What is the Surrogacy Process for Intended Parents

Are you thinking of utilizing surrogacy to start or grow your family? Do you want to work with a gestational surrogate? The team at Simple Surrogacy knows the ins and outs of surrogacy. That’s why we created this blog to outline the surrogacy process for intended parents!

Getting Started

The first step of beginning your surrogacy journey with Simple Surrogacy is to complete our contact form. After you have submitted it you will be contacted by our Executive Program Director, Stephanie Scott. She will provide you with additional information to review. We ask that you carefully review the information that we provide you and compile a list of any questions that you have. We then invite you to schedule a consultation without charge either by phone or in person in our Dallas office. After this you will receive a retainer agreement from our Financial Director and co-owner, Kristen Hanson. She can help answer any additional questions that you may have. Once you have signed the retainer agreement we will ask that to begin the process, you submit the initial agency fee. After this fee has been processed you can visit our website to complete your online intended parent profile. This profile will showcase you and what you are seeking for surrogates to review. If you require an egg donor we will grant you access to our egg donor database for free. Once your profile has been completed we will run a background check and then a psychological consultation with our associate psychologist will be scheduled.

Matching

The next step in the surrogacy process is to be matched with a surrogate. While your background check (average 10 days) is processed and after you have completed and passed the psychological review we will review your profile. We will make any necessary suggestions for changes to ensure that you are matched with a surrogate as quickly as possible. The completed profile will be sent out to all available and applicable surrogates to review. We ensure that all available surrogates have been screened and meet our medical qualifications as well as our psychological and background check requirements. Once a surrogate selects your profile, their profile will be sent to you. You can then review their profile and decide if you would like to move forward and learn more about them. If you decide to proceed, our team will schedule a moderated conference call with all parties. This is a good time to learn more about the goals and ambitions of each other and decide whether to move forward with the process. If you both agree, a match will be confirmed. We will then establish escrow to cover the expenses and the surrogate and yourself will meet at a screening. If you require an egg donor, a match will be confirmed and the screening will be arranged.

Screening

The screening will take place at the clinic of your choice. If you do not have a prefered clinic we will be happy to provide you with a list of referrals to excelled clinics that have high success rates. The clinics that we provide all have easy and simple relationships with surrogacy agencies which will help make the process easier. Many of these clinics also off discounts because of the amount of referrals that we provide them with. If you also have frozen embryos, this screening will only be for the surrogate and not for you. If you do not, the medical screening portion for you will include an infectious disease screening. The gestational surrogate will be screened for infectious diseases as well as drugs. Egg donors, if applicable, will be medically screened as well as receive genetic counseling and a psychological assessment. Depending on the protocol of the clinic that you select to move forward with, a sperm sample may be collected and frozen at the time of screening.

Legal

If you are lucky, you will be matched with a gestational surrogate in Texas. Being matched with a surrogate in Texas is ideal, because the legal process in Texas is among the cheapest and the easiest in the United States. At Simple Surrogacy we have pre-negotiated rates with excellent attorneys which ensures that you will save thousands of dollars during the process as compared to surrogacy agencies in other states. Texas also offers a two step legal process which provides all married intended parents with a pre-birth order, no matter of their sexual orientation. We ask that you sign and return the legal match sheet, which outlines all financial aspects of the surrogacy process. You can then pay the agency the legal contract fees in Texas, and if you are outside the state you can pay the attorney directly. The attorney will then ask that you sign a retainer. If an egg donor is needed, you will also have to sign an egg donor contract. The contract for the surrogacy will then be drafted and you can review it with your attorney. The surrogate will then review this contract with their attorney and if both parties agree it will be signed and notarized. The attorney will then provide you with a legal letter of clearance to the clinic that will allow all the procedures to commence.

Medical Process

The medical process depends on the protocol of the clinic that you decide to use. The process also depends on your surrogates previous cycle history, and if you are using frozen embryos. Regardless, the gestational surrogate will receive a calendar from the clinic and your coordinator will contact you to review the calendar. Once the timeline is confirmed the surrogate, and the egg donor if needed, will begin medications. The donor will have their eggs retrieved and fertilized. Depending on your profile and preference we will transfer either 1 or 2 embryos. As soon as 5 days after the transfer, the surrogate can begin at home pregnancy testing. A blood test will be performed 2 weeks after the transfer to confirm pregnancy. Once the pregnancy is confirmed, the surrogate will begin receiving her compensation and the adventure will truly begin!
Simple Surrogacy works hard to ensure that your experience during your surrogacy journey is the best that it can be. If you want to start or grow your family with help from Simple Surrogacy, contact our team today!