Men Having Babies

Provider Costs Guidance

Surrogacy Advisor’s directory allows you to find providers that you can trust, from a variety of disciplines . And now, you can compare providers that offer either surrogacy matching services, fertility services, or egg donor services, based on their potential anticipated cost differences

Please be advised that this feature is not meant to be used as a budgeting tool. As you will see below, in order for us to arrive at a comparison tool that is as comprehensive as possible, yet applicable across all providers within each category, we take a two-step approach. We first offer an "apples-to-apples" comparison based on a standardized journey (devoid of any complications) and exclude some cost elements which are not dependent on the providers you choose. We then offer a Scenario Modifier as an online calculator that allows you to go beyond the initial simplified assumptions.

The initial set of assumptions we make for the standardized journey include:

• A match with a first-time Gestational Carrier (GC)
• The GC does not have applicable maternity and delivery insurance
• A match with an Egg Donor (ED) without "proven fertility"
• A successful pregnancy following one IVF cycle (as is typical to 60 % of journeys)
• A single embryo transfer
• No accommodations for special circumstances such as international intended parents, translation services, etc.
• GC received a base compensation equal to the average of what the middle 50% of the agency's clients paid in the last 90 days (Medium Scenario)

Once you have access to the relative costs you can expect for each provider based on the above assumptions, you can use the Scenarios Modifier in order to get a better sense of how the cost ranking may change depending on your preferences, circumstances and even your luck. As you will see, some providers may be more affordable if everything in your journey goes well, but they may be much less affordable if you were to run into more hardships during the process (i.e. if you need another IVF transfer; if you need to change a GC). On the other hand, other providers might be more expensive on first look, but may provide more assurances and charge less for contingencies.

Note that the cost figures in the Surrogacy Advisor directory are entered periodically by each provider, after they are carefully informed about the various parameters that are explained above. We also directly receive cost sheets from some providers which we sometimes use to cross-reference with the amounts they've entered. Furthermore, we invite parents that have worked with these providers to offer feedback in cases that their experiences do not match the official numbers available here. Nevertheless, we need to remind you that ultimately our verification tools are limited, and as such the content is provided here without warranties of any kind, and may contain omissions, errors or inaccuracies.

Also note that the costs estimated are provided separately for each provider category, and therefore each only represents a portion of the total journey costs. Adding them together will still not amount to a credible budget, insofar that some expense categories will need to be added:

• The costs of legal services
• GC and ED reimbursable expenses for travel, lost wages, and childcare, as they depend heavily on their personal circumstances - such as location, age of children, and work status. These may vary widely among the GCs and EDs that each agency suggests, and can only be estimated once you are matched
• The costs of obtaining applicable maternity and delivery insurance for the GC, and reimbursing her for copays and deductibles
• Personal expenses such as your travel

To learn how to adequately budget your journey, with suggested average amounts to be added for the excluded cost components above, we highly recommend that Men Having Babies members take advantage of the MHB Budgeting Guide and / or attend our Budgeting Workshops.