Egg donation and surrogacy for gay men can allow patients to have a biological child

When same-sex male couples or single men want to have a biological child, they need a little extra help from Texas Fertility Center. Our team of Austin LGBTQ fertility specialists offers highly effective treatments like egg donation and surrogacy for gay men. This winning combination helps men fulfill their dream of sharing a biological connection with their baby.

What are the first steps for men who plan to use a gestational carrier?

Patients will start by meeting with one of our Austin LGBTQ fertility specialists. They provide a medical history to the doctor, discuss their family-building goals and ultimately provide a sample for semen analysis. The doctor will then review all this information to determine the best way to help make parenthood possible using donor eggs and surrogacy for gay men.

Due to the absence of ovaries and a uterus, gay men will need to rely on an egg donor and a gestational carrier. The egg donor is a generous young woman who agrees to provide her eggs to individuals and couples who need them to conceive. The gestational carrier is a different woman who agrees to carry and deliver a baby for someone else. Both of these women need to undergo rigorous screening and testing.

When it comes to the egg donor, patients can ask someone they know or select an anonymous egg donor from an agency or an egg bank. As for the gestational carrier, it’s typically best to select one from a reputable surrogacy agency. This is because such an agency can help with the medical, legal, financial and ethical components of gestational surrogacy.

What is the process to conceive using donor eggs and surrogacy for gay men?

After selecting the egg donor and gestational carrier, our Austin LGBTQ fertility specialists will guide patients through the next steps of the process. Embryologists will fertilize each of the eggs from the donor with sperm from one or both male partners. One of the most common methods of achieving fertilization in the lab is using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). This process requires an embryologist to inject one healthy sperm directly into each egg.

The fertilized eggs will then grow into embryos, and the embryologists will closely monitor them for a few days in the IVF lab. The patients can opt to have preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) performed on their embryos to learn more about their sex and chromosomal health.

Finally, one of our fertility doctors will transfer a healthy embryo into the uterus of the gestational carrier. The woman will return with the fathers about two weeks later for a pregnancy test. If the test is positive, our team will care for her and the baby for the first few weeks of pregnancy before transferring care to an OBGYN.

If you have more questions about egg donation and surrogacy for gay men, we’re here to help. Contact us to schedule an appointment and learn more.