The Pregnancy Experience of Gay Couples Expecting a Child Through Overseas Surrogacy

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the emotional experience of pregnancy for gay couples who turn to overseas surrogacy and face a geographical distance from the pregnancy. In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 gay intended fathers, mean age 35.5 years, most of whom expected a child through surrogacy in India. The unborn children's gestational age ranged from 10 weeks to 32 weeks. A qualitative thematic analysis of the interviews shows that the interviewees felt frustration and anxiety due to their distance from the physical pregnancy and, specifically, their inability to experience the physical presence of the fetus. The resulting emotional disconnect from the developing fetus impacted the development of their parental sense during the pregnancy. The results highlight the importance for the intended parents of establishing a close relationship with the surrogate mother, as is customary in the United States but generally not in countries such as India. The findings support the value of establishing international guidelines for cross-border reproductive services.

Pathways to Fatherhood: Psychological Well-Being Among Israeli Gay Fathers Through Surrogacy, Gay Fathers Through Previous Heterosexual Relationships, and Heterosexual Fathers

“…However, in the current study we did find higher extraversion scores among Israeli gay fathers through surrogacy in comparison to those recorded by heterosexual fathers. This new finding may suggest that the unique pathway to gay fatherhood through surrogacy, could be associated with extraversion as characterized by an active stance when facing the world (Costa and McCrae, 1992), plausibly because the pathway entails very active coping strategies when contacting lawyers, doctors, and surrogates abroad (Ziv and Freund-Eschar, 2015).…”

“…Because surrogacy is not legal for samesex couples in Israel, gay men pursuing surrogacy turn to extremely expensive overseas surrogacy services in South-east Asia and the United States of America. This journey to fatherhood therefore requires several active steps to be taken by gay men, such as reaching out to specialist lawyers in Israel and abroad, undergoing specific medical and psychological examinations in Israel and abroad, choosing and securing an egg donor, choosing a surrogate and building a relationship with her, undertaking several journeys to the country of surrogacy while the surrogacy is being conducted, and dealing with the extensive bureaucracy surrounding the registration of a newborn born abroad as an Israeli citizen (Ziv and Freund-Eschar, 2015). Therefore, we thought that the successful pursuit of surrogacy might be associated with extraversion.…”

Gestational surrogacy: Psychosocial aspects

“…Transnational surrogacy is defined as the process of gestational surrogacy in which the surrogate lives in a different country to the intended parents, and hence, the commissioning parents have to travel to her country to undertake the surrogacy process (Kirby, 2014;Knoche, 2014;Lozanski, 2015). Two of the few studies on this subject have explored the perception of intended parents in the case of surrogacy taking place in a country where the legislation is ambiguous and the process unregulated, generally India (Arvidsson, Johnsdotter, & Essén, 2015;Ziv & Freund-Eschar, 2014). In such cases, the intended parents spoke of the negative influence of the media on the process, especially in the country where it the surrogacy was going to take place, where the lack of legislation also increased the stress associated with the process.…”

“…Advances in assisted reproduction are facilitating the creation of new types of families. In relation to this, gestational surrogacy is one of the options that is growing most rapidly, especially in the case of gay couples (Greenfeld & Seli, 2011;Ziv & Freund-Eschar, 2014). Like heterosexuals, the motivations of homosexuals for wanting to produce children include seeking to achieve a sense of immortality and generativity, a sense of family, and/or a different social status (Bergman, Rubio, Green, & Padrón, 2010).…”

Gay father surrogacy families: relationships with surrogates and egg donors and parental disclosure of children's origins

“…Relationships between fathers and surrogates have generally been found to be positive, with contact being maintained through occasional emails and/or the exchange of postcards and photographs at birthdays and holidays. When contact between gay fathers and surrogates has been found to cease entirely, this has occurred in the Indian context (11), in which socioeconomic and language barriers, as well as agency policies, do not encourage or facilitate contact between parties (12).…”