How much does a surrogate cost
Researching the cost of finding a surrogate or the cost of hiring a surrogate
You may be a parent who has researched finding a surrogate for months or even years. When parents contact us, they have been contacting surrogate agencies in California for many months and researching the topic for years.
As a hopeful parent who knows they want a child and have been looking into using assisted reproductive technology or IVF treatment for yourself or a surrogate; we know you have been mulling it over, thinking it over, wanting, wishing, praying for, and/or researching many IVF clinics in California, IVF clinics near you or looking for a surrogate in California.
Perhaps you have already created embryos with the help of one of our partner California IVF clinics.
If you are a parent researching the cost of finding or the cost of hiring a surrogate you are not alone. The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology states that a basic IVF cycle costs around $12,000, and this does not include the price of specialized testing, delivery, legal costs, and other differentiating costs. In many cases, we have had parents report that the cost of IVF cycles can reach well into $30K+ range.
Average excess of $60,000 on IVF costs
A recent article on self.com tells of parents that have spent in excess of $60,000 on their IVF costs. This is after trying for a while on their own. Many of you parents have been in the process of having a baby for many years. You have tried on your own, you have consulted with an IVF clinic or reproductive endocrinologist about your chances of having a pregnancy.
Perhaps you have even conducted a few cycles of IVF and had many miscarriages- this has led you to the reality that you are in need of a surrogate mother. You are tired and have been searching for a while, trying for a while, and in great need of making your process of having a child shortened and concluded.
This is why you need a surrogate mother. But you are worried about the cost- rightfully so! You’ve already spent so much money on trying to make it work already! We at Made in the USA Surrogacy understand this. We know that your IVF treatment may or may not have been successful on its own, so you are looking into other avenues of infertility treatment.
How much a California surrogate costs
Good thing you found this blog! We will explain how much a California surrogate costs, or any a surrogate in any state that is surrogate friendly in good detail.
Many other agencies that are not California based may be located in other states and charge different amounts for their surrogate services. At Made in the USA Surrogacy, we have worked hard on trying to keep the cost of hiring a surrogate to a minimum, based on our competition, and also what we know first-hand is the amount of work the surrogate will undergo during this process.
The first thing you’re going to learn about hiring a surrogate mother in California, is that there is something called a “surrogate base”. This is just like hiring someone at a restaurant and they have a “base pay” of minimum wage. In the same way, surrogate mothers in California receive a base compensation of a certain amount that is supplemented with other benefits.
Other costs that go into the surrogacy process
When you think about the possible costs of hiring a surrogate, it is important to remember how many costs that are not associated with “base compensation.” As a parent looking to hire a surrogate mother, you have to consider what costs may be associated with the actual surrogate process that will be in addition to base compensation.
Common Surrogacy Questions about Costs
- Will the surrogate be traveling to receive treatment?
- Will the surrogate have a full-time job that they will have to leave in order to make appointments?
- Will the surrogate need maternity clothing?
- Will the surrogate have a household full of kids that needs to be cleaned on a regular basis?
- Will the surrogate have maternity needs that are not foreseen such as travel, food or other lifestyle changes you will want them to make that will have consequences on your pocketbook?
- Will the surrogate need to have a C-Section at birth?
- Will the surrogate undergo any medical procedures that will be invasive?
- Will your embryo transfer start with two embryos or will the embryos possibly split into twins?
- Will the surrogate be experienced or new to the process of becoming a surrogate?
- Will the surrogate have current medical insurance that will actually cover surrogacy, or will the surrogate need specific “surrogate friendly medical insurance” so you as a parent can guarantee that the cost of the birth will be covered?
All of these costs above and other costs are associated with the costs of a surrogate. Our suggestion at Made in the USA Surrogacy is that you start with $100,000 budget. We instruct all of our hopeful intended parents to plan on spending at least that amount. Plan to spend this amount, with or without some of the items we are going to mention later.
Some of our parents have been able to save money from this amount, but most parents are at or above this figure given many other factors in the cost of hiring a surrogate. However, we have found that many parents who plan with this budget will be surprised and happy that barring no extraneous circumstances, we are able to accommodate this number or beat it. Keep in mind, this is an estimate of how much it costs to hire a surrogate- $100,000. This number can easily go up or down from here, but it is an excellent baseline figure to plan on spending on while hiring a surrogate.
Base compensation in excess of $80,000-100,000
Perhaps one of the biggest factors of researching surrogate pay in California, is that parents are met with a myriad of surrogate agencies that are located in California. Many surrogate agencies are located in California, and with that being said, many of them are trying to compete for the same amount of California surrogates.
What many hopeful parents of children through the process of surrogacy fail to understand, is that more demand for surrogates in California has actually caused the “price” of hiring a surrogate to go through the roof. Many California surrogate agencies are fighting back and forth on who will pay the most. Some of their online ads for “become a California surrogate” include base compensation in excess of $80,000-100,000!
This figure we are quoting is MERELY BASE COMPENSATION. And just because these agencies promise a surrogate pay that is higher than the next agency that is close to their ad online- doesn’t mean that the agencies will actually pay this figure.
Many parents are faced with higher costs on both sides with these agencies (because it costs money to advertise on google and other platforms)- the parents will pay a higher surrogate base pay ($60-80K) and another surrogate agency fee (not including other surrogate benefits) in excess of $25,000-$35,000 for domestic couples!
These fees can reach even higher if the couple pursuing a birth by surrogacy is from an international country! It’s important to understand that surrogate costs are directly associated with a surrogate agency’s cost to acquire a surrogate, where the surrogate is located, and how much money the surrogate agency is spending to advertise.
How much does it cost to hire a surrogate?
So, in answer to the question- how much does it cost to hire a surrogate, the answer is that it is very expensive, and depending on different factors, that price can be driven higher and higher depending on an agency’s “demand” for this surrogate.
But rest assured, this is not how Made in the USA Surrogacy based out of Roseville, California does business. We have placed our surrogate base pay at the most competitive base surrogate compensation rate of $40,000.
Our base pay for a surrogate does not fluctuate based on where the surrogate lives, or how much the surrogate makes at their job, or whether the surrogate has medical insurance or not. This base compensation cost for hiring a surrogate should be fixed costs so that parents are actively able to decipher if a particular surrogate is within their budget.
California based Surrogate agency costs?
Many of our California based Surrogate agencies are charging and advertising surrogate base compensation in the range of $50,000-60,000K- Base compensation!
This figure is already $10,000 in excess of what Made in the USA Surrogacy charges for base compensation- $40,000. That’s if they are able to convince parents to pay these exorbitant amounts just based on the fact they are California Surrogates. The process to become a surrogate through these agencies is also extremely difficult, and you may be waiting in excess of 12-18 months as a parent to be matched with one of these surrogates from the more expensive surrogate agencies in California despite their claims of matching you within a month or a few months.
Many of our competitor surrogate agencies in California have chosen to put the cost of California surrogates on the backs of parents, causing a meteoric rise in the “costs to hire a California surrogate,” while neglecting their duties to the parent of providing a wonderful service at a competitive and decent rate. These other California surrogate agencies at the same time of charging some of the highest surrogate base compensation, are also charging exorbitant amounts for miscellaneous costs related to these pregnancies.
Made in the USA Surrogacy has taken a hard look at competitor costs for their surrogate benefit package. We have taken a hard look at competitor Surrogate Agency costs. Our costs for hiring a surrogate are not only in line with our competitors, but we beat them on many costs that parents should not have to pay given the exorbitant amounts of money they pay during the process of in-vitro fertilization, assisted reproduction, and the cost of finding of a surrogate.
Our compensation package is designed to not overcharge the parent
We at Made in the USA Surrogacy have positioned our surrogate compensation package to not overcharge the parent. We have maintained that parents are our main customer, and that we have to protect their budget above all things. There are ways that we are able to work with your individual budget for having a surrogate or having a baby.
Recently we have had surrogate parents already spending a large majority of their budget cost for hiring a surrogate on IVF fertility treatments and egg or sperm donor costs. The benefits of working with our agency- Made in the USA Surrogacy, is that we take the time to look at your individual budget and we strive as hard as we can to have a fair amount of compensation to the surrogate while also making sure that other factors in the process can help mitigate your out of pocket costs for hiring a surrogate to a minimum.
Also, it’s worthwhile to note that Made in the USA Surrogacy does not require parents to be ready with $100K when starting with our agency. We encourage all of our parents to be financially ready for the cost of hiring a surrogate, but we understand maybe you need to do this process in steps.
Do I have to have all of the money upfront- $100K+?
Some parents may have $50,000 in cash, but they have already undergone the process of IVF and the process of creating embryos. Does that mean that they should not hire a surrogate agency in the mean-time of procuring other funding?
Or should they be afraid that they “don’t have enough” to pursue a surrogacy? Not at all! That’s why we always ask parents to start with our agency for half of our agency fee, in order to start the process of looking for their surrogate in California, or another surrogate friendly state as soon as possible.
Parents may not be ready to fully fund the cost of having a surrogate, but at $50,000, they are more than able to pay half of our agency fee to get started with looking for a surrogate.
In the mean-time parents can keep looking for ways to procure more money in order to afford this process- such as taking out a second loan on their home (which can take time), relatives taking out loans, and credit of a surrogate friendly loan.
We have had more than enough parents contact our agency saying that they are a little underfunded for the entire process- perhaps they are 3, 6, 9 or 12 months away from having a full starting budget for having a surrogate. But Made in the USA Surrogacy always encourages couples and parents alike to start looking for a surrogate mother immediately.
Timing is everything
You never know if the right surrogate mother has come to our agency days before, and wonders or hopes whether or not they will be matched with the right couple. You never know whether your potential surrogate may be in the middle of a life change, and could use the assurance that they are matched with a couple, but that the timing may not be right for them yet to be pregnant.
You never know whether that potential surrogate mother may move on within weeks or months due to the fact they are not “matched” with a parent within weeks of coming to our agency. Believe us when we say, many surrogate mother hopefuls come to our agency to inquire, but fall off during the process for many issues- some of them related to timing being off between hopeful parents starting date and the ability for the surrogate to start her process for the baby. The moral of this story is that we always encourage parents to start the process in looking for a surrogate regardless of cost, regardless if they have enough money in the bank, as long as they undertand the costs associated with completing surrogacy can exceed $100k. At a minimum, all parents should start the process of finding a surrogate as soon as they are able to start looking. We have had too many parents not start with our agency because they are worried about the $100K figure, not knowing that they are eligible to find a surrogate and be matched with a surrogate from California or other surrogate friendly state even before they are able to fund the entire surrogate process.
Many reasons to go through an agency
Many surrogate mothers come and go through our agency for a variety of reasons. We have had qualified surrogate mothers who are not matched with a hopeful intended parent because the parents thought they were not prepared to fully fund the surrogacy just yet. We encouraged all of those parents to at least sign on with our agency to begin their search of a competent and ready/able surrogate that may fit their needs.
At Made in the USA Surrogacy, we will find you a surrogate for you whether you are completely ready for the entire process of finding a surrogate or not. Good surrogates that come to our agency to be matched are ready and willing to meet their future surrogate families. The more time that goes by in not deciding to hire a surrogate agency such as Made in the USA Surrogacy could potentially cause you as a hopeful intended parent to miss out on a qualified candidate.
Don’t allow money to stop you from starting your process. We at Made in the USA Surrogacy are more than able to accommodate your budget even if your starting budget is less than our estimated costs for a fully funded surrogacy. You never know if they process will take 6 months, 12 months, or whether you will be matched with a surrogate right away.
We believe in fair compensation for the surrogate, but also fair costs for the parents
Please give us a call for any further details on our costs to hire a surrogate. Many costs vary between agencies, but our agency fee, as well as surrogate base compensation fee, are what sets us apart from our competition within the $10s of thousands. If you are interested in becoming a parent with our agency, please fill in this form or call us a 916-226-4342. We are local to the Northern California area, and we serve all of California parents, as well as international couples!
