Surrogacy, UK

UK – Surrogacy and me: Progress! The gods must be smiling

Intended Parents

Source The Times

We’ve spent an inappropriately annoying amount of time trying and failing to understand how insurance works in America. Annual deductibles? Anyone? It’s the amount you pay each plan year before the . . . Anyone? Anyone? Before the insurance company starts paying its share of the costs. Anyone? Nope, us neither.

We reach out to our agency to help to decipher the US code, but the responses are almost as confusing.

One thing they are keen for us to understand in detail, though, is WhatsApp.

“Oh, it’s this cool thing where you can talk to each other across the Pond, but using wifi so you don’t have to pay!”

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Donor Eggs, Ireland

Ireland – Baby boomers: The rise of older mums

Intended Parents

Source Irish Examiner

SUSAN never imagined she’d be a first-time mum aged 50. “I thought I’d be preparing for retirement, not changing nappies and dealing with night feeds,” laughs the now 53-year-old from Co Meath.

She is one of an increasing number of women having babies in their sixth decade. In 2007, only four women in Ireland had babies in their 50s but by 2015 — the year Susan’s daughter Niamh was born – that figure had risen to 16. A further 17 babies were born to women in their 50s in Ireland last year.

These figures are small but they are growing, thanks to breakthroughs in reproductive medicine.

In Ireland, women are increasingly spending their 20s focussing on education and their 30s building careers and searching for suitable partners. Inevitably, some face fertility issues when the time is finally right for babies.

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Surrogacy Law

UK – Clear up opaque surrogacy law, specialists urge

Intended Parents

Source The Times

Fertility laws remain “opaque and confused” as ministers stubbornly refuse to bring forward reform, specialist lawyers claimed yesterday.
The ban on commercial surrogacy in the UK was out of step with modern society, they said.

They said the results of a straw poll conducted over the weekend showed that the biggest concern among experts was over surrogacy laws. More than 35 per cent of respondents at the “Fertility Show” in London said that surrogacy law reform should be a government priority.

That was followed by calls for reform of laws covering egg and sperm donation, with 28 per cent of attendees saying that should be top of ministerial agendas.

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Embryo adoption

Embryo swapping is the Wild West

Intended Parents

Source NY Post

Georgia was the first to allow embryo-adopting parents to file for a final order of adoption once a child is born. In states without laws, couples who adopt embryos rely solely on private legal contracts.

According to Kimberly Tyson, program manager of the Embryo Adoption Awareness Center in Colorado, the general “law of the land is that the woman who gives birth to the baby is legally the baby’s mother on the birth certificate.” (This is complicated by surrogates, although typically a pre-birth order is drafted to assign parentage.)

Compared to the United Kingdom, which has a 10-year limit on embryo storage and prohibits people from discriminating against embryos based on race or religion, the United States is one of the most lax countries in the world when it comes to the creation, storage and donation of embryos.

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Adoption, IVF

UK – Rising success of IVF has caused a collapse in adoption, says head of organisation for children in care

Intended Parents

Source Telegraph

Improvements in IVF are leading to fewer children being adopted, the head of the organisation representing children in care in England says today.

Since the dawn of fertility treatment in 1978, success rates in the NHS have risen from 7 to 29 per cent for under-35s. Some private clinics claim rates of more than 50 per cent, meaning infertile couples stand a better chance than ever of having their own children.

But in an interview with The Telegraph today, Anthony Douglas, the chief executive of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), says the growing success of IVF means fewer people will consider adopting children.
“IVF used to be around 7 per cent successful and…

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Surrogacy Law

Surrogacy under threat after Trump vows to remove birthright citizenship

Intended Parents

Source BioEdge

Bioethics in American politics. Donald Trump’s vow to remove the right to citizenship to babies born in the United States to immigrants and non-citizens has an unexpected bioethical angle. As Australian surrogacy lawyer Stephen Page points out, this could put a dent in the booming US surrogacy market.

At the moment, a baby born in the US to a surrogate mother automatically bcomes a US citizen under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. This makes commercial surrogacy in the US a popular market with wealthy foreigners, especially Chinese. “There is rarely a surrogacy law conference I go to in the US where the subject of the 14th Amendment is brought up in conference presentations or discussions amongst delegates,” says Page.

The 14th Amendment was introduced in the Reconstruction Era to protect slaves. In 1857, before the Civil War, they had been deemed not to be citizens by the US Supreme Court – “they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect,” according to Chief Justice Roger Taney.
As Page points out, if Trump carries through with his threat, the consequences for the surrogacy industry will be dire:

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Uncategorized

Cushman & Wakefield introduces six months surrogacy leave policy

Intended Parents

Source People Matters

In 2015, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) had instructed all Central ministries and departments to implement an order of the Delhi High Court for granting maternity leave to female employees who choose to have a child by commissioning a surrogacy. Such leave would include both the pre-natal and post-natal period.

The amendment in Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 aiming to double the maternity leave for women employees get sanctioned last year. This pro-women proposal raised the maternity leave timeframe from 12 weeks to 26 weeks. Also, Commissioning mothers who use surrogates to bear their child and adopting mothers get entitlement for 12 weeks of maternity leave.

In an attempt to support the advancement of their women employees, as well as creating an atmosphere of understanding and upliftment, Cushman & Wakefield, has introduced a six-month surrogacy leave.

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Reciprocal effortless IVF, Reciprocal IVF

What to know about the new IVF treatment

Intended Parents

Source ABC

Ashleigh and Bliss Coulter from Mountain Springs, Texas, have become the first same-sex couple in the state to take part in the birth of a child using a technique called Reciprocal effortless in vitro fertilization, a procedure pioneered by their doctor, Dr. Kathy Doody, and her husband, Dr. Kevin Doody, both Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility specialists. Reciprocal effortless IVFis a unique way for two females to physically take part in the creation of a child.
What’s the difference between “Reciprocal IVF” and “Reciprocal effortless IVF?”

Reciprocal effortless IVF is a combination of two IVF treatments that allows two women to take part in carrying their child at different stages.
Reciprocal IVF has already been practiced for many years, and allows two women to participate. This involves fertilizing the eggs from one woman with sperm, incubating them in a lab, and then transferring the embryo to their female

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IVF, UK

UK – Our Parliament needs to act and protect women undergoing IVF 

Intended Parents

Source Telegraph

From the Women’s March to #MeToo, women all over the world are lifting their voices to demand that their bodies are respected.

So, the fact that there is still at least one fundamental area in which UK law does not properly protect women is a shocking revelation.

In the UK today 68,000 cycles of IVF are carried out every year. Since the first IVF baby was born 40 years ago, the field of reproductive medicine has exploded, and more than 300,000 babies have now been born in the UK thanks to fertility treatment.

It has transformed lives: for heterosexual couples, same-sex couples and single women who wish to have a family.

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Surrogacy

It’s time to be grown up about surrogacy

Intended Parents

Source GQ

For years, the image I had of surrogacy was derived almost entirely from Friends. In 1998, at the height of the show’s popularity, there was a plotline in which Phoebe, she of the questionable life choices, offered to bear the child of her brother and his wife. After giving birth (to triplets, no less) Phoebe tried to keep one of the babies before tearfully, reluctantly having to say goodbye. At a time when surrogacy wasn’t prevalent in the UK, this idea that it was unorthodox and potentially traumatic took root – and asking around it seems I wasn’t alone.

Recently, however, surrogacy has re-emerged in the national conversation, this time as a perfectly normal option for couples who can’t otherwise have children. That might seem to have come out of nowhere, but the number of British parents having babies with surrogates – through the “traditional” method (artificial insemination) or the “gestational” method (the implantation of an in vitro embryo) – has been growing thanks to incremental amendments to the law.

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Costs, Infertility

How Much Infertility Treatments Actually Cost 8 Different Women

Intended Parents

Source Womens Health

A survey by WomensHealthMag.com and OprahMag.com, in partnership with the Black Women’s Health Imperative and Celmatix, found that cost was the biggest factor that prevents women from seeking infertility care—regardless of their ethnic background.

It’s not uncommon for fundraisers who do decide to pursue treatments to make impassioned pleas for upward of $10,000 to use toward medical bills—but the reality is that invoices from the doctor’s office are just part of the cost that families incur when they seek treatment.

People who have limited or no paid time off may lose wages because of work they miss while sitting in waiting rooms—or because of the hours they spend driving to see specialists who are in-network. Hotel stays and flights can add up for those who pursue fertility treatment away from home. (I spoke with one woman who spent more than $100,000 total.)

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IVF, UK

Women in the UK are being refused IVF when they hit 34

Intended Parents

Source Quartz

Women who need IVF in order to conceive a child are being denied it from as young as 34 in some areas of the UK because of their age, even though government guidelines stipulate that it be available free up until the age of 42.

In the UK, fertility treatments including IVF have been available since 2004 through the National Health Service (NHS), a tax-funded institution which ensures critical UK healthcare is free at the point of delivery. But the NHS is massively under-funded, meaning local authorities have had to decide which non life-saving treatments to cut.

Guidelines say that women under the age of 40 should be offered three complete cycles of IVF for free, with one cycle offered for women from 40 to 42. But some local authorities have stopped offering IVF completely and others have begun instituting an age cut-off for women. The practice, revealed by a BBC investigation, surprised many would-be mothers who didn’t realize there was any such rule until they went for treatment. Since the decisions vary geographically, they arbitrarily tie women’s fertility to where they live.

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Egg Freezing, Ireland

Ireland – Should You Freeze Your Eggs – Or Is     The £10,000 Procedure A Rip-Off?

Intended Parents

Source Huffington Post

Sarah Bagg was 38 when she decided to freeze her eggs. “I’d kind of always thought, like a lot of women do, that I was going to have kids and it was all going to happen naturally,” she explains. Then, three years ago, after the breakdown of a longterm relationship, she decided she needed to take steps to preserve her fertility. “It was kind of part of my own healing process as well as being able to put a plan into action,” she says. “I went in for a consultation and when I came out, I just knew that I had to do it.”

The business development and marketing manager from Brighton, now 41, is one of a growing number of women freezing their eggs in the UK. The latest figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates fertility treatment in the UK, show that since 2010, egg freezing has risen every year; in 2016, there were 1,173 egg freezing cycles completed – a 10% increase from the year before.

IVF

IVF allows two women to carry the same baby: ‘It was like a relay race’

Intended Parents

Source Yahoo

Going through the IVF process can be tricky for same-sex couples: Who will supply the egg and sperm? Who will carry the baby? One couple in Texas found a way for both to take part.

Ashleigh and Bliss Coulter, a couple in North Texas, welcomed their son, Stetson, five months ago via IVF. “I wanted to be pregnant for so long and so bad,” Ashleigh told NBC 5. “I always wanted to have a child, I just didn’t want to carry the child,” Bliss said. “Obviously, us being two women, we were like, ‘How can we make this happen?’” Ashleigh said. “We felt like there has to be a way.”

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Donor Eggs, donor sperm, Ireland, Uncategorized

Ireland – ‘Hello, my beautiful donor baby’: The Irish people becoming parents with donor eggs and sperm

Intended Parents

Source Her

Do you know a couple who have experienced fertility problems?

Lots of us would probably say yes – but do you know anyone who has conceived a baby via donor sperm or egg?
Chances are you do.

As a nation, we’re beginning to strip back the veil of secrecy that once hung over infertility and assisted reproduction – but the last taboo may be the thousands of Irish babies that have been born with the help of a donor.

There are no official figures for Ireland but according to Dr Florencia Steinvarcel of Dublin’s Sims Clinic, around 40 per cent of the people who have IVF treatment there use a donor sperm or egg.

Dr Simon Fishel, founder of Beacon CARE Fertility, meanwhile estimates that 5,000 to 7,000 people a year travel abroad from Ireland and the UK just for egg donations.

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Canada, Sperm Donation

Canada – Ottawa proposes partial easing of sperm donation, new surrogacy regulations

Intended Parents

Source The Globe and Mail

The Trudeau government proposed new regulations Friday that would lift a ban on men who have sex with other men from donating their sperm anonymously to Canadians struggling with infertility.

The proposed changes, up for review through public consultations, could also see surrogate mothers reimbursed for more of the expenses they face in trying to help people build their families, including loss of income.

Those new regulations under the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, if enacted, will help protect the health and safety of women and children, says Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor.

“They will also offer couples dealing with infertility, single people, same-sex couples and other members of the LGBTQ2 community flexibility in building their families,” the minister said in a statement.

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Fertility and Race

How Race Impacts Your Fertility

Intended Parents

Source In Style

The dialogue around infertility is filled with assumptions related to privilege. Media depictions of difficulty getting or staying pregnant prioritize upper middle-class WASPy couples, or the actual one percent. Whether we’re following real-life stories of celebrities like Courteney Cox or Brooke Shields, or fictionalized ones, like Kate Pearson on This is Us, we see the same type of would-be mom: white, wealthy — this is what it looks like to struggle to conceive. Even a google image search for the word “infertility” brings up almost exclusively white women, or white hetero couples, making sad faces at staged doctors’ appointments.

There are few spaces for marginalized individuals to discuss their fertility experiences, and this could be impacting their success getting pregnant.

A recent study presented earlier this month at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Denver found that Black women have lower IVF success rates than white women — and researchers aren’t sure why.

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Uncategorized

20 Ways Becoming A Parent Via Surrogate Is Different From Natural Birth

Intended Parents

Source Moms.com

Back in former times, there were only so many things a couple could do to have a baby. If the old fashioned way of procreating didn’t work due to issues with the male or woman, they were typically too shamed or embarrassed to even talk about it. Science wasn’t at its peak in terms of alternate ways to have a baby.

Nowadays (thankfully), we have artificial insemination (mom and donor, dad and donor, or two unknown donors), in vitro fertilization (IVF), intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection, adoption, and many other ways to help a couple become a family. Most notably, the art of surrogacy is gaining popularity.

Just as there are options for how a couple wants to get pregnant, there are also options in surrogacy. A surrogate can be used as a shell while the mom’s egg and the dad’s sperm are already combined and just implemented in the surrogate. Or perhaps a woman is impregnated by a male’s sperm, with her being the biological mother (but won’t physically raise the child).

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Australia, children from egg and/or sperm donor

Australia – Government toughens IVF laws to protect embryo donors and kids

Intended Parents

Source The Sydney Morning Herald

The NSW government has moved to close a legislative loophole in a bid to allow children born through Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) to access details about their biological heritage.

The amendment bill was sparked by the case of Natalie Parker, who donated embryos to a Sydney woman and was led to believe the transfer had failed. Later, she found photos online of a baby boy she believes is her genetic son.

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