Sometimes, the infertile couple needs a surrogate to have their baby. Surrogacy is when a woman carries a baby for a couple who cannot conceive or carry a child themselves for medical or physical reasons.
In the IVF process, host surrogacy is mostly used in which the surrogate does not provide her own eggs to achieve pregnancy. But the couple can use their own eggs (from the intended mother) or donor eggs to make an embryo, which is then implanted into the surrogate mother’s womb.
In this process:
- The eggs are retrieved from the egg donor
- The eggs are fertilised with sperm in the laboratory, resulting in embryos
- The embryo is transferred into the womb of the surrogate mother
The embryo transfer can be done to the surrogate either ‘fresh’ or after having been de-frosted from storage.
Moreover, for the legal rights related to surrogacy, it is advised that any patient seeking this treatment must seek independent legal advice before entering into the surrogacy arrangement.
References:
- https://mft.nhs.uk/app/uploads/sites/4/2018/04/What-is-Surrogacy-January-2018.pdf
- https://mft.nhs.uk/saint-marys/services/gynaecology/reproductive-medicine/surrogacy/