Surrogacy offers the opportunity to have a baby even if the hopeful mother cannot carry the baby. A surrogate carries the baby to term and the eggs may be from the hopeful mother, another woman, or from the surrogate.
There are two types of surrogates:
Traditional Surrogate
The surrogate also provides the eggs, making the surrogate the genetic mother of the child that may result from such an arrangement.
Gestational surrogate
The surrogate only acts as a gestational carrier, carrying the pregnancy from transferred embryos from the fertilization of the commissioning egg or donor eggs with the sperm of the commissioning father or donor sperm in either a fresh cycle or frozen embryo transfer cycle. The surrogate does not have a genetic relationship with the child that may result from such an arrangement.
Who may benefit from Surrogacy?
- A woman who has no uterus because either she was born without a uterus or it has been removed surgically
- A woman who is medically unfit to carry pregnancy especially women with severe heart condition, systemic lupus erythematosus, or end-stage renal disease (bad kidney)
- A woman who has had many unsuccessful IVF treatments
- A woman who has an abnormally formed uterus either in size or shape such that she cannot get pregnant or she has been having recurrent miscarriages
Who can be a Surrogate
A woman who is between 22 and 40 years old and has had at least one successful delivery of a baby at term. The commissioning parent may know the surrogate, either a relative or friend of the commissioning parents or the surrogate may be anonymous to the commissioning parents.
Both the surrogate and commissioning parents will undergo a complete medical history review, physical examination, and some investigations. The investigations include seminal fluid analysis for the intending father. The intending mother will have a pelvic ultrasound scan, as well as hormone and infection screening tests. The surrogate will have infection screening tests and pelvic ultrasound. The surrogate will receive counseling on some pregnancy events such as miscarriage, multiple pregnancies, ectopic pregnancy, and medical complications that may arise because of pregnancy.
The cycle of the commissioning mother or egg donor is synchronized with that of the surrogate. The intending mother or egg donor will undergo control ovarian hyperstimulation to get a good number of eggs while the gestational surrogate takes medications to prepare for the embryo transfer. Egg collection and fertilization are performed like the typical IVF cycle and embryos resulting from the fertilization are transferred to the surrogate who will do a pregnancy test two weeks after the transfer. If treatment is successful, the surrogate will receive antenatal care till term. The commissioning couple will take over the baby after delivery based on the existing law of the land.
Note: We do not offer traditional surrogacy
