Gestational surrogacy makes parenthood possible for many types of patients
Women and men sometimes need a little extra support to bring a baby into their lives. This is especially true when a patient is unable to carry a pregnancy because he or she has uterine issues or does not have a uterus. Thankfully, gestational surrogacy provides a family-building option that can help gay couples, single men and couples in which the female partner cannot carry a pregnancy. Surrogate pregnancy allows parents to share in the joy of bringing a child into the world.
Erika Munch MD of Texas Fertility Center has great compassion for patients who need to rely on this third party option. Our San Antonio infertility specialist also has experience guiding patients and their surrogates on their surrogacy journeys.
What is gestational surrogacy and how does a patient get started with it?
Surrogate pregnancy is known as a third party fertility treatment because it involves three people. The man who provides the sperm, the woman who provides the egg and the woman who carries the pregnancy as the gestational carrier.
Women who serve as gestational surrogates undergo intensive medical, infectious disease and psychological testing. They must also pass a background check. This comprehensive screening ensures that a woman is physically and psychologically able to be a surrogate for someone else.
To start the gestational surrogacy process, the intended parents will need to select a gestational surrogate. Our San Antonio infertility specialist recommends working with a reputable surrogacy agency like the Center for Surrogate Parenting. Working with an agency can streamline the surrogate selection process, help handle the legal issues and provide peace of mind.
What are the steps of welcoming a baby through surrogate pregnancy?
Achieving pregnancy with a gestational surrogate will involve in vitro fertilization (IVF). The intended mother or an egg donor will take ovarian stimulation medications. The goal is to encourage the ovaries to produce multiple eggs.
The woman who is providing her eggs will then visit our San Antonio infertility specialist for an egg retrieval procedure. Dr. Munch will send the retrieved eggs to the IVF laboratory. There, an embryologist will fertilize them with sperm from the intended father or a sperm donor.
Finally, Dr. Munch will transfer one of the resulting IVF embryos to the uterus of the gestational carrier. She will then monitor the surrogate for signs of pregnancy and continue to care for the surrogate for the first 10 weeks of the pregnancy.
Gestational surrogacy tends to be a very successful family-building method, especially when using high-quality eggs and sperm. If you would like to learn more about surrogate pregnancy, contact us to schedule an appointment with Dr. Munch.