Not everyone who wants to become a surrogate will medically or practically qualify to do so.
Gestational surrogacy involves IVF medications, embryo transfer, pregnancy, delivery, legal agreements, and a significant commitment to another family. Surrogate requirements are therefore designed to help determine whether another pregnancy appears medically appropriate, whether you understand what the process involves, and whether your home life and support system can accommodate the demands of a surrogacy journey.
At Simple Surrogacy, our current program generally requires gestational-surrogate applicants to be ages 21–42, have a BMI under 33, have previously delivered a child after a full-term pregnancy, have a history of uncomplicated pregnancies and deliveries, pass screening, and meet additional medical, psychological, legal, and practical requirements.
However, meeting the agency’s initial requirements does not guarantee final approval. The intended parents’ fertility clinic conducts its own medical screening after matching and ultimately determines whether a surrogate is medically cleared for embryo transfer.
If you’re wondering, “Can I be a surrogate?”, here’s how the qualifications work and why they matter.
Surrogacy requirements are not intended to create arbitrary barriers.
Pregnancy always carries medical risk. A gestational-surrogacy pregnancy also requires fertility medications and an embryo-transfer procedure before pregnancy even begins.
Intended parents may be entrusting a surrogate with embryos that took years and considerable expense to create. At the same time, the surrogate is accepting the physical risks of another pregnancy.
Screening should therefore protect both sides of the journey.
Professional guidance from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine recommends medical evaluation, infectious-disease testing, psychological evaluation and counseling, preconception testing, uterine evaluation, and legal counseling for gestational carriers.
ASRM also recommends that carriers generally be of legal age and preferably between 21 and 45, have experienced at least one uncomplicated term pregnancy, and have a stable family environment with adequate support.
Simple Surrogacy establishes additional program-specific criteria based on our experience working with surrogates, fertility clinics, attorneys, and intended parents since 2002.
To qualify for Simple Surrogacy’s gestational-surrogate program, our current published requirements generally include:
You can always check the most current criteria on our Surrogate Program and Qualifications page.
This is one of the most important qualifications.
A gestational surrogate should have previously experienced pregnancy and delivery.
There are both medical and practical reasons.
Your previous obstetric records provide fertility specialists with valuable information about how your body responded to pregnancy. They can review whether you experienced conditions such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, premature delivery, placental problems, or significant complications during labor and delivery.
Previous pregnancy also gives you important information.
You already know what pregnancy feels like.
You know how your body responds.
You understand prenatal appointments, physical limitations, labor, delivery, and postpartum recovery.
Surrogacy should not be your first opportunity to discover how pregnancy affects your health or your family.
ASRM similarly recommends that gestational carriers ideally have had at least one previous uncomplicated term pregnancy.
Having given birth before is only part of the requirement.
The details of those pregnancies matter too.
A fertility clinic will review your medical records rather than relying solely on your memory of whether a pregnancy was “easy.”
Some previous complications may be minor and not prevent you from becoming a surrogate.
Others may indicate that another pregnancy could create an unacceptable risk.
The number of previous deliveries can matter as well. ASRM currently recommends that, ideally, a gestational carrier should not have had more than five previous deliveries or more than three C-section deliveries.
That does not mean every woman outside those recommendations is automatically disqualified. It means her individual history needs careful medical review.
If you want to understand the evaluation that occurs after matching, read our Gestational Surrogate Medical Screening guide.
Simple Surrogacy’s current gestational-surrogate program accepts qualified applicants between 21 and 42 years old.
That is our agency’s program requirement.
Professional guidance and individual fertility-clinic requirements are not necessarily identical. ASRM recommends that gestational carriers preferably be between 21 and 45, while fertility clinics may establish their own age limits based on medical protocols.
This distinction matters.
An agency may initially accept an applicant who meets its criteria, but the fertility clinic still has final authority over medical clearance.
Simple Surrogacy currently requires a BMI under 33.
BMI is one factor fertility clinics and agencies use when evaluating pregnancy and treatment risks.
However, there is no single universal BMI requirement used by every surrogacy agency or fertility clinic.
A clinic may have a stricter cutoff than the agency.
That means meeting Simple Surrogacy’s initial BMI requirement does not guarantee that every fertility clinic will approve you.
Because BMI requirements generate so many applicant questions, we address the subject separately in Why Is BMI Important If I Want to Become a Surrogate?.
Possibly.
Having delivered by C-section does not automatically prevent someone from becoming a surrogate.
Doctors will consider factors such as how many C-sections you have had, why they were performed, whether there were complications, how you healed, your other pregnancy history, and the fertility clinic’s policies.
ASRM recommends that gestational carriers ideally have had no more than three previous C-section deliveries.
Your actual medical records—not simply the fact that you had a C-section—will help determine eligibility.
Potentially, yes.
Gestational surrogates become pregnant through IVF embryo transfer, not through fertilization in the fallopian tubes.
Because an embryo that has already been created is transferred directly into the uterus, having had a tubal ligation does not necessarily prevent someone from becoming a gestational surrogate.
Your overall medical and obstetric history still must meet the program and fertility clinic’s requirements.
Surrogacy includes unusual emotional circumstances.
You are carrying another family’s baby.
Intended parents may be involved in appointments and pregnancy milestones.
There can be unsuccessful transfers, pregnancy loss, medical complications, changes in plans, and difficult decisions.
That is why psychological screening is a normal part of responsible gestational surrogacy.
ASRM recommends evaluating a potential carrier’s psychological history, current support system, coping skills, previous pregnancy experiences, substance-use history, significant life stressors, motivation for surrogacy, and ability to understand and emotionally manage the arrangement.
Its current guidance also identifies active or unresolved significant mental-health conditions and current psychoactive medication use among potential reasons a candidate may not be approved.
Simple Surrogacy also has specific mental-health and medication requirements within our program.
If you have a history of depression, anxiety, postpartum depression, counseling, or previous medication use, the best approach is to disclose it accurately during screening rather than attempting to decide for yourself whether it matters.
Complete information allows the professionals involved to evaluate your individual history appropriately.
You are not going through surrogacy in isolation.
Your pregnancy may affect your spouse or partner, your children, your job, transportation, childcare arrangements, and household routines.
There may be medical appointments.
You may need to travel to the intended parents’ fertility clinic.
You may experience morning sickness.
A physician could restrict activity or work.
Complications can occur.
Simple Surrogacy therefore requires applicants to have a stable living situation and appropriate support.
When applicable, your spouse or partner should support the decision to become a surrogate.
ASRM also specifically recommends a stable family environment with adequate support and evaluates whether a candidate has sufficient emotional and practical resources for the demands of a gestational-carrier journey.
Surrogate compensation can be meaningful, but it should not place a woman in a situation where she feels financially unable to make independent decisions about her body or medical care.
Professional guidance specifically recommends screening for potential financial coercion.
Simple Surrogacy therefore reviews financial circumstances as part of eligibility.
Our current published policy does not treat every form of government assistance identically. Cash assistance, welfare, public housing, and Section 8 are among the forms that can affect eligibility, while other programs may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
If you receive assistance and are unsure whether it affects your eligibility, ask our intake team rather than assuming you cannot apply.
Surrogacy requires more appointments than a typical pregnancy—particularly before pregnancy begins.
You may need to travel for:
fertility-clinic screening, bloodwork, ultrasounds, psychological evaluation, matching-related appointments, embryo transfer, early pregnancy monitoring, regular prenatal care, and additional appointments if medically necessary.
Some travel may involve another city or state depending on the intended parents’ fertility clinic.
Approved surrogacy-related travel costs are generally handled according to the program and eventual legal agreement, but you still need reliable transportation and the flexibility to attend required appointments.
Lifestyle factors matter because the surrogate is the patient undergoing fertility treatment and pregnancy.
Simple Surrogacy does not accept applicants who smoke or use illegal drugs and requires surrogates to abstain from alcohol during the medical process and pregnancy.
Substance-use history is also part of professional psychological and medical evaluation.
Be completely truthful during screening.
Trying to hide tobacco, marijuana, prescription medication, or other substance use can create medical and contractual problems later and can undermine trust before a journey even begins.
Potentially.
This requirement is primarily related to infectious-disease risk rather than the tattoo or piercing itself.
ASRM’s gestational-carrier guidance identifies recent tattooing or body piercing within the previous 12 months as a concern when sterile technique was not used.
Simple Surrogacy’s current program similarly asks about recent tattoos and piercings and allows documentation from an appropriately licensed facility to be considered.
If you recently had one, disclose it during intake.
It may affect timing rather than permanently disqualifying you.
Yes.
Certain travel can affect the timing of fertility treatment because infections acquired during travel can pose risks during pregnancy.
Zika is the most familiar example.
However, travel guidance changes as disease activity changes. Current CDC recommendations are based on the destination’s risk classification and whether there is an active travel notice rather than one permanent rule that applies to every country indefinitely.
For that reason, we recommend discussing recent and planned international travel during screening and following the fertility clinic’s current infectious-disease guidance.
Yes.
Simple Surrogacy performs background screening as part of our qualification process.
Surrogacy creates a long-term relationship between people who may initially be strangers.
Intended parents are screened too.
Both parties should have confidence that reasonable due diligence occurred before they enter that relationship.
No.
A surrogate does not have to be married simply to qualify for Simple Surrogacy’s program.
If you do have a spouse or long-term partner, however, that person’s support matters.
Surrogacy affects the household, and your partner may also need to participate in parts of the psychological and legal process depending on the circumstances.
No.
Think of the process in stages.
First, you need to meet Simple Surrogacy’s basic eligibility requirements.
Then we collect records and complete agency screening.
If you enter matching and choose intended parents, their fertility clinic conducts its own medical screening.
The clinic—not the agency—makes the final medical decision about whether you can proceed to embryo transfer.
That distinction protects everyone.
Ask.
Potential surrogates frequently disqualify themselves unnecessarily because they read one requirement online and assume their circumstances make them ineligible.
A previous C-section, tubal ligation, a move several years ago, a particular form of assistance, or another detail may require additional review rather than creating an automatic rejection.
Other issues really are disqualifying.
The only way to know is to provide accurate information and allow the intake and medical professionals to evaluate it.
Our broader guide to how to become a surrogate explains what happens after you determine that you meet the initial qualifications.
No. Simple Surrogacy requires gestational surrogates to have previously given birth, and professional guidance similarly recommends at least one previous uncomplicated term pregnancy.
Potentially, yes. Simple Surrogacy currently accepts qualified gestational-surrogate applicants through age 42, although individual fertility clinics may apply their own medical criteria.
Simple Surrogacy’s current requirement is a BMI under 33. Individual fertility clinics may set different limits.
Potentially, yes. Gestational surrogacy uses IVF and embryo transfer, so a tubal ligation does not automatically prevent pregnancy through this process.
It depends on the details of your history and fertility-clinic evaluation. Pregnancy complications require medical-record review rather than a blanket online answer.
Possibly not, depending on the severity and circumstances. Preeclampsia can recur and may significantly affect whether a fertility clinic considers another pregnancy appropriate. Your records need individual medical review.
Simple Surrogacy’s current published program criteria restrict current medication use for depression or anxiety, and ASRM guidance also identifies current psychoactive medication use as a potential reason
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