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With offices in Los Angeles, California, Las Vegas, Nevada as well as an upcoming office in New York City, the Fertility Institutes are one of the world's largest providers of fertility services to the gay community. In this article, we will detail for you the many aspects involved in successfully becoming a parent utilizing the services of:

1. Fertility specialists at The Fertility Institutes
2. Egg donors to provide donated eggs (oocytes)
3. Gestational surrogates to carry the pregnancy resulting from the fertilization of the donated eggs with sperm from the male
4. Attorneys to prepare the necessary and critical paperwork to assure a safe and happy outcome.

To facilitate your understanding of the complex arrangements that must take place in order to assure a successful egg donor-surrogacy cycle, we divide the process into tier levels. While each level is as important as the next, such a division helps clarify the process and make it easy to understand how we proceed efficiently through the arrangements that will make your dream of parenthood a reality:

• TIER I: SELECTION OF A FERTILITY CENTER

  While various arrangements are made by those seeking egg donors and surrogates at various centers, at The Fertility Institutes, with nearly three decades of experience with arrangements for gay parents, we have found the most efficient and least stress inducing arrangements are those in which we, at the Center assist you with ALL of the necessary details in arranging your treatment cycle. While nearly all competing centers utilize outside egg donor and surrogacy agencies, as well as outside psychologists and attorneys, at The Fertility Institutes, we prefer to keep the majority of the process internal. While we certainly can work with those that have located their egg donor and or surrogate independently, we have found that by allowing our physicians to become involved in the screening process of egg donors and surrogates, you are assured a more thorough evaluation and screening than that routinely provided by outside sources. We are very selective in our choice of outside agencies, preferring to work with those that allow the screening process details to be ordered and specified by us. We also serve as patient advocates, your advocates as we are often able to reign in the runaway fees demanded by some agencies and their donors or surrogates.

  The early selection of a Center to assist with your plans is crucial to allowing the process that will lead you to parenthood to proceed. As soon as you indicate to us your desire to proceed, we will request that one or two semen specimens be provided. These specimens will undergo a complete evaluation and, if suitable, will be frozen and placed into a mandatory 6 month quarantine. It is due to the 6 month quarantine time lag that we encourage men to be decisive in deciding to proceed. The sperm quarantine is required by us in accordance with the suggestions of various infectious disease and tissue transplantation agencies and references to decrease substantially the possibility of the transmission of infectious agents to recipients (surrogates) or the pregnancy. Because all subsequent treatment arrangements will need to await completion of the quarantine, this is a vital first step in the process. At the time the specimens are obtained, you (the sperm donor) will be asked to undertake infectious disease blood testing that will include HIV (AIDS) testing, Hepatitis B and C, Syphilis, and HIV I and II testing. You, in most instances also be required to be tested for the cystic fibrosis carrier state, chlamydia, mycoplasma, CMV and perhaps other genetic screening tests depending upon your own personal history. All of this is done to assure the best and safest chances for a healthy pregnancy outcome.

• TIER II: SELECTION OF AN EGG DONOR

  At the time of you first visit with us, you will be given an opportunity to review the selection of egg donors available at that time. This is done so that you may get a feel for the high quality of the young women available. At this point, it is too early to make an actual selection of a donor, as the donors you will see will be actively available and many will have been selected by others before your quarantine period has finished. At the end of the six month sperm quarantine, some of these same donors may still be available, and many other new donors will also have become qualified for donation.

  Approximately four months after you place the sperm into quarantine, you will be asked to contact us so that we may begin the arrangements to match you with your surrogate. With just two months remaining at that time before your sperm completes the six month quarantine and is cleared for use, we will begin the process of arranging the introduction to you of eligible surrogates.

• TIER III: SELECTION OF A SURROGATE

  We will begin the surrogate match process by providing you details of the surrogates that we have available for match as your date comes due. Approximately 40 to 50 percent of surrogates we interview are willing to carry a pregnancy for gay males. You will not have to worry about this, as any and all surrogates that we present to you will have indicated their willingness to carry for gay or single males. Once you express interest in a particular surrogate from the verbal description and details of her history that we present you, we can arrange for you to meet her and perhaps a second alternate surrogate at your convenience. Our surrogate "match" rate with gay and single males is approximately 97%. This means that 97% of the time, once each meets the other, both the surrogate and the father(s) to be agree to work together. If the surrogate you choose has been recruited directly by our program (about 30% of all surrogates), we will put you in contact with the surrogacy attorneys that will begin drafting the contract that will guide us through the conduct of your surrogacy cycle. If the surrogate is from one of our affiliated agencies, we will put you in contact with the agency facilitator who will provide you the details of interfacing with the agency.

• TIER IV: LEGAL WORK AND THE ATTORNEYS

  Once the above processes are complete, we will then turn the case over to the surrogate attorneys who will begin processing the surrogacy contract on your behalf. Your interface with the attorney(s) may involve a combination of telephone consultations and personal visits. The attorneys will serve as your legal consultants and will advise you concerning the wide range of issues that are involved in the drafting of a surrogacy agreement that will protect the interests of all involved. Your attorney will negotiate with the surrogate concerning those issues that need to be detailed in the agreement. Issues such as the number of embryos to be transferred, multiple birth, the choice of Obstetricians, insurance availability and coverage and birth certificate details will be gone over in detail with you. Providing the attorney with your thoughts, wishes and desires concerning these and many other questions will facilitate the drafting of your contract. Your attorney will consult with your proposed surrogate as well, assuring that her expectations are addressed and dealt with in the wording of your agreement. Once you are satisfied with the contract, it will be presented to your surrogate who will be asked to review the proposal with her own, independent legal counsel. Once all parties are in agreement and the contract is consummated, we can proceed quickly with the arrangements to begin the treatment cycle. Contracts may take from three to seven weeks to draft, depending upon a multitude of factors that may include the State or country of residence of the potential parents, individual preferences concerning details of how the embryos will be handled, insurance and employment issues and more.

  Once we know that a surrogate has been chosen, we can present to you the egg donors that are available for selection. We maintain an extensive listing of donors. Most of our donors are recruited though our own in-house program, allowing us to carry out a quite detailed screening process on them. We can also facilitate your selection of a donor from an outside agency. We insist that donors from outside agencies also go through our screening protocol for your safety.

  Well aware of the fact that many of our patients travel to us from distant locations, we try everything in our power to facilitate productivity in trips made to our office. As the sperm quarantine nears an end, we like to get you back, and in one trip: meet the surrogate candidate(s), provide you a selection of egg donors, and allow you to meet with the surrogacy attorney.

  Once all of this has been accomplished, we await the completion of the surrogacy agreement by your attorney. Remember that we start this process about two months in advance of the sperm quarantine completion, so that by the time the sperm becomes available, all of the subjects to be involved are in place and all of the paperwork may be complete or near completion. A final check is carried out to assure that all FDA required infectious disease screening is complete, all paperwork is in order and all participants have been provided all of the information regarding the services about to be carried out. Informed consent is obtained form all parties, and the treatment course begins.

Your Prospects for Success at The Fertility Institutes

Choosing the Fertility Institutes to assist you in your pursuit of pregnancy provides you the services and expertise of a Center staffed by some of the world's most experienced and accomplished experts in surrogacy and egg donation. The Fertility Institutes have been providing advanced reproductive services to both heterosexual and homosexual couples for nearly three decades. Our Center was the third program in the United States to achieve successful pregnancy with in vitro fertilization, and one of the first programs worldwide to achieve successful pregnancy with a gay couple, an egg donor and a gestational surrogate. Our affiliated attorneys were responsible for arguing the first, precedent setting California Supreme Court case that established gestational surrogacy arrangements as a court recognized entity that would be enforced and protected by legal recourse.

In short, we feel that you cannot make a wiser choice than to allow The Fertility Institutes to direct the care of your egg donor, your surrogate and yourself or you and your partner. While pregnancy rates achieved will vary slightly based on various parameters, our success rates have consistently remained n the top 5% of surrogacy programs worldwide for nearly two decades. In general, well over half and nearly two thirds of our treatment cycles with egg donors and surrogates result in successful pregnancies on the first or second attempt. By the completion of two treatment cycles, in excess of 75% of gay couples have achieved a pregnancy.

At the Fertility Institutes, we have been providing fertility services to singles and couples of all sexual orientations for decades. We pride ourselves on our nondiscriminatory approach to the goal of pregnancy. Our words are backed by our actions and our track record of success with many, many gay couples and single men..

All necessary services to achieve a successful pregnancy with the use of an egg donor and/or surrogate are provided in-house by a full staff of skilled professionals. From a discussion of your chances for success to sperm collection and quarantine to the provision of donors and surrogates to the vital, required legal arrangements and contracts, you may look to our Center to coordinate all of the details for you.

Please feel free to call us toll free from anywhere in the U.S. at 800-222-2802 or if calling internationally, at 818-728-4600. You may also feel free to email us at TZFertility@aol.com for any additional information you may require. Additional general information on our gestational surrogacy program may be obtained on this site.

A SPECIAL NOTE CONCERNING SPERM QUARANTINE REQUIREMENTS: THE MANDATORY 6 MONTH SPERM QUARANTINE REQUIRED IN OUR PROGRAM IS BASED UPON RECOMMENDATIONS AND FEDERAL LAW ARISING FROM FROM THE UNITED STATES CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL, THE UNITED STATES ASSOCIATION OF TISSUE BANKS, THE UNITED STATES FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION AND THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. WE HAVE LEARNED THAT A FEW COMPETING SURROGACY PROGRAMS HAVE BEEN BY-PASSING CURRENT MEDICAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR QUARANTINE BY DESIGNATING SURROGATE MOTHERS AS "KNOWN AND DESIGNATED" RECIPIENTS AND EGG DONORS AS "DESIGNATED OR (PREVIOUSLY KNOWN)" DONORS FOR GAY MALE COUPLES. WHILE SUCH ERRONEOUS DESIGNATIONS MAY TECHNICALLY ELIMINATE THE SPERM QUARANTINE REQUIREMENTS, THE IMPROPER TERMINOLOGY USED MAY NEGATE THROUGH ILLEGALITY THE VALIDITY OF ANY CONTRACT ENTERED INTO WITH SUCH A SURROGATE AND/OR EGG DONOR click here and enter 1271.3 to reference the FEDERAL LAWS CONCERNING THESE MATTERS, MAY THREATEN THE HEALTH AND WELL BEING OF THE BABY-TO-BE AS WELL AS THE SURROGATE AND MAY IN FACT VIOLATE BOTH STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS. POTENTIAL FATHERS ARE WELL ADVISED TO CONSULT AN ATTORNEY AND TO QUESTION ANY AGENCY INDICATING THAT A QUARANTINE IS NOT REQUIRED CONCERNING THESE MATTERS. CONCERN SHOULD ARISE IN ANY INSTANCE WHERE A BENDING OF THE RULES OR THE IGNORANCE OF PROTOCOLS AND SAFETY STANDARDS HAS BEEN EMPLOYED TO ASSURE THAT THE DETAILED HEALTH SCREENING STUDIES OF EGG DONORS AND SURROGATES HAVE NOT SIMILARLY BEEN COMPROMISED THREATENING THE SAFETY AND CHANCES FOR SUCCESS OF YOUR ENTIRE PROCEDURE!

Thank you for your interest in our program!

Contact Form

If you would like us to contact you concerning additional information required or about entering our gay surrogacy program, please fill out the form below. Our web team will be in touch with you shortly! Thank you for your interest in our program.

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