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As more women delay their childbearing, typically at their own expense, it is gratifying for companies to realize that offering advanced fertility options to their employees. So often in our business, we see women who have had high-powered careers wake up one day to realize that their fertile years have passed them by but that they still really want to be parents. It is encouraging to see companies help these women out and extend their productive careers while maintaining their fertility. Even if the women who are one day freezing their eggs end up needing surrogates to carry their pregnancies, we are encouraged to see that their fertility can be postponed by the foresight of these forward thinking companies.

Silicon Valley is known for offering incredible job perks, but the latest moves by Apple and Facebook could help the companies attract more female employees.

Facebook said it offers egg freezing for female employees up to $20,000. The company also offers adoption and surrogacy assistance and “a host of other fertility services for male and female employees,” the company said via e-mail.

Apple also offers egg freezing and storage, extended maternity leave, adoption assistance and infertility treatments.

In a statement, the company said “We want to empower women at Apple to do the best work of their lives as they care for loved ones and raise their families.”

The benefit is worth close to $20,000. A typical round of egg-freezing costs about $10,000, with $500 or more in fees each year for storage. Two rounds are usually necessary to harvest about 20 eggs, which is considered ideal.

The coverage by Apple and Facebook is part of a growing trend to beef up employee perks at Silicon Valley companies to recruit new hires.

However, the option won’t be one every woman will jump at, said Kellye Sheehan with Women in Technology, a professional organization for women in the tech industry.

“This is a nice perk but of course it’s a very personal decision for every working woman. When to time college, grad school, babies, starting a career, accelerating a career — all of these have huge ramifications in your life and that of your significant other,” she said.

“Is the employer trying to tell us something? Agreed, working mothers have a lot to juggle. But you can’t let your employer force you into something that doesn’t fit your values or personal choices,” Sheehan added.

The idea of freezing eggs for later use was first proposed for cancer patients. Chemotherapy damages a woman’s eggs, so removing and freezing eggs of female cancer patients gave them a chance at having children later on.

For what’s sometimes called “fertility preservation,” the idea is that by removing and fertilizing their eggs in their 20s, women will have a better chance of getting pregnant in their 30s and 40s.

Reproductively speaking, a woman’s best chance at a healthy pregnancy that results in a healthy baby is in her 20s.

This is because the viability of a woman’s eggs declines over time. Fertility gradually declines in the 30s and drastically beginning around age 35, according to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

The actual harvesting of the eggs is not trivial. It requires rounds of hormone injections to coax the body into producing multiple eggs at once. When the eggs mature, they are harvested via a needle inserted through the vagina.

Exactly how successful the woman will be at having a child if she froze her eggs in her 20s and then used them in her 30s or 40s isn’t yet known.

“We don’t yet have patients who’ve cryopreserved eggs in their 20s and are coming back in their 30s and 40s, because the technology is so new,” said Jennifer Eaton, medical director of assisted reproductive technology at Duke Fertility Center in Durham, N.C.

However centers that are using the new freezing techniques report “comparable pregnancy and live birth rates among women who freeze eggs and come back,” she said.

The technology used to freeze human eggs has become much better in the last 10 years and is much more likely to result in the birth of a child than in the past, said Alan Copperman, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

“Five years ago, if you’d interviewed me, I would have talked about how much better a fresh egg is than a frozen egg. But in 2014, a frozen egg is almost as good as a fresh egg,” he said.

In the past, doctors used a slow freezing technique with eggs. However the egg is the largest cell in the human body and contains a great deal of water. During freezing, ice crystals sometimes form, which damage the spindle apparatus within cells that pulls chromosomes apart during cell division.

Today a quick-freeze process, called vitrification, is used that is less likely to create ice crystals and results in better-preserved eggs, Copperman said.

Egg freezing isn’t a guarantee that you’re going to have a healthy baby, but could increase the odds, said Marcelle Cedars, director of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of California-San Francisco.

“I always tell my patients it’s not a baby in the freezer, it’s the possibility of a baby,” she said.

No matter how old a woman is when she decides to start a family, frozen eggs are the last resort.

“Even at 40, 50% of 40-year-olds who want to get pregnant get pregnant,” Cedars said. “And it’s a lot more fun to do it the old-fashioned way.”

http://www.wfaa.com/story/tech/2014/10/14/apple-facebook-eggs/17240953/

Surrogacy 101: Medical Process Continued

When the fertilized embryos are at the proper stage, they are loaded into a special syringe with a thin flexible catheter at the end. The catheter is inserted thru the cervix into the uterine cavity (sometimes with the assistance of abdominal ultrasound to ensure EXACT placement of the embryos) where the embryos are “injected”. Most doctors will only transfer three to four 2-day old embryos or two 5-day embryos. Any unused embryos are frozen for a future attempt if a pregnancy doesn’t result from the fresh cycle.  Bed rest of anywhere from 2 hours to 3 days is usually required immediately following embryo transfer.

A Quantitative HCG in which the amount of pregnancy hormone is measured is usually done 14 days post egg retrieval. At that time they are looking for the HCG level to be about 50 or better. Anything over 200 is usually indicative of a multiple pregnancy. The Surrogate will have a second quantitative HCG test two days later to verify that the pregnancy hormone numbers are going up (they should double about every 2 days). If the quantitative HCG is negative, all external hormones are discontinued and a menstrual cycle will usually start within 5 days.

If a pregnancy has occurred (Congratulations!), an ultrasound is usually done about 6-7 weeks to check for a heartbeat and again around 12 weeks before being released to a regular OB/GYN. Usually during this time, hormone levels are checked several times to ensure that the proper levels are being maintained to ensure the pregnancy continues. Once the placenta starts taking over the hormone production, the Surrogate is weaned off the hormone replacements.

Physically, the rest of the pregnancy would be the same as any other pregnancy.

**The information provided above is for general information purposes to the Clients of Simple Surrogacy and should not be construed in any way as health or medical advice or treatment recommendations.**

Are you interested in learning more about our Surrogacy and/or Egg Donation programs at Simple Surrogacy? If you have been thinking about having a consultation, now is the time to schedule! We are offering no-charge consultations by appointment only on March 28, 29 or 30  between 9 and 4 in our Dallas, TX office.

Please call our Executive Program Director, Stephanie Scott to schedule at 214-673-9321

We look forward to meeting with you!

Surrogacy 101: Pregnancy and Delivery

This article continues our series on informational articles about surrogacy.

After a successful pregnancy is achieved, the surrogate is released to her regular OB/GYN and fertility medications are discontinued gradually.

The first ultrasound usually happens between 6-8 weeks, and that is when you will find out how many babies your surrogate is carrying.

If your reproductive endocrinologist transferred more than two embryos of excellent quality, you should be prepared for the news that you are expecting twins! Twins frequently occur when two excellent quality embryos are transferred. If both embryos took, you would have fraternal twins. If only one egg took, but split, you would have identical twins. Many of our Gay couples choose to transfer one embryo inseminated by each father. We’ve had several sets of twins result from that procedure, one being related to each father!

Once the ultrasound confirms the number of babies, the remainder of the pregnancy will be like any other pregnancy. The Surrogate will go for checkups monthly, and the big ultrasound at 20 or so weeks will tell you the sex of the baby(s) if you want to find out.

During pregnancy, you will discover what an amazing value you have in Simple Surrogacy. Not only do we provide excellent care as a surrogacy agency, we go above and beyond in helping our parents register for their baby registry, locate a provider or class to teach baby care and first aid, and we even help them register for a CPR class. We’re happy to provide those services as a courtesy to our clients, especially to single Ifs and couples who might have very little experience with baby care. Another factor to consider if you have the news of twins is the specialty care they can require. We are happy to recommend support groups for parents of twins, and also recommend special twins baby care classes.

Once your pregnancy is well underway and your escrow is funded, all that remains is for you to enjoy the pregnancy journey with your surrogate. Simple Surrogacy will take more of a back seat during this time, while still checking on your surrogate and you throughout the process. Once time for delivery nears, we’ll coordinate with the hospital to insure legal factors are considered when the baby is born.

At most hospitals, we’re able to coordinate a room so that the new parents can room in with their baby, space permitting. For International parents, we’ll coordinate the receipt of birth certificate and help facilitate the passports the baby will need to return home.

Simple Surrogacy’s Annual Get Together

Simple Surrogacy and Simple Donations held their annual (and sometimes bi-annual) get together at Maggianos Little Italy at Northpark on September 17^th. Simple Surrogacy likes to host these get-togethers from time to time so that we can catch up with our wonderful old clients and see their adorable children, and also so that we can introduce our new prospective clients to our staff and they can meet clients who have been through the program before them.

The chance for a potential IP to meet a client who has been through our program is priceless. For many potential clients, they feel like they are the only people they know who are going through the process, or they have done general research, but never actually spoken to someone who has gone through a surrogacy. It is extremely helpful for these potential clients to not only know and see Simple Surrogacy’s successful clients and their children, but to also see that even though the road to parenthood through surrogacy can be long, it is ultimately very rewarding to achieve it!

Another benefit to our get-togethers is Intended Parent’s opportunity to mingle with current and former surrogates, and see how they interact with their former and current IP’s. For many potential IPs, the surrogate’s reasons for being a surrogate are sometimes a challenge to understand. They also wonder about the relationships that will form between themselves and their surrogates, both during and after the surrogacy journey. Speaking with the surrogates helps relieve many of these worries, and in some cases, even facilitates future matches among our Surrogates and IP’s! We have had Intended Parents tell us that in speaking with a surrogate and seeing how family oriented, compassionate and generous they all are, they gained the confidence to undertake the surrogacy journey for themselves.

I speak for myself when I say that it was a great pleasure to meet both our Surrogates and Intended Parents in person, and get the chance to relax and dine together for a few hours. I already can’t wait for the next get-together which will be in the spring! I know we’ll welcome many more babies to the Simple Surrogacy family by then, and I will get the chance to cuddle with even more tiny bundles of joy! Thank you again to our wonderful staff, Surrogates and clients who were able to join us, we cherish each and every one of you!-Stephanie Scott

This article continues our series on informational articles about surrogacy.
After the initial medical screening, the Surrogate and Intended parents will also have counseling and psychological screenings and evaluations.

Counseling and Psychological Evaluations
The role of counseling is to prepare all parties involved in the treatment and to consider all factors which may influence the outcome. Counseling ensures that everyone is confident and comfortable with their participation and trusts each other. Counseling also minimizes foreseeable risks, thereby avoiding the placement of unacceptable burdens on any of the parties, including the future child. Some clinics require that a Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) be completed by the Gestational Surrogate and Egg Donor before entrance into their medical program. The MMPI is one of the most frequently used personality tests in the mental health fields. This assessment, or test, was designed to help identify personal, social, and behavioral problems in psychiatric patients. The test helps provide relevant information to aid in problem identification, diagnosis, and treatment planning for the patient. All Intended Parents, Surrogates and Donors participating in Simple Surrogacy’s Program are required to undergo a Psycho-Social Assessment before moving forward with the medical and legal process. These are provided by our program and are not an additional expense.

Gestational Surrogate/Intended Parent(s) Suggestions
During the treatment cycle both the Surrogate and Intended Parent(s) should:

·         Be open and honest regarding expectations and hopes throughout the process.
·         Refrain from smoking, drinking, and drug use.
·         Eat healthy food.
·         Take vitamin supplements.
·         Intended Fathers should refrain from taking hot showers or baths and sitting in Jacuzzi tubs within the week of their sperm donation to ensure their donation results in the best quality of sperm they have to offer.
·         Refrain from sexual intercourse during the cycling process.
·         Keep stress levels to a minimum.
·         Avoid overexertion .
·         Refrain from taking any additional medication other than that prescribed by the Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) and/or your personal Physician.