How Surrogacy Works

Why Choose Surrogacy?

There are many reasons for people to consider surrogacy to start or expand their families. Perhaps a woman has found it relatively easy to get pregnant, but then suffered repeated miscarriages. Or she has endured a number of costly in vitro fertilization cycles without success. Maybe a gay male couple longs to have children of their own.

What Does Fertility4life do?

Fertility4life will find you a surrogate and sperm donor (if necessary), guide you through the complex legal, medical and psychological components and provide support and counselling throughout. Surrogacy is a complicated and sensitive process that is very difficult to accomplish successfully without expert help. We work with surrogates which will be screened medically, psychologically and criminally. They are interviewed extensively by one of our surrogate coordinators and go through a physiological evaluation where required. If it is necessary to include donor egg and/or donor sperm in your plan, our coordinator will discuss this with you.

How Do I Start?

Everyone has a unique and special situation. We will discuss the options available to you. Your initial consultation will take place by phone followed by a face to face meeting with one of our surrogacy advisors. During your consultation we will discuss what is required for your surrogacy programme and draw up a schedule especially for your needs. We believe in everyone's right to have a family, and welcome people of any age, marital status, or sexual orientation.

The First Step: Finding a Surrogate

Working with our surrogate coordinator we will provide profiles of appropriate gestational surrogate candidates, found through our advertising and database. How long it takes to find a surrogate depends on the pool available at the time you start we will also advertise through our global web site and contact a number of our agents overseas who will assist us in locating your surrogate within a period of no more than 2 months. When we have matched you with suitable surrogates , we will arrange for a meeting between you and the surrogate one of our team will be present if required, dependent on where the surrogate is based they may well need to travel to the location of the meeting .

Egg Retrieval and IVF

In order to increase the chances for a successful pregnancy, the donor is administered fertility drugs daily by injection to increase the number of eggs she produces in her cycle. She is also monitored daily through blood tests and ultrasound exams. The embryo carrier will also take medications to prepare her for gestation.

The eggs are retrieved through a routine surgical procedure using a needle and anaesthesia (which does not require an overnight stay in the hospital). The eggs are then fertilized with the intended father's or donor's sperm, then incubated and observed for three to four days. Sperm is then introduced and embryos are formed for observation and evaluation. Typically, two to three embryos are transferred to the gestational surrogate.

Embryo Transfer

The embryos are transferred through a painless, in-patient procedure. A pregnancy test is administered approximately fourteen days after the embryo transfer. If the result is negative, then the transfer may be repeated at another cycle with the frozen embryos. If necessary, the process may start again from the beginning.

Pregnancy and Birth

Fertility4life’s surrogacy advisor will act as liaison between surrogate and intended parents throughout this stage. They will makes sure that the carrier is going to her regular appointments and is following other conditions of her agreement while informing the intended parents of her progress. Intended parents may review all medical records pertaining to prenatal care and delivery. The surrogacy advisor will oversees the day-to-day health and well-being of the carrier (both physical and psychological), and serves as a resource for intended parents to prepare for the new arrival. They will be the primary contact for this phase.

After the baby is born, the intended parent(s) take their newborn from the hospital. All the legal documents will then need to be completed before you can take baby home and dependent on the country the names of the parents may appear on the birth certificate.