Treatments

Description of available treatments

Surrogacy programmes

Surrogacy is when one woman (the surrogate host) is to bear a child for another woman or a couple (the commissioning couple). The commissioning couple can only become the legal parents by applying for a Parental Order. All patients considering surrogacy are strongly advised to seek legal advice.

Even though London Fertility Centre offers surrogacy treatment, the Centre cannot be involved in recruiting surrogate mothers. The HFEA Act 1990 bans advertising for surrogate mothers by any means. All patients are responsible for the recruitment of their own surrogate either personally or through an organisation such as COTS or SurrogacyUK.

There are two types of treatment, full or host surrogacy where the surrogate (host) mother receives embryos that do not genetically belong to her. Partial or straight surrogacy is where the surrogate contributes her own eggs and therefore the surrogate mother is both the genetic and carrying mother.

Until 6 April 2010, Parental Orders could only be issued to commissioning married couples who satisfy other specific conditions. However, new Surrogacy Rules inforce from 6 April 2010 enable unmarried and same-sex couples to apply for Parental Orders.

LFC's team have carefully considered the implications of the new rules and are pleased to be able to, offer Surrogacy treatment to a wider population of patients in a range of relationships.

Read More Surrogacy info sheet >
HFEA Info Sheet on Surrogacy (.pdf) >