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The Other Options for Surrogacy

After years of struggling with infertility and multiple attempts at pregnancy, many couples turn to third party reproduction, or surrogacy, to have a child. The number of babies born via surrogacy has steadily increased since 1970, and in 2010 an estimated 1,400 babies were born from surrogates in the United States.

  1. Independent Surrogacy

    • A facilitated surrogacy agreement between couple and surrogate with out the assistance of an agency is known as independent surrogacy, whether it be with a traditional surrogate or a gestational carrier. The overall cost of surrogacy can be dramatically reduced by forgoing an agency. Surrogacy arrangements can be overwhelming without the help of professionals, but couples can turn to online support groups and message boards to gather the necessary information. Referrals for fertility doctors, lawyers and psychologists can all be found online. Couples can even locate a surrogate online; classified ads on several popular sites include many listings for willing carriers.

    Surrogacy Abroad

    • Some couples have partnered with surrogacy agencies that specialize in surrogacy abroad. These agencies offer couples the chance to become parents at a reduced cost if they are comfortable with their child being carried by a woman living thousands of miles away. Some agencies facilitating international surrogacy offer couples all-inclusive packages in which all details are arranged in advance for the fraction of U.S. surrogacy costs.

    Shared Cycles

    • To maximize the odds of conception and a live birth, some couples choose to attempt pregnancy in both the gestational carrier and the biological mother (intended mother) in the same in-vitro fertilization cycle. Sharing a cycle is an option for couple's diagnosed with unknown infertility, because many of these wome still might be able to carry their own pregnancy. In this circumstance, both the surrogate and intended mother are recipients of the embryos and if successful carry pregnancies simultaneously.

    Dual Surrogates

    • Similar to a shared cycles surrogacy, dual surrogate arrangements involve two pregnancies in a short amount of time with two different carriers. In this arrangement, the embryo transfer may or may not happen simultaneously. According to Zara Griswold, director of Family Source Consultants, LLC, a surrogacy agency in Illinois, dual surrogates are more common for couples who have adequate financial resources to not only maximize their odds of pregnancy, but possibly take on more than one new child.

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