Third-Party Reproductive Program
Patients who need special assistance to become parents may benefit from our third-party reproductive program services. We help patients overcome obstacles that would have prevented them from becoming parents years ago. Through egg donation, sperm donation, embryo donation, and/or surrogacy services, parenthood may be within their reach.
Our program helps a wide range of patients who seek us out for our level of expertise and personalized approach. Same-sex couples and individuals without partners who want to have babies may be matched with the necessary resources that can lead to pregnancy. For couples who have been diagnosed by our clinicians with male or female infertility, the third-party reproductive program offers options that may enable them to become parents through nontraditional routes.
Our Services
Patients who seek assistance from our third-party reproductive program are paired with counselors who discuss the reproductive options available and then help them decide on a care plan. Patients also meet with financial coordinators to discuss their health insurance eligibility before moving forward.
Patients may feel nervous, stressed, or excited about their journey toward parenthood through assisted reproduction. Our counselors support and encourage every patient, providing guidance and perspective they’ve gained while helping other patients.
Some of the procedures used to achieve pregnancy for patients who come to our third-party reproductive program are the same procedures employed during more traditional assisted pregnancies. For example, many patients in the third-party reproductive program rely on donor eggs to become pregnant. Egg donors use medications that encourage several of their eggs to mature at once, which is similar to the process that women who undergo IVF experience. When patients use donor eggs or sperm, the procedure parallels what happens during IVF: Sperm and egg are combined in a laboratory, then transferred (as an embryo) to the uterus several days later. An embryo may be transferred to your uterus or to your surrogate’s uterus, depending on your personal circumstances.
Sometimes, patients choose to use egg or sperm donors whom they know. More often, patients seek eggs and sperm from anonymous donors. Counselors can connect patients with affiliated egg banks and sperm banks or to donor eggs that were obtained through direct recruitment. Our department recruits egg donors for our patients, carefully screening them in advance.
Our Approach
Selecting an egg or sperm donor can feel daunting. Although donors are anonymous, they provide information about their individual and family health history, their physical appearance, their highest level of education, and other personal details. Our counselors can help you consider everything that you learn about different anonymous donors to make a confident decision based on your personal preferences.
Choosing a surrogate, or gestational carrier, is a more complex decision than selecting an anonymous sperm or egg donor, because patients typically communicate with their surrogates throughout the pregnancy. We require our patients to find surrogates through an agency, which handles the legal contracts that are required when patients work with gestational carriers. We can recommend such an agency if you need a referral.
For more than 20 years, our program has helped thousands of individuals and couples across the U.S. and abroad fulfill their desire to become parents. Throughout the process, our counselors act as trusted advisers, guiding you toward a decision that has your best interests in mind.