The reality of this journey really started settling in when the medical and psych screenings began.
First up for me was the psych screening. Prior to speaking with the psychiatrist, I was sent an online assessment to complete. This assessment is A LOT of questions, 300+ questions. You will want to give yourself a lot of uninterrupted time to dedicate to this task. I believe I completed mine in 1.5 hours.
Following the assessment, we scheduled our call with the psychiatrist. This call was thorough, so plan to talk a lot. We went over mine and my husband’s childhoods, my reasoning for becoming a surrogate, my husband’s thoughts about the surrogacy journey, our plans with the compensation, my mental health history, my pregnancy history, and my pregnancy and birth experience, among other things.
We had a short break while the psychiatrist spoke with the IPs and then we were all brought into a call together. We discussed each other’s expectations for the journey including communication, IP’s attendance at medical appointments, the birth experience, etc. Everything went smoothly as we were all on the same page. We received psych clearance a few days later.
Then the much-anticipated medical screening appointment finally arrived. I had never been so excited to get my period just to schedule this appointment. We are local to my IP’s, so their IVF Clinic is only 10 minutes from my home. When I first arrived, my blood was drawn, and labs were run in-house. I waited a short while in the lobby until we were ready for the saline sonogram. At the behest of the IVF Clinic, I took prescription-strength ibuprofen 30 minutes prior to that appointment; I cannot recommend this enough! I experienced zero pain or discomfort with the saline sonogram, and it was over in less than 10 minutes. The nurses were absolutely fabulous and told me I had a beautiful uterus which was oddly flattering LOL. Everything looked great at this point.
My IPs couldn’t attend this appointment, but we were texting throughout the day and the IM was a big support. The lab did miss one test to run on my bloodwork. I had to go to another lab for an additional blood draw a few days later. Everything again was looking good, and we were officially medically cleared 1 week after that.
From the psych assessment to official medical clearance, the screening process took a little over one month. And then we were off to the legal process!
