surrogacy

My sister is 26 and had to have a procedure done when she was 23 so now she cannot have children. I want to be a surrogate for her. Will my insurance cover me if i have an ivf done w/ her husbands sperm with the intention of giving them the baby?

[tina1111]

Most insurances will not. You will have to check into your own policy to be sure. What procedure did she have done? Did they remove her uterus and ovaries?

[dohertyk]

yes because of endometriosis she had a full hysterectomy and therefore has no eggs of her own. We had planned on using mine but she is scared that i will want to keep the baby. so we had decided to use one of our mothers eggs and her husbands sperm but the infertility clinic has now told us they wouldnt use eggs from anyone over the age of 42!!!

[tina1111]

Most fertility clinics will not allow donors, even family, over the age of 35. My sister volunteered to surrogate for me. I really mulled it over. It is a wonderful thing to do. I will always be grateful that she offered. I refused, though. My sister has 3 children and we are all very close. We talked to her kids about it, ages 14, 9 and 7. It was way too confusing and was clearly going to cause issues down the road. I could just see one of them introducing their "cousin/brother". A little too weird for me. I also was a little weirded out thinking about how my sister would look at the child. I just couldn't do it. There was a lot of legal issues with counseling for both families as well.

An option to look into is donor eggs w/her dh sperm for you to carry if she doesn't want to use your eggs. Or even donor embryos. There are a lot of fertility clinics that have frozen embryos for adoption. The cost is much less than IVF with or without donor eggs. They match you with donor parents that look the most like you and have similar backgrounds. I hope it all works out.

[Nia528]

Hey!! I don't know alot about IVF or suffogacy but I have been reasearching it a little lately b/c my sis offered to do it for us. I have found out that it depends on the state (U.S.) you live in and that states laws. Every state is different. In Virginia, You have to be court approved for surrogacy and have to be diagnosed as to the exact reason you cannot conceive and/or carry to term. I am unexplained so I don't have a diagnosis.  But if you are approved then you have to do a home study with social services (the same as adoption home study) and be approved.  Then if it is your sis's egg and her man's sperm put in you then legally the baby is your sis's but if it is your egg and sis's man's sperm put it you then the baby is leaglly yours and his and your sis would have to adopt the baby from you.  Remember this is only Virginia laws it is probably different for you.  But in VA it is against the law to pay a surrogate( which it being for your sis you probably wouldn't want paid, my sis doesn't) but it is a gray area with the insurance.  If my insurance pays for my sis's med bills to carry my baby it can be seen as a form of payment to my sis and only very experienced surrogacy lawyers know how that works.  And all involved have to take counseling.  This probably doesn't help you but it is all I know.  Just google your states surrogacy laws and that will tell you what you need to know.  Good luck!!!!