What is surrogacy?
Surrogacy – it is a reproductive technology in which a woman agrees to become pregnant, bear and give birth to a child for infertile couple.
Meaning and definition of surrogacy
Why do people choose surrogacy? This is a forced step when the family cannot become pregnant naturally or through IVF. In Ukraine, only married, heterosexual couples, approved for medical reasons, can use the services of a surrogate mother. Usually we are approached by families, if the woman has no uterus (or it is damaged by adhesions, tumors), if she had miscarriages or suffer from premature ovarian failure.
The law of Ukraine allows commercial surrogacy, including for foreign couples. What does commercial surrogacy mean? Potential parents and a surrogate mother sign a contract with the agency. The contract governs the relationship between the couple and the gestational courier.
Different types of commercial surrogacy
There are 2 types of surrogacy: gestational and traditional surrogacy.
Gestational – a surrogate has no genetic connection with the child. In short, the procedure looks like this:
- Husband and wife donate their gametes (eggs and sperm).
- The doctor fertilizes the egg and cultures the embryo.
- The doctor transfers the embryo into the womb of a surrogate mother.
- A woman bears and gives birth to a child, and then writes a refusal of the right to him.
- The baby is registered in the name of genetic parents.
Traditional – surrogate mother is the genetic mother of the child. In this case, the surrogate mother undergoes the procedure of intrauterine insemination with sperm of a potential father or donate her egg. The oocyte is fertilized in vitro and transferred back to her uterus. Today, traditional surrogacy is not used for ethical reasons. The task of the surrogate mother is to “shelter” the baby for a while, and after childbirth return him to real parents. If a woman has a genetic connection with a child, then this task becomes arduous. Therefore, the law of Ukraine states that a surrogate mother cannot use her eggs in the program.
Information about gestational surrogacy in Ukraine: features of the use of gametes
Let’s take a closer look at which genetic material can be used. Under Ukrainian surrogacy law, the child must be genetically related to at least one of the spouses, which leaves three options:
- Both spouses’ own gametes: the wife’s eggs and the husband’s sperm. This is the ideal scheme.
- Donor eggs and the husband’s sperm, if the woman has no eggs of her own or they are of poor quality.
- The wife’s eggs and donor sperm, if the husband’s sperm cannot be used.
Donor eggs and donor sperm are not combined in one program. A donor is an outside person who has no genetic connection with the parents or with the surrogate mother.
Doctors fertilize the eggs, monitor the embryos’ development and, at the blastocyst stage, select one, two or three for transfer. The rest are cryopreserved, so the couple can later go through another surrogacy program with their frozen embryos.
In practice, donor sperm is rarely needed: almost any form of male infertility still allows healthy sperm to be obtained. For this we perform PESA, TESA, TESE and MESA, procedures in which sperm is retrieved with a needle directly from the testicle or epididymis. These methods are highly effective.
Gestational surrogacy in Ukraine: where to start?
We invite couples from all over the world to undergo this program in the capital of Ukraine – Kiev. Here are a few advantages of gestational surrogacy in Ukraine:
If you are planning to surrogacy abroad, contact VittoriaVita. It is legal, safe and easy!