The Need for Surrogates
              Surrogate Profile
              Age Restrictions
              Compensation
              Canceling the Contract
              Surrogate Mother Requirements / Contract
              Timetable for Surrogacy Candidates

The Need for Surrogates
As of 2002, about two percent of the population in the United States experiences infertility. Some of those people are unable to bring a child into their lives, even with assisted reproduction techniques available, unless they have the additional help of a surrogate mother. Women who become surrogates have already delivered at least one child of their own.

The need for surrogate mothers is substantial. Intended parents who receive help from a surrogate to create their family experience a unique and strong respect and appreciation for their surrogate. Surrogate mothers who have given the gift of life to an infertile couple experience life-long satisfaction and increased self-esteem.

Surrogacy Solutions, LLC creates relationships between intended parents and women who desire to assist intended parents in creating their families. After a match has been made, Surrogacy Solutions has never had a surrogate or intended parents change their minds after meeting one another. Upon matching surrogates and intended parents, Surrogacy Solutions provides and administers contracts between the parties; coordinates medical services; establishes a bank account with the intended parents' funds to administer all financial aspects of the arrangement, including payment of medical bills and compensation to the surrogate; and finalizes the parent and child relationship, among other things.

Surrogate Profile
After contact is made between Surrogacy Solutions, LLC and a candidate for surrogacy, the woman desiring to be a surrogate must complete a lengthy profile as the first step of applying with the agency. Her background, beliefs, lifestyle and medical history are important to us to obtain a good match with the intended parents. If the woman will become a traditional surrogate (donating the egg for the creation of the child), genetic attributes may also be a consideration. Among other things, medical screenings are required of the candidate and certain blood tests are required of her husband or partner. The husband of a married surrogate must also be a party to the contract. We lay a foundation for the best possible experience for the surrogate and the intended parents.

Age Restrictions
Generally, candidates for traditional surrogacy should be between the ages of 21 and 36. There are sometimes instances where intended parents may be matched to a traditional surrogate outside of these parameters. For gestational surrogacy, candidates should be between the ages of 21 and 42. Our agency has an equal demand for traditional and gestational surrogates. Qualified surrogates have had children of their own and believe that their own family is complete. They are motivated by a desire to help others create a family rather than by financial need. Women who have undergone tubal ligation or other partial sterilization procedures will not qualify as traditional surrogates, but can serve as gestational surrogates.

Compensation
Surrogate mothers with our agency are compensated for their pain, suffering, and inconvenience, as well as for the inconvenience of the surrogate’s family, in becoming pregnant, hosting a pregnancy, and delivering a child for the intended parents. Total compensation for a traditional surrogate ranges between $15,000 to $20,000. For a gestational surrogate, total compensation ranges between $14,000 to $18,000. Factors affecting the compensation negotiated includes whether the surrogate has served as a surrogate previously whether she bears a single child or twins, and her geographical location. Compensation payments are made to the surrogate directly from the agency in increments, with only a small amount of the total being paid prior to the point of viability of the fetus.

You may expect the intended parents to assume responsibility for payment of prescription medications and over the counter medications related to the conception, pregnancy, and delivery; the cost of travel for medical care more than three hours from your home; attorneys’ fees incurred by you up to approximately $350; and long distance telephone charges. Other expenses may be negotiated as well, such as a maternity clothing allowance.

In a traditional surrogacy, the candidate’s health insurance will be billed for medical screening, but not for the artificial insemination. Insurance will be billed for pregnancy and delivery.

In a gestational surrogacy, health insurance will be billed for all phases, including pregnancy and delivery.

The surrogate is not responsible for medical expenses incurred in connection with the conception, pregnancy, or delivery under any circumstance other than breach of her surrogacy contract (i.e., becoming pregnant by her husband during the contract).

Canceling the Contract
Surrogates are given basic identity information about the intended parents after a match has been made, but does not meet the intended parents until after contract negotiations are complete. The surrogate and intended parents will meet one another before any medical treatment potentially leading to pregnancy is begun, and that meeting may occur before or after the written contract is signed. If the meeting does not take place until after the contracts are signed, the surrogate may escape from the contract without any obligation to the intended parents if she finds she has no desire to assist them after meeting them in person. Likewise, intended parents may also terminate the contract in that situation if the match does not feel right after meeting their surrogate in person. A cancellation fee is paid to the surrogate in that situation.

Certain other provisions are included in the contract permitting cancellation prior to the time the surrogate becomes pregnant, such as disqualification of a surrogate by the treating physician.
Neither surrogates nor intended parents may cancel the contract for any reason once the surrogate becomes pregnant with the child of the intended parents.

Requirements and the Surrogate Mother’s Contract

Timetable for Surrogacy Candidates

1. We will mail an information package and application to you within seven to ten days of the day you first contact us for an application. You should complete written profile and mail it to Surrogacy Solutions.
2. Within three months, we will begin additional screening procedures and notice will be given to you if Surrogacy Solutions determines at any point in that process that it is unable to approve you as a candidate for surrogacy.
3. Within three to six months of the date you submit your completed profile and complete the additional screening procedures, you may expect us to submit your profile for review by intended parents.
4. Upon being matched with intended parents, you will undergo any additional testing requested by the physician who will perform the IVF or artificial insemination. In traditional surrogacy, this process does not usually take longer than one of your natural cycles. In gestational surrogacy, this is likely to include a mock cycle of medication or mock transfer, and may take as much as three months to complete, depending upon the physician’s schedule.
5. Medication for a gestational surrogacy in preparation for an actual embryo transfer must be coordinated between your cycle and the cycle of the woman providing the eggs, as well as with the schedule of the treating physician. Thus, there will be a waiting period of approximately six to ten weeks between your final clearance by the physician and the embryo transfer. For a traditional surrogacy, once you receive final clearance, the insemination schedule may begin on your next cycle.
6. For traditional surrogacy, we recommend up to three cycles of physician insemination be undertaken with no more than three additional cycles as an option if pregnancy is not achieved in the first three cycles; or, no more than two cycles of self-insemination (where permitted by law) with up to four more inseminations by a physician if pregnancy is not achieved in the first two cycles. For gestational surrogacy, we recommend one IVF cycle, with the option for two additional embryo transfers from frozen or fresh embryos if pregnancy is not achieved after the first IVF procedure.

“From the moment I learned about surrogate mothers, I just knew that I was here with my own wonderful family because I was supposed to help someone else have a family. My own pregnancies had been so easy. Seeing my intended mother hold her child gave me an incredible sense of peace and fulfillment.”
– C. T., Arkansas