There are five basic steps gay men will need to take to build a family through surrogacy.
Schedule a consultation with a fertility specialist to initiate your testing with a semen analysis, baseline infectious disease screening, and genetic carrier screening. We often freeze sperm on this first visit to be used in the treatment cycle. Your doctor will provide an overview of the treatment process and the decisions you will need to make along the way.
Select an egg donor. The selection of your donor is one of the most important parts of the process because not only will she provide the genetic material for your children, but also her egg quality will have a significant impact on your success rate. We work with dozens of different egg donor agencies to provide you a wide selection of candidates. We are able to help you in your selection by reviewing select profiles.
Once your egg donor is selected she will complete medical screening, contracts will be signed, and the treatment can begin.
The egg donor takes daily injections of hormones to stimulate the development of eggs. We hope to retrieve 20-25 eggs per cycle, which should generate 4-10 blastocysts for freezing. Many patients elect to have genetic screening of the embryos – pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) – to identify which embryos contain the correct number of chromosomes and which embryos are abnormal. Once frozen, the embryos will be stored until the surrogate is ready for transfer.
We work with some of the world’s best surrogacy agencies that will help match you with a carefully selected candidate for the process. The surrogate then completes extensive review and medical screening by your physician before contracts are prepared. Once the reproductive attorneys have completed your contracts we can begin treatment.
The surrogate is given hormones in amounts that mimic a perfect natural cycle to prepare the uterus for embryo implantation. The morning of the procedure one or two embryos (blastocysts) are thawed. The embryo(s) is carefully loaded into a narrow catheter that is passed through the surrogate’s cervix into the uterine cavity under ultrasound guidance. The intended parents are welcome to be in the room for the procedure if that’s their wish.
The pregnancy rates are very high due to the high quality eggs provided by the young donors and the fertile and receptive environment of the surrogate
All women should start with a personal fertility evaluation to provide
an assessment of egg quantity and quality, a uterine evaluation, and baseline hormone levels.
All women should start with a personal fertility evaluation
to provide an assessment of egg quantity and quality,
a uterine evaluation, and baseline hormone levels.
An intrauterine insemination (IUI) with donor sperm is often the simplest and most affordable treatment option. The IUI is performed by passing a narrow catheter through the cervix and into the uterus at the time of ovulation. The pregnancy rate per cycle depends mostly on the age of the women ovulating.
To genetically screen their embryos before conception, or who wish their partner to carry the pregnancy, IVF is an excellent treatment option. In IVF we create embryos, biopsy and screen the embryos for chromosomal abnormalities, and freeze them for transfer at a later date in a more natural cycle.
“Reciprocal IVF” refers to creating embryos using the eggs of one woman with transfer of embryo(s) to her partner to carry the pregnancy. Alternatively, both women can create and freeze embryos, and then decide who will carry the pregnancy.
The most important factor in maintaining fertility options for transgender people
is to give careful consideration before transitioning.
Reproductive tissues can be preserved through cryopreservation for use in reproductive procedures in the future when you are ready to start your family. Frozen sperm can be used for IUI procedures or for IVF to create embryos using a designated egg donor. Eggs can be successfully frozen today with post thaw fertility potential nearly identical to fresh eggs.
The eggs can be frozen as eggs, or inseminated with sperm to create embryos to be frozen. Patients who are transitioning will need to stop their testosterone injections or other hormonal treatments for several months prior to initiating ovarian stimulation to develop eggs for the cycle.