Surrogacy

Surrogacy: All you need to know 

Nowadays, many patients fly abroad to use surrogacy and have children. Whether you choose to have someone with you as a surrogate mother or look for a surrogate mother abroad in exchange for money is up to you.

How much does surrogacy cost?

Having a baby with a surrogate mother is not cheap. You will have to pay for the medical services, the fees of the doctors, the cost of medications and lab tests, and an amount of money to compensate the surrogate mother for carrying the baby for nine months.

The prices of surrogacy are different from one country to another. In the United States of America, the prices usually range from $100,000 to $170,000 and can even reach $300,000 if the parents if the initial fertilization was not successful and they needed to try again.

In Mexico, the cost of surrogacy is a bit lower. Conceiving with a surrogate mother cost ranges from $60,000 to $70,000 in Mexico.

The cost of surrogacy in Iran is a lot cheaper. Surrogacy prices in Iran start from $12,000. Even with the extra possible costs of flight and accommodation in Iran, you will end up paying less than a quarter of the prices in the United States.

What is surrogacy?

Surrogacy is a way of reproduction to help couples who cannot conceive for multiple reasons have babies. Surrogacy involves an agreement between the couple and the surrogate mother that she carries and delivers the baby and then hands the baby to the couple.

Reasons for having a child with a surrogate mother

Several possible reasons make it not possible or not safe for a woman to conceive a baby, such as:

• Fertility problems: Surrogacy comes as a solution for couples with infertility, especially if conceiving with IVF was unsuccessful.
• Age: The chances of having a successful pregnancy decrease as the woman age. Women who get pregnant after the age of 35 are more prone to pregnancy complications that can harm their health and their babies.
• Not having a uterus: Some women may live without a uterus either due to specific surgery or because of congenital disabilities.
• Medical conditions that affect the health of the uterus.
• The need to take medications that affect pregnancy.

How does surrogacy work?

The way surrogacy work varies depending on the type of surrogacy that is to be used. In general, there are two types of surrogacies:

• Gestational surrogacy
• Traditional surrogacy

Gestational surrogacy

Gestational surrogacy is the most used type of surrogacy in the present day. Gestational surrogacy involves using In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) to extract the egg from the mother and fertilize it in the lab with sperm from the father (or with sperm from the sperm donor), and then the embryo will be placed inside the uterus of the surrogate mother to carry.

Gestational surrogacy can be used to let couples have children that are related to them genetically.

Traditional surrogacy

Traditional surrogacy occurs when the egg used to conceive the baby comes from the surrogate mother. When using this method, the doctor will use the sperm from the father or a sperm donor to inseminate the egg. During this method, the egg will be artificially inseminated in the hospital or the fertility clinic.

Commercial surrogacy

Commercial surrogacy is a term that is used to describe an agreement that involves a couple paying the medical expenses plus some extra money to a woman in return for her carrying the embryo for them.

Although many countries around the world have laws against commercial surrogacy, you can find some countries where commercial surrogacy is legal and allowed.

Countries like Canada, Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, and several more consider commerce illegal.

On the other hand, there are few countries where it can be legal to pay a surrogate mother to conceive your children, such as Iran, the United States of America, and Mexico.

Surrogacy agencies

You can find a lot of surrogacy agencies that can help you find a surrogate mother and provide medical treatment. 

Agencies will help you find the woman that will be carrying your child and will provide all the medical procedures at some of the best clinics and hospitals. Furthermore, they will help with obtaining a Visa, booking a hotel for you, and providing an interpreter for you.

Surrogacy law

Surrogacy laws differ from one country to another. 

Before the surrogacy procedure, a formal contract is made between the couple and the surrogate mother clarifying that the mother is carrying the baby for the couple and obliges her to give the baby to the couple right after birth.

Surrogacy mother

Not every woman is allowed to be a surrogate mother as several terms and conditions need to be met. Most countries’ law states these conditions:

• Proper age: The potential surrogate mother needs to be over the age of 18 and under the age of 35 as this can increase the chances of successful pregnancy and the delivery of a healthy baby.
• Successful pregnancy history: The potential surrogate mother needs to be married with at least one child.
• Good physical health: The potential surrogate mother needs to be a healthy woman without chronic diseases. This means that a surrogate mother cannot be a woman with illnesses such as diabetes and heart issues. The surrogate mother should not also be addicted to drugs and alcohol.
• Good mental health: A woman with mental illnesses or who is not mentally stable is not allowed to be a surrogate mother.

These terms and conditions for becoming a surrogate mother are there to make sure the surrogate mother has a healthy pregnancy and to increase the chances of having a healthy baby.

Surrogacy father

If the man has some fertility problems and his sperm cannot be used to conceive the child, it is possible to use the sperm of a donor to conceive the child from a surrogate mother.