Surrogacy

At the Lister Fertility Clinic, we have a dedicated surrogacy team to look after you and your surrogate throughout your treatment journey. This provides specialist continuity of care and gives you all the personalised support that will help you throughout the different steps of treatment.

What are the different stages of starting the process?

Once you have made an appointment you will be seen in clinic, so that we can decide together how best we can help you through your journey. During your initial consultation you can find out more details about the screening tests, investigations and treatments involved.

We try to minimise the amount of times you need to visit us by combining as many of your appointments as possible, this would include your initial appointment with a doctor, the fertility counsellor and a dedicated surrogacy nurse.

Who might need surrogacy?

You might be considering surrogacy because you have had many IVF treatment cycles that have unfortunately not been successful, because you have a medical condition that makes carrying a pregnancy too risky, you have an absent uterus or you might be a same sex couple of men.

Whether you are in a heterosexual, same sex relationship or single, we are here to help and can also assist you if you need donor sperm or egg donation with the help of our egg sharing program.

What does the treatment involve?

At present we offer host surrogacy at the Lister Fertility Clinic. This means you initially create embryos through IVF treatment and they are then transferred into a surrogate who carries the pregnancy at a later stage. You don’t need to have already found a surrogate to start your journey.

You can create embryos initially and freeze them while waiting to find a surrogate, this can be done with or without PGT-A to test your embryos genetically. Alternatively, if you need egg donation, we can freeze your sperm while you are deciding on an egg donor that suits you best.

When will I need counselling?

You and your surrogate will see the counsellor separately as well as together to discuss ethical, legal and social aspects of going through surrogacy. Our counsellors are also here for continuous support at any point before, during and after your treatment for you and your surrogate.

Read more from our Fertility Counsellor Tracey Sainsbury

What happens once we have found a surrogate?

Your surrogate will get the same dedicated specialist support that you have received. She will have an initial appointment with a doctor, a counsellor and a specialist surrogacy nurse, once again trying to combine as many different appointments on the same day. We also try to carry out any investigations needed on the same day.

Your surrogate will go through a frozen embryo replacement cycle where the embryo created during the initial stages of treatment will be replaced into the womb of the surrogate.

Further support

Surrogacy UK

Brilliant Beginnings

Stonewall

Fertility Network UK

TwoDadsUK