Fertility Assistance for Same Sex Couples
For many years we have been in the forefront of offering advanced fertility options to LGBT couples who wish to start a family. With very high success rates, our LGBT fertility treatment has been an important part of our Monterey, CA, practice. Monterey Bay IVF is well prepared to address the specific issues of gay and lesbian patients. We are compassionate and ready to listen to the needs of any couple wishing to expand their family unit and who may have many questions regarding how to go about doing so.
IUI, IVF and Other Fertility Treatment Options
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender couples approach assisted reproductive technologies differently from straight couples. Lesbian or gay couples generally are not necessarily diagnosed as infertile before beginning treatment. More than likely, they are completely fertile and capable of producing fertile eggs or sperm. Suffice to say, as with any other patients, the couple would undergo an infertility evaluation with Dr. Ramirez first. Afterwards, a comprehensive treatment path is planned.
For some of our lesbian couples, that treatment path might be one or more intrauterine inseminations (IUI), utilizing donor sperm. We have more information on donor sperm on our Donor Sperm IUI & IVF page. Some lesbian couples are choosing to share biological and genetic parenthood by utilizing IVF. How this works is that one partner becomes the egg recipient and the other provides the egg. The egg provider goes through the routine preparation and protocol for an egg retrieval. Her egg(s) are then fertilized with sperm from an anonymous donor in our embryology laboratory. The embryo or embryos that make it to blastocyst are then either transferred into the partner who wishes to carry the baby or frozen for a later cycle.
For gay men, in vitro fertilization (IVF) along with intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with donor eggs and a gestational surrogate would be the option that offers the outcome of a successful delivery of a child.
Genetic screening of embryos for those going through IVF is also an option (PGD or PGS).
In all cases, we can offer you contacts with agencies that will assist you with selecting candidates for egg or sperm donation or surrogacy. Links to some of the fertility treatments that are available at our center to same sex couples are:
Semen Analysis: to rule out male-factor infertility
IUI: intra uterine insemination
IVF: in vitro fertilization
ICSI: intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection
PGD/PGS: Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis
