How Much Does Surrogacy Cost? A Detailed Look at The Cost of Surrogacy
If you’re a couple who struggles with infertility, whether it be tubal factor infertility or other causes, you may be wondering if it’s still possible to have a baby of your own.
The answer is yes.
With a California surrogacy agency like ours at Made in the USA Surrogacy, you can utilize the services of a surrogate mother to carry your own biological child. Made in the USA Surrogacy is a boutique California surrogacy agency devoted to bringing surrogate mothers and intended parents together.
For those who are new to surrogacy, you likely have a lot of questions. How do surrogates work? How do I find a surrogate mother? How much does a surrogate cost?
This article will discuss those questions in detail as well as provide a breakdown of the cost of surrogacy, so you understand just what kind of financial investment you’re making.
Surrogacy In California
Surrogate mothers help intended parents who are suffering from infertility have a child of their very own.
Infertility is something that affects many men and women in America today. In fact, one in eight of every couple will have trouble with infertility.
These fertility problems can stem from something like tubal factor infertility. This complication arises when the fallopian tube is blocked. The ovum is unable to pass through the fallopian tube and become fertilized.
There are also many other causes and reasons for problems with fertility even “unexplained” infertility. The solution rests with surrogate mothers.
Our agency introduces intended parents to surrogates who will carry their baby. If you need to find a surrogate, then you can find plenty of mothers eager to help on our site.
All of these mothers have passed many qualifications that we ask of our surrogates to ensure that they are healthy and able to carry children.
Surrogacy in California can be expensive. There are many costs from different parts of the process that can add up. In total, the entire process can cost around $120,000-150,000 depending on many factors.
Clearly, this is a large investment, but the end result is a biological child that you likely would not have been able to have otherwise. What makes up the surrogacy cost?
Let’s break it down.
Surrogate Compensation: Base Compensation
At our surrogacy agency located near Sacramento, we break surrogate compensation into two different sections—based compensation and a surrogate benefit package.
Surrogate based compensation is dependent upon the agency that you go through, and each surrogacy agency’s base compensation rate will vary based on many different factors.
The area that the surrogate lives, for example, plays a part. They might have to travel some distance to appointments or to meet up with intended parents. Or the area in which they live may be more expensive in terms of cost of living than in other areas.
Agencies will also compare with other surrogacy agencies to see how much they’re paying their surrogates.
In order to entice surrogate mothers to utilize their agency for intended parents, they have to offer competitive prices for their surrogates.
So, if an agent notices that another nearby agency is offering a higher base rate than themselves, then they might be pressured to increase their own base pay in order to attract more surrogate mothers to their agency. After all, there’s not much use if intended parents go to their agency to find a surrogate only to find that there aren’t any available for them.
This brings up an important factor.
If you’re looking for a surrogate in California, base compensation rates for California surrogate mothers often start at the $50,000 figure or more!
Made in the USA Surrogacy decided to try and keep the base compensation rate affordable for local couples or parents looking for a surrogate to $40,000.
This ensures that your surrogate mother is compensated well, but also does not “break the bank”. You’ll see in the later paragraphs how your surrogate’s compensation is not the only driving factor of the total cost of surrogacy.
Another factor that determines the base compensation for a surrogate is whether they’re carrying a single baby or twins.
Single babies are less expensive than twins. This is because carrying twins adds some additional risk. A surrogate mother understandably wants to be compensated for that risk.
Insurance is another factor. Sometimes surrogates will have “surrogate friendly insurance.” This can either drive the price of her compensation up or down.
Whether or not the surrogate is employed is another factor.
Surrogates who are not employed sometimes will require less compensation. Or they may require more if it means that they have to take time away from their employment around the time of birth if they are employed.
Finally, if a surrogate is experienced, then they might be entitled to a higher level of compensation.
These are women who have carried many babies in the past and have a successful track record of carrying babies full-term.
Because they’re experienced and successful, they’re in higher demand among intended couples. That demand allows them to ask for higher compensation.
Agencies pay different compensation rates based on these factors.
As if base compensation wasn’t confusing enough, that amount may change depending on if they need work pay and insurance payments, too.
These aren’t always added to the base compensation but sometimes they are. That can drive the price to a parent towards the higher end of the range given.
At our surrogacy agency, we make it easier for you.
Our surrogacy cost utilizes one base compensation rate for all surrogates. No matter where they live, whether they’re employed, or any other factor, it is the same price for every surrogate.
We do this to make intended parents have an easier time of affording a surrogate mother and to make the surrogacy cost a lot easier to understand. It also benefits the surrogate mothers. They know exactly how much they’re going to be paid for their services from the start.
Made in the USA Surrogacy’s base compensation rate is $40,000 as mentioned above.
We do offer a bit of a bonus to experienced surrogate mothers. That amount is $5,000 for surrogates who have had a successful surrogate journey in the past, this much is normal across many surrogacy agencies. So, your choices are either a $40,000 new surrogate or a $45,000 experienced surrogate mother.
At our agency, this amount will be be paid through 10 monthly installments out of your surrogacy escrow account. Those payments begin after a heartbeat has been confirmed in the surrogate’s womb.
In addition, other payments that stem from the surrogate benefit package will also be paid at that time.
Surrogate Compensation: Surrogate Benefit Package
A surrogate benefit package is an agreement that the surrogate has made with the agency before they are matched with a couple. It’s a surrogate cost sheet.
They are also not typically negotiable because it stems from the surrogate mother and the agency they’re using. It’s an agreement that the surrogate is willing to be used as a surrogate in return for that specific package. Each package is different based on the surrogate and the agency.
Each surrogacy agency pays differently for many of these factors, so it’s important to compare the differences of each of these if you are comparing what surrogacy agency is right for you.
Our full cost list can be found here.
These benefit packages are used to encourage surrogates to utilize an experienced surrogacy agency to go through their surrogacy journey. They do have the option to market themselves as an “independent surrogate” but typically surrogates will incur more headache than higher compensation.
Your surrogate mother can think of her benefits package as an addition to her base compensation alongside it.
Because we set our compensation rate as the same for each surrogate—with an added bonus for experienced surrogates—it allows our surrogates to know exactly how much they’re going to receive when matched with a couple. It also allows intended parents to know how much they’re going to need to pay for their surrogate.
The package that we offer includes the following benefits:
- Lost Wages Compensation: This is individualistic to the surrogate in question. It can range anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000. Typically our surrogates are estimated at minimum to have at least 6 weeks of paid compensation at their daily or hourly rate. This will compensate her for taking off of work from the many appointments she will have during the process of becoming a surrogate, from medical clearance to transfer to after the birth of the child.
- Spousal lost wages: This is included and typically adheres to the same range as above, except it is capped at 10 days for the husband (if she is married). Your surrogate’s husband’s daily rate will be pre-determined by the time you are matched with this surrogate so you are not left in the dark on this expense.
- Maternity clothes allowance: This is set at $1,000 for all of their clothing needs during the process of pregnancy.
- Monthly allowance: This is split into 10 months of $250, that is $2,500 in total.
- Experienced Surrogate: $5,000 bonus
- Multiples fee: If you are expecting twins or desire twins, then that is an additional cost of $5,000.
- Embryo transfer: $1,000 to your surrogate
- Invasive procedures: If needed- $1,500.
- Miscarriage: There is a fee of $500. This can be just as devasting for the surrogate as it is for the intended parents.
- Travel expenses: Travel is also part of the benefits package and is relative to each surrogate. Depending on the distance between the surrogate and the fertility clinic of choice, this expense may be large or small. This amount will be properly estimated by our surrogacy agency to the best of our ability prior to your being matched, but ultimately can vary on many factors such as time allotted for booking travel (last minute is usual when timing with her cycle) and availability.
- Housekeeping: $2,000
- C-Section: Finally, if the intended parents desire a C-section or if a C-section is the preferred method of birth for the surrogate, there is a fee of $1,500. This is compared with other surrogacy agencies that many compensate at $2500. Do your research, going with our surrogacy agency in Sacramento could save you lots of money in the long run compared to many in our industry.
These costs alone will add an additional $11,000-$25,000 to the base compensation rate. You may not be faced with all of these additional costs. For example, your surrogate may not need lost wages.
Or if they are unmarried, then you might not need to pay for the spouse’s wages. Also, a single baby is cheaper to have than a set of twins.
Finally, normal birth costs nothing extra while a C-section will. These are all factors that we as an agency look at when we determine your final budget when determining a surrogate mother that is the right fit for you.
If your budget is tight, it could take a longer time to find the right candidate, but it is not impossible.
At Made in the USA Surrogacy, we are an agency aims to maintain a healthy balance. Surrogates are able to receive an affordable amount of money that they might expect at an average-paying job while intended parents can still reasonably afford their services. It also emphasizes that the surrogates who join us do so for the best reasons—that they are passionate about babies and offering intended parents their own chance at adding to their family.
An agency that offers too much base compensation or overall surrogate compensation could lead to candidates who have other motivations than just the birthing of your child for unselfish reasons.
Other Surrogacy Cost Factors
There are a few other factors that can add to the amount that you pay during the entire process.
The first is a surrogate attorney. You may not think that you need a surrogacy attorney, but it’s actually a vital part of the journey. Attorneys work between intended parents and their surrogates to ensure that everyone is on board with the approved plan.
Should something occur, the attorney can be there to mediate and ensure that your rights as intended parents are protected. It’s especially important that you utilize a surrogate attorney and not an attorney with experience in a different field.
Surrogate attorneys understand surrogate laws and as well as how they play out with parental rights to the letter. Another attorney might not have the same keen understanding or experience of those laws.
Another cost factor is the type of insurance that your surrogate might have.
Health insurance is extremely touchy in terms of surrogates. A policy may seem as though it is surrogate-friendly may actually not be. Because of this, it’s usually a good idea for intended parents to budget for paying for copays and deductibles of their surrogate’s health insurance costs. That can amount to anywhere from $2,000-$6000 depending on the policy.
A full surrogate friendly policy from an outside insurance company will probably range in the $20,000-$30,000.
On the extremely rare occasion that you find a surrogate with a surrogate-friendly policy, that amount is something that you can save instead. However, it should be noted that a surrogate with such a policy is extremely rare. It isn’t worth waiting to find a surrogate with surrogate-friendly insurance.
Your agency will also have a surrogate agency fee that you will need to pay.
An agency performs a lot of work behind the scenes to make a surrogate journey successful. Marketing for surrogate candidates is an expensive endeavor, and the competition for these surrogates is costly.
Our agency, Made in the USA Surrogacy spends thousands of dollars per month recruiting quality surrogate candidates- most of your surrogate agency fee funds the recruitment of your candidates.
Besides just introducing intended parents to their surrogates, agencies also help with the massive job of coordinating both your surrogate along the way (helping answer her 100s of questions that are inevitable) as well as your own surrogate journey as the parent.
Agency fees range anywhere from $25,000-$40,000 for a California surrogacy agency.
Made in the USA Surrogacy’s fee is not on the top range of this, but it gives you an idea as to how much you can spend on this journey depending on the surrogate agency you deal with.
Each surrogacy agency will have varying costs associated with the management of your journey, and each agency runs things a different way. It’s important to remember that the agency fee is not the only expense you will incur in regards to what a surrogacy costs. Many parents come to our agency asking how much our fee is- but the real question they should be asking is, “what is our budget” and “what does a surrogacy cost” overall.
The agency fee is only one part of the cost, and the agency fee should directly reflect how much work is going into the surrogacy on your part and how many services they will provide you. It’s better to compare an agency’s surrogate compensation plan- that will be the part that varies the greatest among surrogacy agencies in California.
Our fee has been designed to help ensure we can keep running our business while still offering intended parents an affordable option.
In fact, we’ve found that our fee is among the lowest of other surrogate agencies in California.
So, what is your budget?
Think about how much you are able to afford in this process. Your surrogacy cost will directly depend on the surrogate you choose, and who is currently available. It’s definitely a good thing to know that some of your expectations will be wants and not needs. Expect that a surrogate from our agency will cost anywhere from $100,000-$130,000.
In-Vitro Fertilization and Your Fertility Clinic
There are costs outside of the agency and surrogate that you need to consider, too.
That cost comes from the in-vitro fertilization, or IVF, procedure. Genetic testing can also be an option which carries a cost. IVF is mandatory for all intended parents. It’s performed at a fertility clinic. The intended mother, or egg donor, and the intended father, or sperm donor, donate their eggs and sperm into a dish. In-vitro fertilization allows the egg and sperm to unite and form an embryo.
After IVF is over at the fertility clinic, the embryo is then placed in the surrogate via transfer.
IVF can cost around $25,000-$30,000 depending on where your fertility clinic is located. This will usually include the cost for one round of treatments with your surrogate.
In total, parents should budget for $150,000-$170,000 including IVF treatment.
Again, the costs can vary greatly either up or down depending on your chosen surrogate. This is a healthy estimate that will give you enough room to be successful with your surrogate and set your expectations correctly regarding your surrogacy cost.
We hope this article regarding surrogacy cost was informative and helpful! Please contact our agency today for a free consultation to answer all of your surrogacy related questions and find a surrogate!
