Surrogacy 101- Application and review

Surrogacy 101: Application review

This article continues our series on informational articles about surrogacy.

After submitting your application for review to the selected Surrogacy Agency, the application will be reviewed by the Agency. Although we cannot speak to the processes used by other Agencies to determine acceptance by the Agency, we can describe the process at Simple Surrogacy.

Once we receive an application from a prospective Surrogate, our Surrogacy Coordinator carefully reviews it for any obvious red flags. Red Flags are cause for immediate rejection and can vary from being an active smoker, to being on psychological medication, to having an unstable home life. There are many reasons a Surrogacy Application can be refused, and many do not make it past the first screening. Once the initial review of the application is completed, the Coordinator passes the application upward to the Executive Program Director. After the Executive Program Director reviews the application, and finds it acceptable, she will contact the surrogate for her initial interview. In the event the prospective Surrogate has a spouse, he would need to be available for an interview as well. It is very important that your spouse/partner is supportive of your decision to become a Surrogate.

In the interview, the Executive Program Director will get to know the surrogate better, asking her about her home life, previous pregnancies and deliveries, why she would like to become a Surrogate, who would be ideal Intended Parent(s) for her, among many other questions. If the Surrogate does well on this interview, and the Executive Program Director feels she would make a wonderful Surrogate, then the Surrogate will fill out the Agency forms.

The Agency forms include a Surrogate Agreement with the Agency, a HIPPA release and a Medical Records Authorization. Using the Medical Records Authorization, the Agency will collect the Surrogate’s medical records from past pregnancies and deliveries and submit them for review with a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE). The agency will also require the Surrogate to obtain a copy of her Insurance Policy for the agency to review.

Once all of those materials and documents are collected, submitted and reviewed, then the Surrogate and her spouse/partner are ready for the a background check. The surrogate’s information and her spouse/partner’s information are run through a high-level screening program to determine if they have any criminal or financial history that would disqualify them from working with our program.

Once the background check is cleared, the Surrogate’s insurance policy has been reviewed,  the medical records are collected and cleared and the Surrogate’s contract is received, a home visit or in person meeting between the Surrogate and Coordinator may be scheduled for a final review. At that point, the Surrogate’s application process is complete, and her profile is made available to prospective Intended Parent(s).