If you desire to become a parent via surrogacy or through egg donation, then it’s important to make sure to understand the difference between the two since they can seem complicated to a novice. To become a surrogate or a user of a surrogate it’s vital for you as an interested parent to fully understand these two options before taking any step further.
These two procedures can often be confusing, and there are various misconceptions about the details involved in both gestational surrogacy and egg donation. Therefore, below is a full scope of the correct information concerning these two procedures and their significant differences.
Understanding Egg Donation Procedure
Egg donation involves women who willingly first undergo an in-depth screen process before giving out their information to those interested in becoming parents. If the women successfully match what the interested parents want, their genetic material becomes shared.
Most preferably, the egg donors should often be in good health, educated, and lack any genetic conditions based on their history.
Some future parents prefer choosing someone who wants to become a surrogate with traits that match what they would like their kid to have. Egg donation involves a donor providing the child half of their genetics; hence a trustworthy donor agency or clinic should be carefully selected by the intended parents. Mostly, the women chosen to become a surrogate are familiar to the parents, such as a family member or close friend.
Surgical collection of the viable eggs is first extracted from the donor. It’s then taken to a lab to undergo fertilization via IVF (Vitro fertilization) with sperm from the future father or a donor. The planned mother is then infused with the embryo in their uterus.
Category of People who Require Egg Donation:
Egg donation might be chosen by various people so that they can start their own family. Such people include;
• An eligible working male that already has a surrogate who will carry their baby
• Couples of same-sex
• Women who can’t bear viable eggs but can physically carry the baby for nine months already have a planned father or donor.
On various occasions, egg donation is sequentially used with surrogacy. In general, an exception is made only when a person exclusively uses the egg donor without using a surrogate during situations when the future mother has unviable eggs. Similarly, it can also happen when the planned mother can safely carry the baby for nine months.
During such scenarios, the egg from the donor is usually taken to the lab. Then under IVF fertilization, the embryo gets passed to the future mother. However, most cases involve transferring the embryo to those who have agreed to become a surrogate.
Understanding Surrogacy Procedure
Surrogacy involves women getting well-screened first to be determined to carry a pregnancy until its due date for safe delivery. The interested parents always partner with the party that wants to become a surrogate through trusted agencies that deal with surrogacy or via a volunteer woman who already offered to be the child’s carrier. The future parents, therefore, directly make contact with the surrogate. Both parties then create a relationship within the entire period.
Intended parents and surrogates communicate directly and typically form a relationship throughout the process. During surrogacy, the gestational surrogates’ uterus receives the embryo from the lab, which has undergone the IVF process.
Category of People who Require Surrogacy?
Anyone who wants to become a surrogate might be approached by those people who can’t afford to bear a child safely or deliver them. Some of the people in such situations include;
• Women with viable eggs but can’t sustain a pregnancy
• Same-sex couples
• Eligible working men
As mentioned earlier, those chosen to become surrogates are sequentially used by the egg/sperm donors. For the heterosexual couples with eggs and sperm which is usable, there’s always no need for a donor to be introduced, but only a surrogate is required.
Significant Differences on Qualification and Compensation Between Surrogacy and Egg Donation
1. Age
The significant difference between the two procedures is age. In egg donation, under 28 to 30-year-olds are preferably considered the best options since, after age 20s, the quality of an egg tends to deteriorate. For surrogacy, some women can still become a surrogate at 45 years if they are medically qualified. However, the match is keenly made with the inclusion of what the interested parents decide.
2. Compensation
The difference of periods during the different processes will determine the different compensation prices for both techniques. Surrogacy might involve compensation that ranges from $20,000-$50,000, while for egg donation, it’s between $5,000-$7,000.
3. Period
If you’re considering short-term processes that will help you fulfill your dream of getting a family, I advise you to go for egg donation. Commitment for this process is only six months. But if your considering surrogacy, then you should expect a decent timeline of between 12-18 months for the whole process to be complete before you hold your baby in your arms.
4. Requirements
Besides their age, those who want to become a surrogate need to have had their child or children already. Additionally, other various reasons include the provision of previous medical records of their pregnancies and birth. The information collected ensures that the surrogacy process with the interested party who wants to become a surrogate has a good enough body to bear a child until it’s birthed.
Surrogacy is more complex than egg donation; whenever there’s a complication, the results might block you from ever getting any more children; hence you must ensure the surrogate can’t undergo such issues. For egg donation, the requirements are much less; thus, the donors can either have their children or not. It isn’t much of a condition.
Conclusion
Surrogacy and egg donation are considered to be the best gifts that have ever happened to some people. Both processes have introduced to the world the most incredible opportunities for people to grow their families using other means if they can’t afford natural birth processes.
You can enjoy having a family that you have ever wanted despite the different circumstances. These processes are both excellent despite their differences and similarities. I hope that the above explanation has been much help and you need to choose what fits your budget and needs between the two options. You can check out the Open Arms Surrogacy found in Florida, which would help you achieve your dream
