FAQs
Surrogacy friendly insurance is a medical insurance policy that will cover medical bills related to pregnancy, delivery and post-natal care for a surrogate pregnancy.
NYSC will have your surrogate’s existing insurance policy reviewed during the pre-screening process so that you’ll know what her insurance status is at the time you’re considering her profile. Insurance can be a large cost item in your surrogacy journey, so we believe it’s important for you to have this information available at the time of matching.
Unfortunately, surrogacy friendly insurance does not cover fertility clinic fees, only medical bills that occur once your surrogate becomes pregnant and is discharged by your clinic to her OB.
Unfortunately, these still are not covered because they are still fertility related and would not be needed if the pregnancy hadn’t resulted from IVF.
The surrogate’s surrogacy friendly insurance policy will start being used once she is discharged from the fertility clinic to her OB.
If you’re in open enrollment (typically late Fall through February), you can enroll your surrogate in a Marketplace/ACA plan. Some states also allow for you to enroll your surrogate in a Marketplace/ACA plan outside of open enrollment based on confirmation of pregnancy. If neither of those are options, you can purchase a Surrogate Maternity policy and possibly switch from that to a Marketplace/ACA plan during open enrollment.
Typically, the surrogate pays the insurance premiums for her existing policy, but the intended parents pay for the premiums of any policy that is purchased specifically for the surrogacy journey. However, in NY, intended parents are required to pay the premiums for the surrogate’s existing medical insurance policy.
After birth, the Intended Parents will add the baby to their insurance (coverage will be effective as of the date of birth) and the baby’s expenses at the hospital will be billed to the intended parent’s insurance.
Gestational surrogacy is when a surrogate or gestational carrier carries a pregnancy for intended parents using an egg that is not hers (it can be the intended mother’s egg or a donor egg). Genetic or traditional surrogacy is when the surrogate’s own egg is used. NYSC only handles gestational surrogacy cases.
Most journeys with NYSC cost between $150,000 and $175,000 plus the costs paid to your fertility clinic for embryo creation (including egg, sperm or embryo donation), medical screening of your surrogate and the embryo transfer cycle for your surrogate.
Some factors that affect the overall cost of surrogacy are the surrogate’s base compensation, her insurance status, her pay rate for lost wages, travel expenses and how many embryo transfer cycles are needed to achieve a pregnancy.
It’s great to have 3 or more embryos available for your surrogacy journey, but there is no minimum number of embryos required to match with a surrogate. We have had intended parents start the process with 1 and be successful with just their 1 embryo. If you only have 1 or 2 embryos, we will encourage you to have a plan in place for creating additional embryos if you want to continue your journey beyond 1 or 2 transfers.
No. Many of our intended parents sign up with us before they create their embryos. That way, while you’re working on creating your embryos, your time on our wait list is passing at the same time! Also, if you haven’t selected a clinic yet, we can help you select a clinic we have a good working relationship with so that your journey runs as smoothly as possible.
There is no “typical” surrogates at NYSC. Our surrogates have ranged in age from 21 to 43. We have married surrogates, surrogates in committed relationships and single surrogates with strong support systems. We have stay-at-home moms and surrogates who work part-time or full-time in a variety of different types of jobs. More than 1/3 of our surrogates are in New York and the majority of the rest are on the East Coast.
The relationship varies from match to match. Some matches set up regular phone or video calls to keep in touch, while others prefer a group text thread for communication. Some intended parents and surrogates will get together in person multiple times throughout the journey and others will only see each other at medical screening, transfer and delivery. We work hard to match surrogates and intended parents who are looking for the same type of relationship so no one feels overwhelmed or ignored during this process.
There is no requirement that surrogates and intended parents keep in touch with each other after the journey is over. However, we find that many surrogates and intended parents create a close bond during the journey and want to keep in touch after the baby is born. For some, that means texting pictures and updates or exchanging holiday cards, for others it might be continuing to get together in person as the child grows.
Surrogacy friendly insurance is an insurance policy that will cover the surrogate’s prenatal appointments, delivery and postnatal appointments. Surrogacy friendly insurance does not cover medical screening at the intended parents’ fertility clinic, monitoring appointments during the embryo transfer cycle, the embryo transfer procedure or fertility medications. Find out more about surrogacy insurance here.
All of the payments to your surrogate or paid on her behalf will come from your escrow account. This includes your surrogate’s compensation (including compensation for pumping breast milk); your surrogate’s reimbursements (lost wages, childcare, maternity clothes, allowance, etc.); travel expenses; insurance premiums; fertility medications; monitoring clinic fees; uncovered medical expenses for prenatal appointments, delivery and postnatal appointments (including copays, deductible, etc.); surrogate’s attorney’s fees, etc. Expenses that are not paid from escrow are the fees charged by the intended parent’s clinic, intended parents’ attorney fees and medical expenses for the baby.
No gifts are required but many intended parents do feel inclined to give gifts to acknowledge milestones in the journey. Some examples of gifts include flowers, prenatal massage gift certificates, restaurant or food delivery gift certificates and a pamper package at delivery. NYSC also provides gifts to our NYSC surrogates throughout the process to show our appreciation for them.
As soon as the match occurs, a $15,000 deposit is made into the escrow account along with payment of the escrow management fee (approximately $1,850). The second escrow deposit is made right before legal clearance is issued and the embryo transfer cycle begins. The amount of the second deposit will depend on the terms of your Surrogacy Agreement and will be an estimate of all additional expenses to be paid from escrow through the completion of your journey. The escrow account must be fully funded before legal clearance is issued.
When your journey ends, after all expenses have been paid from escrow, the remaining funds will be refunded to the intended parents.
There is no requirement that intended parents attend any appointments in person, but many intended parents try to attend at least a few important appointments in person and most surrogates appreciate that. Many intended parents will attend the medical screening appointment and embryo transfer procedures. Some will also attend the first ultrasound and the anatomy scan that occurs in the middle of the pregnancy. If intended parents travel to their surrogate prior to delivery, they also often attend the final prenatal appointments. If intended parents cannot attend in person, there is also sometimes the option to attend by phone or videocall, depending on the rules of the medical provider.
Once you are matched, NYSC will provide you with recommendations for attorneys licensed in the appropriate state. To decide between these attorneys, you should review their websites, read their google reviews and search for reviews in Facebook surrogacy groups. If you want to look into other attorneys, make sure they regularly handle surrogacy matters (not just regular family law attorneys), ask about their fees and check to see if they are an ART Fellow of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys (“AAAA”), which is an organization that has strict requirements for membership based on level of experience and attorney/judicial recommendations. When you’ve narrowed down your selection, you can reach out to the attorney and ask to set up a brief call to make sure that you get a good feeling about the attorney.
At the start of the third trimester, the case manager will send a questionnaire to the surrogate and intended parents about their preferences for the hospital stay. The case manager will help the surrogate and intended parents work through any differences and then create a hospital plan. The case manager will then reach out to the social worker at the delivery hospital and share the hospital plan and all of the other documents the hospital will need (ex. insurance cards for the surrogate, insurance cards for the intended parents (for the baby’s expenses), parentage order, HIPAAs, health care directives, etc.). The case manager will also ask the hospital about their policies on various issues, such as the intended parents having their own room after the baby is born, the intended parents having the wristband that matches the baby, etc. and will then share that information with the surrogate and intended parents so they know what to expect at the hospital.
NYSC does not charge a rematch fee if your surrogate does not pass her medical and/or psychological screening. More information about NYSC’s agency fee and rematch fees can be found here.
The surrogate will typically travel to the intended parents’ fertility clinic once for medical screening and once for the embryo transfer procedure. A few fertility clinics will allow the full medical screening process to be completed at a fertility clinic local to the surrogate and some fertility clinics require to the surrogate to travel to the clinic an extra time during the embryo transfer cycle.
The intended parents only have to travel to the surrogate for the birth of their baby. However, many intended parents choose to travel to their surrogate sooner than that to spend time with her and/or attend milestone medical appointments.
Typically, the attorneys for both the surrogate and intended parents should be licensed in the state where the surrogate resides. The reason for this is that the parentage proceeding is typically filed in the state where the surrogate resides to make sure that vital records in that state (where the baby will be born) will accept the parentage order and issue the birth certificate for the baby listing the intended parents as the parents. However, there are exceptions to this general rule and NYSC will discuss those with you if they apply based on the states of residence for you and your surrogate.
No. We can do everything virtually and find providers local to our surrogates and intended parents for anything they need to do in person throughout the process. This allows us to work with surrogates and intended parents throughout the United States.
The American Society of Reproductive Medicine suggest that surrogates should be between the age of 21 and 45. However, some fertility clinics our intended parents work with allow a smaller age range and we make sure to take that into consideration when matching our surrogates and intended parents. Our intended parents can also specify a smaller age range that they are comfortable with for matching purposes.
This varies from case to case. If the surrogate and intended parents are within a few hours’ drive of each other, the intended parents will typically wait to hear that their surrogate is in labor and then drive to the hospital. For intended parents who are further away, some will travel a few weeks in advance (and work remotely if possible) and others will take a “wait and see” approach and travel once the surrogate’s obstetrician indicates that labor is imminent. If there is a scheduled induction or c-section, most intended parents will travel a day or two in advance to make sure they arrive and are settled before delivery.
Intended parents can return home as soon as their baby is discharged from the hospital. Some intended parents will drive or fly home the day of discharge from the hospital. Others prefer to remain for a few days before traveling. For those that stay for any period of time, they tend to prefer a rental to a hotel stay with their newborn. They will also want to look into a local pediatrician who can see the baby after discharge from the hospital until they return home. It is recommended that intended parents speak to the pediatrician they will use for their baby to discuss any concerns they have about air or car travel with their baby.
Before a surrogate is pregnant, she can change her mind about moving forward with surrogacy and intended parents can also change their mind about moving forward with surrogacy at that point. But the surrogate cannot change her mind about turning the baby over to the intended parents upon birth. There is a surrogacy agreement entered into by the surrogate and intended parents prior to the embryo transfer procedure and, in most states, a parentage order issued during the pregnancy that conclusively determines the intended parents to be the parents of the baby the surrogate is carrying.
- Once you have completed the pre-screening process, we will create your Surrogate Profile, which will be the first introduction that prospective Intended Parents will have of you! Your profile will contain photographs of you, information about your background, your family, your health history, and more!
- We also create profiles for all of our Intended Parents, so you can learn more about them to help decide if they seem like a good fit for you.
- We will work with you to determine what type of family would be a good fit for you, and what type of matching preferences you may have. For example, you may have a certain type of family in mind that you prefer to work with, or you may want a certain type of relationship with the family during/after the pregnancy. We will take all of your matching preferences into account when considering potential matches for you, to make sure that whoever you end up matching with is a good fit!
- You will review an Intended Parent profile to see if you are comfortable moving forward with that family. If you are, we will schedule a Match Meeting for you to meet with them over Zoom, so that you can get to know one another better and make sure it feels like a good match!
- If everyone agrees they would like to work together, you would be “officially” matched, and we will move forward with the rest of the surrogacy process!
- Surrogate compensation can be broken down into three main categories:
- 1: Base Compensation
- This is the amount that the Intended Parents will pay you simply for agreeing to go through the surrogacy process with them. It is designed to compensate you for your time, efforts, and medical risks associated with being a surrogate.
- You will receive your first base compensation payment upon confirmation of pregnancy, and will receive the remainder of the payments in equal monthly installments throughout the duration of the pregnancy.
- These payments will be sent to you via direct deposit into a bank account of your choosing.
- 2: Milestone Bonuses
- In addition to your base compensation, you will also receive various “bonus” payments at certain milestones throughout the pregnancy, including:
- Upon completing your medical/psychological screening
- Upon receiving legal clearance to start your transfer cycle
- Upon starting fertility medications
- Upon completing your embryo transfer cycle
- Upon reaching the 12th week of pregnancy
- You will also receive a monthly allowance of $250 per month to cover any incidental expenses that come up as part of the surrogacy process
- In addition to your base compensation, you will also receive various “bonus” payments at certain milestones throughout the pregnancy, including:
- 3: Expense Reimbursements
- The Intended Parents are also responsible for covering any out-of-pocket costs associated with the surrogacy process, including:
- Travel expenses (i.e., flights, hotels, mileage, meals, etc.)
- Health insurance premiums (if necessary)
- Medical expenses and co-pays
- Counseling services
- Life insurance
- Disability insurance (if applicable)
- Childcare expenses
- Pet care expenses
- Housekeeping & meal preparation expenses
- Lost wages
- If you decide to pump breast milk for your Intended Parents, you will also be reimbursed for that at a rate of $300 per week plus the cost of a pump, shipping, storage, etc.
- The Intended Parents are also responsible for covering any out-of-pocket costs associated with the surrogacy process, including:
- 1: Base Compensation
- Once you are matched, you will have a designated Case Manager who is assigned to assist with your specific match. Your Case Manager will be available to you any time you have any questions or concerns, and will be actively involved in guiding you (and your Intended Parents) through the entire surrogacy process.
- NYSC also offers virtual surrogate support groups twice each month, which are free to any surrogate going through the process (at any stage)! We currently offer an evening session and a lunchtime session, and the meetings are hosted by a licensed mental health processional with years of experience in the surrogacy field.
- We are also able to accommodate one-on-one counseling sessions if that is preferred, at no cost to you.
- We also have an online surrogacy community via a private Facebook group, where you can connect and get advice from other surrogates who are going through journeys with NYSC in real time!
- The process can vary quite a bit from case to case, but a general breakdown of the estimated average timeline is below:
- Pre-Screening: 1-2 months
- Matching: 1-2 months
- Medical/Psychological Screening: 1-2 months
- Legal: 1-3 months
- Embryo Transfer Cycle: 1 month (depending on cycle start date)
- Pregnancy: 9 months
- In total, the entire surrogacy process takes around 16 months from intake through delivery.
- Your spouse/partner will participate in the matching process, medical and psychological screening, and legal process.
- Matching – We will include your spouse/partner in the Match Meeting so that they can also meet the Intended Parents and make sure it seems like a good fit for all of you. It is important for the Intended Parents to be able to meet your spouse/partner, as they are going to be a large source of support for you throughout your journey.
- Medical screening – Your spouse/partner will be required to do bloodwork as part of the medical screening process, in order to do an STD/infectious disease screening that is required by the FDA. This also applies to any intimate partner(s) that you may have during the surrogacy process.
- Psychological screening – Your spouse/partner will be required to participate in the psychological screening, to meet with the social worker and discuss the emotional impacts associated with surrogacy. We want to make sure that you have both had enough time to talk and think about your decision to move forward with surrogacy, and that you are both on the same page about it.
- Legal process – If you are married, most states require that your spouse be a party to your surrogacy agreement, so they will also need to meet with your lawyer and participate in the contract negotiation process as well.
- It is important that you and your spouse/partner be on the same page about pursuing surrogacy, as their cooperation and participation in the process is essential.
- Yes! We conduct background checks on all of our prospective Intended Parents at NYSC.
- We also complete a financial verification for all of our Intended Parents, to make sure they have the means to to cover all the anticipated expenses associated with the surrogacy process.
- No! It can be a great benefit to your Intended Parents if you have surrogacy-friendly health insurance (as it can save them money), but it is not required!
- If you have health insurance already, we will work with you to get a copy of your health insurance policy to see if it will cover surrogacy or not (some plans do, some don’t). If your existing health insurance is surrogacy friendly, we can rely on that policy to cover the cost of your prenatal and pregnancy care. If your existing insurance is not surrogacy friendly, we will work with your Intended Parents to secure a back-up plan that will cover the cost of surrogacy.
- If you don’t have health insurance at all, we will work with your Intended Parents to purchase a policy for you, so that you have surrogacy friendly insurance in place by the time you become pregnant.
- If we need to obtain new or additional health insurance for you, there is no cost to you – the Intended Parents would be responsible for those premiums, in addition to any out-of-pocket medical bills, co-pays, etc.
No! We only practice gestational surrogacy, where the egg/sperm used to create the embryo comes from the Intended Parents and/or a donor. It will never be your egg used to conceive the child. There will be no genetic or biological connection between you and the baby you will be carrying.
- In a surrogacy case, pregnancy is achieved through IVF and embryo transfer.
- The Intended Parents undergo the IVF process at their fertility center, where an egg is fertilized with sperm, in order to create an embryo. The egg can either come from one of the Intended Parents or from an egg donor. It will never be your egg that is used.
- The fertility doctor will then take one of the Intended Parents’ embryos and implant it into your uterus, with the hope of causing you to become pregnant. This is done through a non-invasive embryo transfer procedure, which feels similar to having a pap smear completed.
- In order to prepare your body for the embryo transfer procedure, you will be required to undergo a cycle of fertility medications, which will regulate your hormone levels and help achieve optimal thickness of your uterine lining. These medications will include a combination of oral pills and injections (shots), as well as vaginal suppositories and/or patches, depending on the specific clinic protocol. The length of time you are required to take these medications will vary, but a typical medication cycle for an embryo transfer is around 3-4 weeks.
- During the time you are taking these medications, you will also be going to a local clinic/lab to have regular “monitoring” appointments (approximately 1-2 times per week) to see how your body is responding to the medications, and make sure your hormone levels and uterine lining are developing appropriately. These appointments will take place local to you.
- After your embryo transfer is completed and pregnancy is confirmed, you will continue to stay on some of the fertility medications in order to support the pregnancy until the clinic discharges you to your OBGYN’s office (typically around 8-12 weeks gestation).
Yes! In a surrogacy case, pregnancy is achieved through IVF and embryo transfer, where the embryo is placed directly into your uterus. Your fallopian tubes are not involved in the process at all.
- You will receive medical care during your embryo transfer cycle at your Intended Parents’ fertility center. This is where the medical screening and embryo transfer will take place.
- If you do not live close to their clinic, we will set you up with a local “monitoring” clinic for all of your bloodwork and ultrasound appointments during and after your transfer cycle.
- Once you are discharged from the fertility center (typically around 8-12 weeks gestation), you will receive all of your pregnancy/prenatal care at your regular OBGYN’s office, local to you.
- You will also deliver at a hospital local to you, where your OBGYN has delivering privileges. We will make arrangements with the Intended Parents for them to be able to travel to you to attend the delivery.
- In some surrogacy cases, the Surrogate and Intended Parents do not live near one another, including living in different states.
- The Surrogate is required to go to the Intended Parents’ fertility center for certain appointments throughout the surrogacy process, and the fertility center is typically located near where the Intended Parents reside.
- Typically, a Surrogate is only required to go to the fertility center twice – once for the medical screening (shortly after being matched), and again for the embryo transfer procedure (typically around 4-6 months later). All other appointments (including cycle monitoring and prenatal care) will be done at a facility local to you.
- If you are required to travel for any clinic appointments, NYSC will make your travel arrangements for you, including booking your flights, hotels, etc., and you (and your travel companion) will be reimbursed for all expenses while traveling (including mileage, meals, tolls, parking, Ubers, etc.).
- Before you become pregnant, you will work with a lawyer to enter into a contract (also known as a Surrogacy Agreement) with your Intended Parents. One of the things your contract will address is the legal parentage of the child.
- Your contract will provide that, from the very beginning (even before the baby is born) the Intended Parents are the legal parents, and you (and your spouse/partner, if you have one) are not the baby’s parents. You will have no legal or financial responsibility for the child whatsoever.
- During the pregnancy, you will also work with your lawyer to obtain a pre-birth parentage order, which is an order from the court that confirms that, from the moment the baby is born, the Intended Parents are the legal parents and they are solely responsible for the child.
- This means that they will make medical decisions for the baby once the baby is born, the baby will go on their health insurance, and they will be listed as the parents on the baby’s birth certificate.
