Gestational surrogacy can help you become a parent using your own eggs and/or sperm

Patients sometimes need help from gestational surrogacy to welcome a baby. This is a type of third party reproduction because a third person helps make pregnancy possible. A woman who serves as a gestational carrier helps an individual or couple by carrying a pregnancy for them.

Our Austin fertility doctors want patients to understand that a gestational carrier does NOT provide her own eggs. Instead, the eggs come from the intended mother or a separate egg donor. This arrangement helps avoid ethical and legal issues on the journey to parenthood.

The process of gestational surrogacy involves several steps

Gestational surrogacy is a beautiful and complex process. Our Austin fertility doctors are honored to be a part of this journey.

As part of this process, patients need to select their gestational carrier. Texas Fertility Center can recommend reputable agencies that can connect patients with a gestational carrier. Each woman has undergone physical and psychological screening to make sure she is healthy enough to carry a pregnancy.

Gestational surrogacy also involves in vitro fertilization (IVF). The intended mother or an egg donor will take medications to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs. One of our Austin fertility doctors will perform an egg retrieval when the eggs are mature.

The next step happens in the IVF laboratory using sperm from the intended father or a sperm donor. An embryologist will fertilize the eggs using the sperm. They will monitor the resulting embryos for growth and development.

The gestational carrier will then visit Texas Fertility Center for an embryo transfer. She will receive progesterone support to encourage the embryo to implant in her uterus. Once the embryo implants, the pregnancy should proceed as any other.

Who is a candidate for gestational surrogacy?

Our Austin fertility doctors find that patients can benefit from gestational surrogacy in many situations. Here is a list of women and men who may be candidates for this family-building option.

• Same-sex male couples can welcome a biological child with the help of a gestational carrier and an egg donor. Our embryologists will fertilize the donor eggs with sperm from one or both male partners. This treatment allows same-sex male couples to share a biological connection with their child.
• Women and couples who can’t carry a pregnancy may turn to gestational surrogacy. A woman may not be able to carry a baby due to uterine abnormalities, damage to the uterus or other health issues. However, the intended mother and father can rely on a gestational carrier to have a biological child.
• Single men may want to have biological children to create a family. These patients will need an egg donor and a gestational carrier. As with same-sex male couples, single men will provide their sperm to have a child using this option. This treatment is a wonderful way for single men to experience fatherhood.

Contact us to learn more about gestational surrogacy and whether it is right for you. Our Austin fertility doctors can answer all your questions and get you started on the path to pregnancy.