Gestational Surrogacy
Who Typically Benefits from Using a Gestational Carrier
Video Lesson
Written Lesson
Wide Variety of Intended Parents
A wide spectrum of intended parents benefit from gestational surrogacy. This can include people:
- With an underlying fertility challenge
- With uterine challenges possibly related to a “thin uterine lining”, scarring from a previous treatment (e.g. a D&C), Asherman’s syndrome, or who’ve undergone a hysterectomy
- Who’ve experienced multiple miscarriages or losses
- Suffering from a condition (e.g. cardiac, renal) where carrying a pregnancy could prove unhealthy or dangerous
- Who are part of a same-sex male couple or cis-gender men trying to build a family alone
The largest studies out of Canada, including 333 surrogacies, showed no difference in success based upon the intended parents underlying diagnosis or reasons for using a surrogate.
Previous Cycles
One common refrain from intended parents is that they felt it “premature” for their doctor to surface the idea of pursuing gestational surrogacy.
The reality is the majority of intended parents begin gestational surrogacy after one-or-fewer previous IVF cycles. Many doctors say their ability to correctly discern if a gestational carrier is ultimately needed typically comes early on in the treatment process, often before patients are ready to have the discussion.
Use of Donor Eggs
As we alluded to earlier on, nearly half of all gestational surrogacies also include the use of donor eggs. As we shared, this drives high rates of success, but also steps up (in many countries) the cost and logistical work required to streamline a process. You can see our dedicated course on egg donation here.