There are times when infertility may result not from the inability to conceive, but the inability to support the developing baby during the full length of pregnancy. Motherhood is still possible thanks to the generosity of women who are willing to carry a fetus for you.
Gestational surrogacy is a treatment option in which embryos created by IVF are transferred into the uterus of a woman genetically unrelated to the embryos. Surrogacy may be used for women without a functional uterus, for women with underlying medical problems which could cause great risk to mother or baby during pregnancy, or for women with a history of multiple failed IVF cycles without a known cause.
How We Assist You
North Dallas IVF works with local and national surrogacy agencies to assist couples in the opportunity to become parents. We meet with the surrogate and perform an extensive medical screening exam to confirm a candidate’s adequacy for surrogacy. The process of being a gestational surrogate involves finding a woman who has had healthy pregnancies, feels she is done having her own children and would like to participate in the joy of helping another woman have a child for whom there is no other option.
The process is very similar to those used in donor egg cycles with embryo transfer into the recipient’s uterus. You produce the eggs and undergo an IVF cycle. At the same time, your surrogate prepares her uterus for conception with estrogen and progesterone. Your eggs are fertilized and on the day of transfer, the embryos with the highest pregnancy potential are placed in the uterine cavity of the surrogate. The number of embryos transferred depends on your age and the quality of the cultured embryos.
Prior to delivery of your child, you will want to take the appropriate legal measures to ensure it is documented that the child’s legal parents are the biological or intended parents and not the surrogate.