What is a surrogacy timeline? When is the right time to begin the journey?

What is surrogacy?

Gestational surrogacy uses third-party reproduction to help infertile couples or the one who are struggling to achieve parenthood conceive a healthy child. The surrogacy journey demands intricate medical, and legal procedures and intended parents would need constant primary support and guidance throughout the journey.

We know by now you must be wondering, how does surrogate get pregnant. The medical process in surrogacy uses the method of IVF and creates embryos and then it is further transferred to the surrogate’s womb. The gamete material used to form embryos is provided by the intended parents and or donor. The Surrogate does not have any biological link with the baby, she will just carry the baby for 9 months and that’s why she is also referred to as a gestational carrier. Furthermore, she won’t have any legal parental rights over the baby.

What intended parents must expect from the surrogacy process?

If you are working with a surrogacy agency, you can expect constant guidance, especially in the situations like uncertainties. While it is okay if you feel overwhelmed and excited at the same time but remember you must be flexible if amid the journey there are a few changes due to sudden medical or legal complications.

At the end of the day, trusting your surrogacy agency and the surrogate mother will make it easier for you to believe in the process even on the toughest days. Eventually, you can expect a beautiful result from surrogacy i.e a precious gift that you have desired all your life, a cute baby that looks exactly like you!

Factors to determine before committing to the surrogacy journey

There are a few must-have factors that intended parents must be sure of before beginning the surrogacy process. These surrogacy requirements will ensure a smooth and complex-free journey from the intended parent’s end.

Emotional readiness

The surrogacy process is tedious and time-consuming and not just surrogates go through the path of an emotional rollercoaster but surrogacy can be an overwhelming road to walk on for intended parents as well. Whether you are married, unmarried, gay couple, or hopeful single determine all the emotional challenges before you commit to the process.

While you must have heard a lot of people coming to you and saying – you will have to trust a surrogate, how can someone do that in reality? Talking about trusting a surrogate, a renowned agency like Global Star Surrogacy will ensure while you shortlist a few prospective surrogates we conduct online or face-to-face meetings to help you understand them and analyze whether they are a perfect fit for you.

Apart from that, our experts would perform psychological screening of intended parents as well and provide counselling to make sure you and your partner are ready to embark on this journey. Without this, we would not be able to proceed with the medical or any other process.

Additionally, you can ask yourself a few questions to get clarity about emotional readiness for the surrogacy journey.

• Have you fully emotionally healed from your previous failure with pregnancy?
• Do you and your partner both agree with the complications and consequences of the surrogacy process?
• Are you okay if someone else would carry a child for you?
• Are you okay to go through counselling before proceeding with the IVF process?
• Are you emotionally ready to conceive multiple babies in case of transferring 2-3 embryos?
• Are you ready to wait longer, if the embryo transfer or matching process takes more time?

Financially-ready

The surrogacy embryo transfer success rates are high comparatively, and that’s why the process is more expensive than other fertility treatments. As it involves different experts to make the journey successful like attorneys, doctors, donors, surrogate mothers, IVF specialists, embryologists, surrogacy professionals, and more.

And the cost for the procedure would differ from each journey, depending on the couple’s fertility condition and the type of program they choose to embark on. The cost of surrogacy can vary from hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on the country as well, hence you must explore the financial options to fix your surrogacy budget.

Let us go through the various elements that determine the cost of a surrogacy process so that you know where exactly your money is going to be spent.

• Surrogate’s compensation
• Donor’s fees (optional, depending on your fertility requirement)
• Legal cost
• IVF cost
• Monthly clothing, food, medicinal, and other important expense of surrogate
• Agency fees
• And other costs

When you research various surrogacy agencies, understand their offerings and ask for a detailed cost breakdown. And keep looking for different options to fund your surrogacy process like grants, loans, and other ways.

What is the surrogacy timeline?

As we discussed surrogacy is a tedious and time-consuming journey, and every intended parent or surrogate mother deserves to know the exact time frame of the entire surrogacy process. So, that they can plan their other essential events accordingly. Every intended parent whenever consulting with us has this common concern – what is the exact surrogacy timeline?

While the exact surrogacy timeline varies from each journey, both parties need to know the time frame as the process demands a great amount of commitment from the intended parents and surrogate. Also, knowing the accurate surrogacy timeline from the beginning will assist both parties to plan the journey and setting expectations accordingly.

Though every journey of surrogacy differs, in most cases surrogacy timeline can go around 12- 22 months. The time frame depends on certain factors like

• The screening process for the intended parents and the surrogate
• Matching process
• IVF process
• Doctor visit
• Pregnancy
• And more

Surrogacy process step by step

To make it easier for you, we have mentioned a detailed breakdown of the surrogacy process step by step with its surrogacy timeline for intended parents and surrogates for your better understanding of the entire journey.

Pre-screening stage (2-4 months)

Before a surrogate mother or intended parents begin with the surrogacy process, they are required to undergo the pre-screening stage. This is one of the essential steps to experience a successful surrogacy procedure. It includes making sure all the parties are emotionally, physically, and psychologically ready. How does this pre-screening process work? Don’t worry, we have given a breakdown of the surrogacy process step by step for the intended parents and surrogate separately.

Intended Parents

Initially, you will have to submit a questionnaire with details of how do you expect your surrogacy process to be like. Furthermore, you will have to undergo a screening process as a screening test occurs for a surrogate mother, additionally background check and in some cases in-home assessment.

And if you have frozen embryos ready, then the process of pre-screening will reduce the time to only 1 month, or else the surrogacy timeline of the pre-screening stage is around 2-4 months usually.

Surrogate mother

The first step for the surrogate is she will have to fill out the application form, and social and medical or fertility history form. If she meets the basic surrogacy requirements for the process, furthermore she will have to undergo an in-home assessment conducted by a professional social worker and followed by a background assessment.

Additionally, the surrogate and her spouse (if any) will have to undergo physical and psychological health evaluation tests to examine whether she and her partner are fit to undergo a surrogacy pregnancy.

The exact time frame for this process depends on the way communications occur between the surrogacy agency, doctors, surrogates, and intended parents. And the way different professionals also determine the process.

Matching with surrogate and or donor (1-3 months)

Once the screening test is positive, you can proceed with the surrogacy process. Usually, your agency will help you shortlist surrogates and donors based on these results. But, how long does the matching process take place?

The exact time frame for matching with the ideal surrogate and or donor will depend on your preferences and the criteria you set, also it depends on the availability of a surrogate as well. Global Star Surrogacy has a good network with qualified donors and surrogates which makes the process quick and easy for intended parents.

We would provide you with a surrogacy profile with each detail, and once you shortlist you can communicate with them through a conference call and then finalize one.

Surrogacy contract (1-2 months)

Once the intended parents and surrogate have finally matched and agreed to work with each other, furthermore, both parties will separately visit an attorney to create a surrogacy contract. Without this, the surrogacy process cannot be completed, as it provides legal protection to both of them.

Initially intended parents will prepare the first draft with their lawyer depending on their requirements and expectations Then, they will send the draft to the surrogate, she will get a contract reviewed by her lawyer if she doesn’t agree with all the factors she will add her factors and sent back the draft to intended parents. This process will be repeated until both parties agree with the contract, and then both of them will sign the contract.

The estimated time for this process is around 1-2 months, it can be quick or get extended as well. If you want to know more about surrogacy agreements, laws, or the surrogacy process step by step, you can visit our website.

Preparing for the embryo transfer process or IVF(2-6 months)

Once you have the surrogacy contract ready with you, the next step is, to begin with, your medical or IVF procedure with intended parents and or donors. Usually, the surrogate mother will work with the intended parent’s fertility clinic to perform additional screening tests to ensure the IVF process occurs smoothly, and this is performed before 4-6 weeks of signing the surrogacy agreement to begin IVF medicines. This medication helps IVF specialists to manage or balance her menstrual cycle before 30 days of the embryo transfer process.

The surrogacy embryo transfer success rates are quite good, this process may take around 2-6 months, as it requires rigorous observation, screening, and expertise. Usually, the IVF process begins with giving medicines to the intended mother and or donor to stimulate her eggs. Once they are fertilized, it is retrieved in an incubator and then the sperm sample of the intended father or donor is retrieved and both the gamete materials are mixed to create embryos.

IVF specialists would observe embryos for a few days, and once he or she feels it is ready to transfer then the embryos are transferred into the surrogate’s uterus. Also, the number of embryos to be transferred depends on the intended parent’s decision and the expert’s guidance, but it must be mentioned in the surrogacy contract.

Since the surrogacy embryo transfer success rates are high with IVF so the surrogate is bound to have positive pregnancy results. However, there is always an exception, if she doesn’t get pregnant then you will have to repeat the entire procedure. That’s why usually intended parents prefer transferring multiple embryos to increase the chances of conception.

Pregnancy ( 9 months)

As the surrogacy embryo transfer success rates, your surrogate is most likely to get pregnant quickly. Once she confirms pregnancy, both parties will stay at their respective homes, and no one interferes with the other’s life. Now, you are just 9 months away to meet your baby!

An agency provides surrogate prenatal care for the duration of pregnancy to make sure the baby gets all the care, and nutrition so that he or she is born healthy. Usually, intended parents are permitted to be present at monthly doctor’s appointments and on the day of delivery in the hospital.

Once the baby is born, the process of prenatal order is completed, a process to change the parent’s name on the birth certificate. A surrogacy contract can play a vital role, once you obtain your parentage order you are free to welcome your baby home.

Whether your surrogacy process completes within the estimated time frame or not, remember it is worth giving a shot as in the end you are assured of conceiving a healthy child. And the moment you hold your child in your arms, this feeling is worth struggling through the journey.

Every surrogacy process is different, your journey may get completed within the discussed time or may get extended. Though, Global Star Surrogacy constantly works hard so that intended parents have a hassle-free surrogacy experience and to make intended parent’s meet at the end of the journey.

Are you ready to commence the journey of surrogacy?

Surrogacy can be tedious, overwhelming, expensive, or time-consuming but once you listen to all the successful surrogacy stories, you would want to invest in this beautiful and effective journey to fulfill your dreams.

We hope this blog was helpful and gave answers to your doubts and concerns. If you already want to begin your journey, then book our free consultation call. Our experts would help you select the right program and begin an effective journey.