Surrogacy is a growing trend due to increasing fertility rates and an increase in LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender) populations around the globe. Surrogacy can be a successful option for childless couples who are unable to have a pregnancy due to infertility, or other ovulation disorders – click here!
More than 7 million Americans are affected by infertility. About 12 percent of American women who have children are considered infertile. Although most infertile individuals can overcome infertility through hospital treatment (including drug and hormone therapies, surgery), not all medical treatments will work.
Surrogacy is a wonderful option.
What’s Surrogacy?
Surrogacy is a relationship in which a woman agrees to have a child and to give birth to another person.
Surrogacy arrangements usually involve a woman (known as a surrogate) and a couple (often called the intended parents).
Surrogate is a person who acts as a substitute for or replacement for another person. Surrogate mothers are women who rent out their wombs to other couples so they can have their biological babies.
Surrogate mothers are usually infertile. They use the sperm from either their intended father or a donor. Or they surgically implant fertilized eggs with the intent of giving the child they become pregnant with to another person to raise.
Surrogacy Options
There are two main types of surrogacy: Full surrogacy, also known as Host- or Gestational surrogacy, and Partial surrogacy, also known as Straight or Traditional surrogacy.
It is the most popular type of surrogacy. This arrangement involves the intended parents of the child as well as the surrogate mom who agrees to take the embryo(s).
1. The egg(s), sperm, and embryos of the intended parents.
2. A donated egg is fertilized with sperm from an intended father before it is implanted, through a process known as in vitro fertilization (IVF).
3. An embryo that is created from donor eggs and donor-sperm.
This type of surrogacy is for unborn children only.
Traditional Surrogacy – This arrangement allows a surrogate woman to act as both an egg donor and surrogate. Traditional surrogates agree to donate their eggs to artificially inseminated using the sperm of the intended father or donor.
Traditional surrogacy involves the use of artificial insemination, intrauterine injection (IUI) and the surrogate woman being genetically linked to the child because her eggs were used.