Surrogacy

I have some exciting news to share! I was going to wait until everything was finalized but I hate waiting and I was anxious to post this blog, since I started writing it some time ago.

I have started the process to become a Gestational Surrogate. You might have heard that term before but don't really know what it means exactly. Or you might have heard the term Surrogate or Traditional Surrogate. I am going to just copy from a website that I really like and that I have used to research everything about surrogacy.

Surrogate Mother- A woman who carries a child for someone else, usually an infertile couple. (And more recently, gay couples.)

Traditional Surrogate- In traditional surrogacy, the surrogate mother is artificially inseminated with the sperm of the intended father or a sperm donor. The surrogate's own egg will be used, thus she will be the genetic mother of the resulting child.

Gestational Surrogate- In gestational surrogacy, the surrogate mother is not genetically related to the child. Eggs are extracted from the intended mother or an egg donor and mixed with sperm from the intended father or sperm donor in vitro. The embryos are then transferred into the surrogate's uterus.

I first started out by googling Surrogacy Agencies and my city so I could get an idea of what was in my area. I came up with a few and filled out their questionnaires. Each agency has different requirements for a surrogate. After filling out the online forms and sending them in, I was contacted by email and asked to set up a time for a phone interview.

I had my phone interview on Tuesday, Nov. 9. The founder/president of the agency asked me questions about my previous pregnancies, if there were any complications, what made me decide to want to be a surrogate, my thoughts on the Intended Parents (IPs), what kind of relationship I wanted with the IPs during the pregnancy and after. Those kinds of things. We talked for awhile and she told me that everything sounded good and that I was a good candidate for being a gestational surrogate. I then had to sign an agreement to work with the agency and send in a few other pieces of information (copy of driver's license, medical records). Because it's been 7 years since I was pregnant all my records were paper records. So it's taken some time to get copies of those.

**Update: I was able to get my records for both of my pregnancies!

We then set up a day for her to come to our house and have a "surro edu session". We were able to ask any questions we had and learn a little more about the whole process. Jesse had written down some questions so I think having his questions answered helped him to feel more comfortable. We talked about when we could do our Psych Eval and she said she would contact the psychologist to set up our appointment.

Jesse and I had our Psych Eval on Monday, Nov. 15. I had to take a test called an MMPI, it's 500+ True/False questions that I had to answer on a scantron sheet. You know..those little circles to fill in. There were some questions that I thought were kind of silly and a few that I really had to think about before answering. I was told to be completely honest when answering the questions and I was. For example: "Have you ever been so angry that you felt like you would explode". I think everyone at some point has felt that angry. After that we met with the Psychologist. She asked us some questions about our marriage, how we handle stress, what our kids think about what's going on, what we expect to happen, what our childhoods were like, etc.

She scored my MMPI before we left and let me know that everything came within normal. Nothing came back elevated in any of the areas. So we passed!

The next step is to see my OB/GYN and have an updated PAP done and to get the "OK" that I am healthy enough to be pregnant again and carry another child.

**Update: Had my appt today after having to cancel once and reschedule. And what a morning it was! First the office had relocated from where they used to be five years ago when I was last there and I stupidly didn't even think to check the address. So we finally get to the right place and I'm told that my appointment was actually at 8:45am and not 9:15am like I had written down in two different places. I still insist that I was right and they made the mistake. Luckily they were able to fit me in and I didn't have to reschedule. I got all the uncomfortable stuff done and was able to get my records from my '05 pregnancy, a letter stating I could be a gestational surrogate and a 3-month supply of Seasonique to start as soon as I can. I just need to call and get the results of my Pap and have those sent to me.

**Update: Called today and results are not in yet. I will call on Monday. If everything is normal than I am done with all the steps that I needed to do. I don't expect there to be any problems as I've never had an abnormal exam, but until I know for sure I'll be waiting impatiently.

There it is. My exciting news!