Steps to Parenthood for Gay Men
The following are the major steps for gay men seeking parenthood
- Speak to our coordinator to learn more about our available egg donors and surrogates and to gain access to our data bases.
- Have a telephone or in-person consultation with our fertility specialist
- Undergo directed donor screening (questionnaire, blood test and physical examination) and have your semen analyzed and possibly frozen
- Review the egg donor data base, select a donor and retain the number of eggs needed to build your family
- Plan the egg donation cycle with our nurse coordinators – you will need to be available to give a sperm specimen on the day of egg retrieval unless you have frozen sperm previously
- Fertilize the eggs to create embryos – we can use one or more sources of sperm in the event that both partners want to be fathers
- Embryos are frozen on the 5th day of development and can be used at any point in the future (they don’t go bad!)
- If you wish to determine the sex of the embryos, they can be tested before freezing with a very high degree of accuracy
- Identify a surrogate and participate in a match meeting to be sure she is the right one for you.
- Execute the legal agreement with the surrogate
- Decide on the number and sex of the embryos (if appropriate) to be thawed and transferred to the surrogate
- Follow the pregnancy for the first 10 weeks at the fertility clinic and for the remainder of the pregnancy and delivery with the obstetrician