Surrogacy community, answered by our team of consultants…
PLEASE NOTE: Information in this website is based on personal experience gained over many years of assisting infertile couples. Comments are intended as a Guide for those in need, but should not replace professional medical or legal advise. Any medical questions should ALWAYS be referred to a credentialed medical specialist before beginning any treatment.
Surrogacy is banned in Islam… even for overseas residents.
Permanent residency abroad does not bypass the ban on surrogacy under Islamic law. Living abroad will allow the baby return home without a visa, but that’s only one hurdle. Parents still need citizenship and a passport, and that’s unlikely to be approved by the embassy of an Islamic country.
Can I save money with a cheap IVF clinic overseas?
There are excellent IVF clinics in many countries overseas – and many are much more affordable than a typical US clinic. So it’s tempting to perform your IVF overseas and then bring your embryos to the US for the surrogacy part of the journey. But wait! It’s not that easy.
Advice for a Traditional Surrogacy Program
First, to be clear: I don’t recommend traditional surrogacy — it comes with a host of legal and ethical issues. It’s hard to argue in any court how your surrogate could be denied full parental rights if she were dispute the surrogacy agreement.
Can a surrogate mother keep the baby?
If you have a properly executed Surrogacy Contract in a country with a supportive legal framework then the simple answer is NO, the surrogate cannot keep your baby. Unfortunately too many couples decide to skip the legal safeguards and open themselves up to all sorts of risks – including that the surrogate may have a legal claim to parental rights.
How old is “too old” for a surrogate mother?
It’s inspiring that women of all ages can be so generous. If you doubt, just search on Google for news reports of women delivering their own grandchildren… it’s truly amazing.
Will my surrogacy baby look like me?
So many couples struggle with infertility. I work with couples every day who are ready to mortgage their entire lives to have ANY child at all. I’ll never understand how someone can prefer NO child rather than a child that doesn’t look “quite like the person they had in mind”.
The Risk of Twins with Double vs Single Embryo Transfers
Transferring two embryos does not drastically increase the likelihood of a pregnancy, but it does drastically increase the likelihood of a twins pregnancy. If you want to avoid the risks and expense of a twins pregnancy, then you should transfer one embryo at at time.
Can sperm sorting improve our chances of having a baby girl?
Every client secretly hopes for a boy or a girl — even if they pretend otherwise. There are various techniques to select the gender of your baby. PGS is now the standard technique in the United States. But an old technique called sperm microsorting (which was banned by the FDA) is having a renaissance.
Will a “Collapsed Embryo” ruin our pregnancy hopes?
“Collapsed Embryos” is certainly an unfortunate term that can drive fear into Parents, but it’s really not as terrible as it sounds. Blastocysts in-vitro typically undergo repeated collapse and expansion before they arrive at the point where they are ready to “attach” and latch onto the uterus wall. This is a normal part of the embryo’s growth cycle.