Anonymous wrote:As for the clinics, I think you need to choose one where you really feel comfortable. You have to fully trust the doctors to help you get pregnant! I can recommend an egg donation agency in Los Angeles. You can read more about it on this website. A friend of mine went through all the procedures there. The treatment there is not expensive, but not every family can afford it. But it all depends on how you are going to be treated. The prices may be different. My friend paid about $13,000 for everything.

THX!

As for the clinics, I think you need to choose one where you really feel comfortable. You have to fully trust the doctors to help you get pregnant! I can recommend an egg donation agency in Los Angeles. You can read more about it on this website. A friend of mine went through all the procedures there. The treatment there is not expensive, but not every family can afford it. But it all depends on how you are going to be treated. The prices may be different. My friend paid about $13,000 for everything.

And yes there is a miscarriage fee in most contracts. Look at Surromoms forum website - there are draft basic contacts there so you can get a feel for the terms and how it all works

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:40k seems a very low price to pay for a woman risking her life and health and permanently changing her body’ to gestate a baby for someone else.

if the woman decides it's too low, she can move to a state that will recognize her as mom and DH as dad and get 18 years of child support. Or she can have second thoughts and renegotiate (you have zero leverage to prevent an abortion)

Have twins from GC. With CSP that full fee $40k now goes to the GC. CSP generally has the highest fee given to GCs on the market around the country. They do turn down lots in their screening process. Their fees are on top of it - the $30k or so. Look on their website - they break down the estimates for other costs. Using CSP you’ll pay the most of any option but in theory they take care of more and in theory do it well. Most “agencies” are really just a lawyer and a social workers. It’s a niche industry. Once you add in IVF etc, we paid $150k but that was 10 years ago. But we have our miracle kids and we are beyond grateful it was possible and we have a nice Xmas card and occasional sharing pictures relationship with our GC. She’s beyond amazing and and we really are eternally grateful.

Anonymous wrote:My best friend and his partner (gay couple) spent upwards of 150k to have their now 6 month old.

Sheesh. The price for babies has really gone up.

Anonymous wrote:How does it work — do you pay the full fee even if the embryo doesn’t take?

Usually not. You pay in stages. The contract should spell all this out. You’re still on the hook for the agency fees though.

How does it work — do you pay the full fee even if the embryo doesn’t take?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t use Meryl. It’s very hard to find a good surrogacy lawyer. She isn’t one.

Agree. We used her and it took over a year to get a match. First match was absolutely terrible. We have ONE embryo and I had cancer so no chance to create more with own eggs and I'm old so I'm just done. Curious about your experience with her. She was weirdly rude to us (seemed like there was other stuff going on in her life maybe?) and a terrible communicator (or rather, just didn't communicate for months at a time). I know it's difficult to find GCs when there is only one embryo but we asked her MANY times about this and whether it was an issue and we should look elsewhere.

For the OP - you can use an agency that isn't local - shouldn't be an issue at all.

+1

I interviewed several agencies. Some of them do a home visit with each prospective surrogate (or did, pre-COVID), so they can make sure your baby isn't going to be gestated in squalor. I asked Meryl if she visited their homes, and she said, "No, but I look at them on Google Maps."

Sounds about right I'm so worried about the GC she ultimately matched us with but again, I don't have the energy at this point to do this process over. Honestly, I kind of blame Meryl for stealing part of my life but that sounds quite dramatic and I know having a GC is a huge privilege. If I had known it would go like this I'm not certain we would have pursued it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t use Meryl. It’s very hard to find a good surrogacy lawyer. She isn’t one.

Agree. We used her and it took over a year to get a match. First match was absolutely terrible. We have ONE embryo and I had cancer so no chance to create more with own eggs and I'm old so I'm just done. Curious about your experience with her. She was weirdly rude to us (seemed like there was other stuff going on in her life maybe?) and a terrible communicator (or rather, just didn't communicate for months at a time). I know it's difficult to find GCs when there is only one embryo but we asked her MANY times about this and whether it was an issue and we should look elsewhere.

For the OP - you can use an agency that isn't local - shouldn't be an issue at all.

+1

I interviewed several agencies. Some of them do a home visit with each prospective surrogate (or did, pre-COVID), so they can make sure your baby isn't going to be gestated in squalor. I asked Meryl if she visited their homes, and she said, "No, but I look at them on Google Maps."

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t use Meryl. It’s very hard to find a good surrogacy lawyer. She isn’t one.

Agree. We used her and it took over a year to get a match. First match was absolutely terrible. We have ONE embryo and I had cancer so no chance to create more with own eggs and I'm old so I'm just done. Curious about your experience with her. She was weirdly rude to us (seemed like there was other stuff going on in her life maybe?) and a terrible communicator (or rather, just didn't communicate for months at a time). I know it's difficult to find GCs when there is only one embryo but we asked her MANY times about this and whether it was an issue and we should look elsewhere.

For the OP - you can use an agency that isn't local - shouldn't be an issue at all.

Melissa Brisman is a surrogacy lawyer in NJ whose name was often mentioned on the forums when we were going through the process. I don’t have any personal experiences, just throwing the name out there.

Anonymous wrote:40k seems a very low price to pay for a woman risking her life and health and permanently changing her body’ to gestate a baby for someone else.

if the woman decides it's too low, she can move to a state that will recognize her as mom and DH as dad and get 18 years of child support. Or she can have second thoughts and renegotiate (you have zero leverage to prevent an abortion)

I wouldn’t use Meryl. It’s very hard to find a good surrogacy lawyer. She isn’t one.

Anonymous wrote:VERY expensive and nerve wracking.

I'm aware of that.