Surrogacy

Surrogacy is a form of assisted reproductive treatment (ART) in which a woman carries a child for another person or couple. This may be because a woman is medically unable to carry a pregnancy herself or for a same-sex couple. Genea will only support gestational surrogacy, meaning the surrogate cannot use her own eggs.

Surrogacy is a complex process and there are a number of medical, legal, financial and emotional issues to take into consideration.

Genea provides a supportive surrogacy program, we have a dedicated team who will guide you through the process. When considering surrogacy, ensure you research a clinic's success rates, science and quality of care. If you are going to all the effort of finding a surrogate, you want to maximise your chance of creating a baby. 8 out of 10 patients who started treatment elsewhere wish they came to Genea first^* and Genea’s Geri^® incubation system has resulted in a 12.2% increase in the number of live births when compared to the traditional incubator and culture medium system^**.

Regulation of surrogacy

Surrogacy is regulated by state legislation, industry requirements, NH&MRC guidelines and clinic policies and protocols. These may vary between Genea clinics, dependent on legislation.

However, generally in Australia, all parties wanting to enter into a surrogacy arrangement must:

undergo counselling and assessment prior to treatment
have a written legal agreement from two independent lawyers – one for the intending parent(s) and one for the proposed surrogate
undertake a court process transferring parentage of the child to the intended parents after the birth.

At Genea, we require the surrogate to have at least one living child and recommend being in an established and ongoing relationship with the intending parents, as surrogacy requires an enormous amount of trust between the parties.

The process

The process for surrogacy may vary between Genea clinics, dependent on legislation. As a guide:

Genea Surrogacy process

FAQ

Legislation prohibits commercial surrogacy within Australia. Commercial surrogacy is where surrogacy is undertaken in exchange for payment.

The law makes it illegal for couples or individuals from most Australian jurisdictions to travel overseas for the purposes of commercial surrogacy and Genea cannot assist in any treatment for this purpose.

Yes. You can have a surrogate and donated gametes. Genea does not support traditional surrogacy – where the surrogate’s eggs are used to create the pregnancy either through insemination or IVF, nor the use of both donor eggs and donor sperm with surrogacy.