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Gestational Surrogacy

Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago
Gurnee & Crystal Lake, Illinois

Who should be treated with gestational surrogacy?

This is a relatively rare procedure.
It is usually done for a young woman who has had her uterus surgically removed but still has her ovaries. She can provide the egg to make a baby, but has no womb to carry it. Therefore, utilizing her eggs and in vitro fertilization technology, she can utilize a surrogate mother to carry the pregnancy (her own genetic child) for her.

Sometimes it is also done in cases where a young woman has a medical condition that could be seriously worsened by a pregnancy.

How is gestational surrogacy performed?

1. An appropriate surrogate is chosen and thoroughly screened for infectious diseases.

2. At least one session with a psychologist is required.

3. Consents are signed by all parties. This is a most important step in surrogacy cases. All potential issues need to be carefully clarified, put in writing, signed, and understood by all parties prior to initiation of the treatment.

4. The patient is stimulated with medications to develop multiple egg development.

5. The surrogate is placed on medications that suppress her own menstrual cycle and stimulate development of a receptive uterine lining.

6. When the patient's follicles are mature, an egg retrieval procedure is performed to remove the eggs from her ovaries. The eggs are then fertilized in the laboratory with her partner's sperm.

7. The embryos develop in the laboratory for 3 days. Then, an embryo transfer procedure is done which places the embryos in the surrogate's uterus where they will hopefully implant and develop to result in a live birth.

8. The child goes home from the hospital with the genetic parents.

Pregnancy rates:

Success rates for surrogacy IVF procedures vary considerably. The age of the woman providing the eggs is one critical factor.

In general, pregnancy rates are higher than that seen with use of eggs from infertile women.

Some programs are reporting delivery rates of over 50% per transfer for gestational surrogacy cases (using eggs from women under about 37).

Our IVF pregnancy rates

Cost:

Our price for gestational surrogacy is currently $1000 more than our current price for egg donation (however, there usually is no egg donor fee for surrogacy cycles - unless you need both a donor and a surrogate).

See our current fees for egg donation

We do not have surrogates - you must find your own. There are some organizations that can help you do this.

Go to the OPTS website (Organization of Parents Through Surrogacy) to learn more about surrogacy or for help locating a gestational surrogate.

Please note: Our clinic does not do surrogacy cases in which the surrogate is both an egg donor and a surrogate carrier for the infertile couple.