16:13 Poster - Which agency did you end up working with?

Podcast Matt and Doree’s Eggcellent Adventure just had an episode about GC. She didn’t use an agency and was able to save the intended parents lots of $$

^Actually California Conceptions has a refund plan involving donor embryos, it costs significantly more than traditional donor embryos as it's double donor so donor eggs + donor sperm but still cheaper than donor eggs. Details here http://www.californiaconceptions.com/california-conceptions-cost/

Anonymous wrote:It’ll be cheaper if you Donor Embryo.

Most of the donor embryos that our clinic had were from older couples and not PGS-tested. And it's cheaper only if it works on first try. There are no shared risk plans for this.

Anonymous wrote:It’ll be cheaper if you Donor Embryo.

It would, but when using a surrogate there can be legal issues if neither intended parent is biologically related to the embryo. It limits the states you can try to make this happen in. Would recommend doing a consult with an ART attorney before going down this path. They might even do a free consult. If you're in DC/MD/VA highly recommend Jennifer Fairfax.

It’ll be cheaper if you Donor Embryo.

PP, why was your DE cycle more expensive? How much of it was donor compensation vs. other expenses like travel, donor egg cycle treatment expenses?

We did DE through an agency, got the GC through another agency, and SGF for the actual process. You'll discover that a huge what of what you spend turns out to be the agency fees (if you use an agency) and the lawyer fees. Our DE was also very expensive (well above the standard guidelines). We spent more than $150k in total, not including the treatments we'd tried previously.

We had the DE frozen embryos when we started the GC process. Having frozen embryos makes it easier to be matched with a GC, because the process for them is easier. About three years total, including the 9-month pregnancy.

DC is an awesome little kid. People always tell me how much DC looks like me, despite the fact that DC is biologically unrelated to me. (We were open about our GC use but not our DE.)

I agree with the PP that 100k is a consevartive estimate. The donor egg cycle alone can cost a pretty penny depending on what plan you choose. And 75k is the minimum for agency fees, surrogate compensation and legal costs in this area. And you will have to pay separately for all the surrogate's medical testing at the fertility clinic. If the clinic doesn't clear her or any issues develop then you start all over.

Anonymous wrote:Would gestational surrogacy be deductible as a medical expense?

No.

From our experience $100K is the minimum that you'll need.

In our case, it cost about $160K. We had one surrogate lined up and went to SG. We had a very bad experience there. We had a fresh transfer of twins that resulted in miscarriages at 8 weeks and 16 weeks. No autopsy, no review of why the pregnancy failed. We had a second transfer that resulted in a chemical pregnancy. We had a third transfer that did not take. We had one 7 day blast left that the RE thought would have a low chance of failure. After due consideration, we opted to change clinics to VCRM in Reston. The RE reviewed our case and said that based on some health concerns about our surrogate and the lack of any review of why the first pregnancy failed, he recommended that we get a new surrogate. We had developed a relationship with her, but ultimately decided to accept his recommendation. We had to get a new surrogate, a new donor (the first had been supplied by SG and the second provided by VCRM). We ended up with 5 blasts. The first two were implanted and we ended up with healthy twins who are now 6. However, having to go through all of that twice, meant that it cost us around $160K. Had we gotten it right the first time, we would have spent close to the other PP. The failure and switch of clinics, surrogates and donors cost us about $50K extra.

Would gestational surrogacy be deductible as a medical expense?

116,543.56 for us. I know this exact figure because my CPA husband had VERY detailed spread sheets. Didn't help that donor and surrogate were both in different states than us! Yet all within 100 miles of each other.

Your cost expectations are correct. The whole process for us took exactly one year but we already had an embryo frozen from a prior DE cycle. We signed up with a surrogacy agency in August and had a match in October. Carrier underwent screening and we spent the next few weeks on legal contracts. Our embryo was transferred to our carrier in December and DS was born the following August. He is a blessing and we could not be happier. Best of luck to you.

At the end of the road re: infertility treatments and are exploring donor egg plus gestational surrogacy. Can anyone share their experience, specifically how long the entire process took and cost? I'm expecting around $100 K for both donor egg and surrogate.