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Gestational Surrogacy Services Palm Springs

Have you wanted to grow your family, but are looking for or require an alternative to traditional pregnancy? Gestational surrogacy can prove an effective and straightforward solution for couples that need third-party assistance for their family planning goals.

At Dreams Fertility, we work with the top surrogacy agencies in California to find you the right solution for your reproductive assistance needs. You can enjoy the excitement of waiting for the arrival of your new baby with the peace of mind that your surrogate has been thoroughly vetted and screened prior to starting your journey.

What is IVF Surrogacy?

The in-vitro fertilization (IVF) process involves a medical intervention to implant an embryo into a uterus. A woman’s eggs and either a partner or donor’s sperm are combined in a controlled laboratory environment to create the embryo which is then transferred to the uterus.

In the context of IVF surrogacy, the embryo is instead transferred to a third-party surrogate who provides a “host womb”. Though they are carrying the baby, they do not share any genetic link to the child.

Candidates for IVF Surrogacy

Women Medically Unable to Carry a Pregnancy
Due to a variety of possible factors, some women are medically unable to carry a pregnancy. For example, a person may be born without a uterus, has undergone a hysterectomy, or is experiencing symptoms of a disease that prevent them from doing so. Physical disabilities may also result in an inability to sustain a healthy pregnancy.

Women Advised Against Undertaking a Pregnancy
A fertility specialist or another doctor may advise a woman against pursuing natural pregnancy. In many cases, this could be due to a systemic illness that could create further complications if pregnancy is introduced into the medical picture. Conditions that could result in a doctor recommending against pregnancy could include morbid obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and a number of other conditions.

Same-Sex Male Couples and Single Men
Men who wish to reproduce without a female partner may wish to grow their family through the IVF surrogacy process. This enables men to have a child created with their sperm and a donor egg that will then be carried to term by a surrogate provider.

How to Prepare for Surrogacy

As in preparation for other assisted reproductive techniques, the biological parents undergo a thorough clinical, psychological, and laboratory assessment prior to selecting a surrogate. The purpose of this fertility screening is to exclude sexually transmitted diseases that might be carried to the surrogate at the time of embryo transfer. They are also counseled on issues faced by all IVF aspiring parents, such as the possibility of multiple births, ectopic pregnancy, and miscarriage.

During your preparation for your initial surrogacy consultations, it is important to conduct thorough research into the process. Bring specific questions to ask your doctor and notify them of any and all known genetic medical conditions that your fertility specialist should know about.

Legal Issues Surrounding Surrogacy in California

One common question that many interested parents ask in regards to surrogacy in California is: “Does the surrogate have any parental rights over the baby?”

All legal issues pertaining to custody and the rights of the biological parents and the surrogate should be discussed in detail and the appropriate consent forms completed following full disclosure. We recommend that the surrogate and biological parents both obtain separate legal counsel to avoid the conflict of interest that would arise were one attorney to counsel both parties.

Furthermore, since many cases of surrogacy are performed on International Couples, it is important that the legal team is well versed in family law, international laws and knowledge of how to expedite the birth certificates. Experience in this area is one of the keys to arriving at a successful outcome.

Legal Issues Surrounding Surrogacy

Dreams Fertility Services

Frequently Asked Questions

Many infertile couples who qualify for IVF surrogate parenting solicit the assistance of empathic friends or family members to act as surrogates. Other couples seek surrogates by advertising in the media. It is extremely important that in such situations, appropriate counseling of the surrogate be undertaken, to ensure that she has well intentioned motives. Many couples with the necessary financial resources retain a surrogacy agency to find a suitable candidate. We direct our patients to a reputable surrogacy agency with access to many surrogates.

Once the surrogate has been selected, she will undergo thorough medical and psychological evaluations, including:

  • A cervical culture and/or DNA test to screen for infection with chlamydia, gonococcus, and other infective organisms that might interfere with a successful outcome.
  • Blood tests (as appropriate) for HIV, hepatitis, and other sexually transmitted diseases. She will also have a blood test performed to ensure that she is immune to the development of rubella (German measles) and will have a variety of blood-hormone tests, such as the measurement of plasma prolactin and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH).
  • A Uterine assessment. This can take the form of a sonohysterogram, a hysteroscopy and/or a hysterosalpingogram. It is important to exclude polyps, fibroids or adhesions prior to the commencement of treatment.

The procedure used to stimulate the female partner giving the eggs with fertility drugs, and monitoring her condition, strongly resembles that used for an egg donor, or any person undergoing IVF. In order to stimulate ovulation of enough eggs to increase the chances of a viable pregnancy, the ovaries will be stimulated with gonadotropins (injectable FSH and LH).

The harvested eggs are mixed with sperm to create embryos.
The surrogate receives estrogen orally, by skin patches, or by injections, and then progesterone to help prepare her uterine lining for implantation. As with preparing the recipient for IVF/ovum donation, in our program we usually use biweekly estradiol valerate injections. GnRHa is administered for a period of 7 to 12 days in order to prepare the ovaries prior to administration of estradiol valerate.
This is done usually without anesthesia. Depending on the contractual arrangements between the parties, embryos are transferred into the uterus. If there are any questions about likelihood of multiple pregnancy, selective reduction and so forth, the physician has to facilitate dialogue to make certain all parties are in complete agreement. We encourage the presence of the Intended Parents in the transfer room. After all, they will be the ones raising the resulting offspring. For International Couples, we encourage the use of Face Time or Skype, to enable their participation in this most special moment. The generosity of spirit exhibited by Gestational Carriers, has to be seen to be believed! In a word, it is wonderful.
The surrogate will be given twice daily vaginal progesterone suppositories and estrogen supplementation in order to sustain an optimal environment for implantation, and approximately 10 days after the embryo transfer, will undergo a pregnancy test. A positive test indicates that implantation is taking place. In such an event, the estrogen and progesterone will be continued for an additional four to six weeks. In the interim, an ultrasound examination will be performed to definitively diagnose a clinical pregnancy. If the test is negative, all hormonal treatment is discontinued, and menstruation will ensue within 3 to 10 days. If the surrogate does not conceive, the aspiring parents may have their remaining embryos (if any frozen) thawed and transferred to the uterus of the surrogate at a later date. If in spite of both the initial attempt and subsequent transfer attempts of thawed embryos, the surrogate does not conceive, consideration could be given to interventions such as PGD or other markers of embryo competency. Also, a review of the surrogate’s suitability for this assignment, is warranted.
Like the pregnancy rates for egg donation, the rates for surrogacy have traditionally paralleled those achieved through conventional IVF. In the case of surrogacy, where the age of the egg provider cannot be controlled, success rates are influenced by the age of the egg and embryo quality. The birthrates are greater than 50% per embryo transfer when the eggs are derived from women under 35 years of age.