Assisted Reproductive Technology for Gay Couples
Bright Futures Families helps families of all shapes and sizes! You can trust that we won’t discriminate. We want to help you grow your family through surrogacy if that is the route you have chosen. Below are some routes that gay couple can take to grow their family.
Surrogacy is one way for same-sex couples to have a child that is biologically related to one of them; if that is what they desire. If you are using a traditional surrogate, which is less common, she will either have artificial insemination with the intended father’s sperm or a sperm donor or she will have an embryo transfer after IVF using her egg and either the intended father’s sperm or a sperm donor. If you are using a gestational surrogate, the more common route, eggs from a donor and sperm from the intended father or a sperm donor will be needed. Embryos will then be fertilized via IVF and put into the surrogate via embryo transfer. Donor embryos may be an option for some as well.
Male same-sex couples may choose to create embryos from both of their sperm samples using the same egg donor so that should they choose to have more than one child each father will be biologically related to one of the children. Some female same-sex couples choose to use the same sperm donor to fertilize eggs from both of them. Female same-sex couples use surrogacy too! It’s just less common, as it’s less likely that both women will not be able to carry their child.
Female same-sex couples may also choose to grow their family through artificial insemination. They can either use sperm of someone they know that’s willing to donate to them or they can contact a sperm donation center to choose a donor that they feel is a good fit for their family. Another option to grow their family is through reciprocal IVF. Some couples decide for various reasons to extract eggs from one of the intended mothers, fertilize it by a donor through IVF and transfer that embryo into the other intended mother or back into the intended mother that the eggs were extracted from. This could be done for medical reasons or because one because they each want a connection to the pregnancy.
Same-sex couples can also grow their family through adoption. There are LGBTQ-friendly adoption agencies that can answer your questions and help you through the process. Everyone deserves to grow their family however they choose!
Are you ready to grow your family? Meet with us for free to talk more about your options.