Fertility 101
Family Building Options for Gay Men
There are many roads that can lead to your future family. Here at CNY, we specialize in helping dads-to-be build biological families – through egg donation, IUI, IVF and surrogacy.
The Basics
Key Questions for Building Your Biological Family
Whose Sperm
Perhaps the most basic of questions, but a necessary one. If no fertility issues are detected after a semen analysis, then either sperm can be used. In fact, both sperm can be mixed and you can let nature do the rest.
Whose Eggs
Deciding who’s eggs to use is a big decision. In general, you can use a known donor (someone you know) or a donor from our egg bank or outside donor agency.
Our donor egg prices are approximately 1/3 the national average!
Whose Womb
While the person who donates their eggs can carry the pregnancy too (a surrogate), many men have one person as their egg donor and an unrelated person carry the pregnancy (a gestational carrier). While a bit of a technicality, you’ll want to look into all your options.
Family Building Time!
Fertility Treatment Options for LGBTQ Men
Intrauterine Insemination (IUI - aka Artificial Insemination)
An Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) or Artificial Insemination (AI) is the process of placing concentrated sperm into a woman’s uterus. It is one of the most common treatments for gay men looking to expand their family.
In order to do an IUI, it is highly recommended that the sperm being used be a sample of over 7 million active motile sperm. You will also need to find a surrogate (someone who will act as both the egg donor and carry the pregnancy).
After having a semen analysis and finding your surrogate, the process is fairly simple from a treatment perspective.
In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
In-Vitro Fertilization is the gold standard of fertility medicine and offers the highest per cycle success of any fertility treatment available. The process involves stimulating the donor’s ovaries to develop multiple eggs which will then be removed from the ovaries, fertilized, grown in a lab, and transferred back to the surrogate or gestational carriers uterus.
Often times, the multiple eggs retrieved from the embryos develop into multiple embryos which can be frozen for future use (after your first child is born, or if the first embryo transfer fails).
Given the eggs are removed from the ovaries and developed in a lab prior to being transferred back to the carrier, IVF allows for the carrier to be someone different than the egg donor – which is often easier to find than someone willing to act as a true surrogate (an egg donor and pregnancy carrier).
IVF also allows for genetic testing which can be particularly helpful if you or your partner have concerns about any genetically related diseases.
Surrogates & Gestational Carriers
As gay men trying to build your family biologically, you’ll need to work with a surrogate or gestational carrier. While CNY does not have a gestational carrier program, we work with a number of agencies to help facilitate treatment and reproductive lawyers to help establish the legal structure you will need.
