Gestational Surrogacy
Who Typically Benefits from Using a Gestational Carrier
Video Lesson
Experts you'll learn from
Director
University of California San Francisco
Director, Third Party & LBGTQ
RMA of Northern California
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.
Ages
Intended parents using gestational surrogacy range in age, as you can see from the data below.
A common misconception is that intended parents are almost all over the age of 40. While a higher percentage are over 40 compared with the population undergoing IVF, it still represents the minority.
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.