Would you like to know more about surrogacy options in Ukraine? Check the video above to watch our webinar on surrogacy.
We’ve invited Kateryna Sokolovska, surrogacy program coordinator from Intersono IVF Clinic in Ukraine, to be our presenter and to talk about surrogacy in Ukraine. Check the Q&A from the webinar below.
Between the two options, there lies surrogacy. Surrogacy is an infertility solution for infertile couples who are not able to have a child naturally or use assisted reproduction technologies like IVF with donor eggs. It works well for male same-sex couples, women with medical conditions that make pregnancy impossible, for example, Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, or women who suffer from severe pulmonary arterial hypertension or other cardiac disorders. These conditions are definite contraindications for pregnancy as in the Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome where the vagina and uterus are underdeveloped or even absent, even though the external genitalia look normal.
The disorders described above can be indications of surrogacy. Unfortunately, there are more and more women who are not able to get pregnant and carry the pregnancy to term, and there are many countries in the world where surrogacy is banned, only altruistic surrogacy is legal or there are no regulations.
Ukraine is one of the few countries where surrogacy is legal and regulated by law. Kateryna Sokolovska, the Medical Coordinator at Intersono IVF Clinic, was happy to tell you more during the webinar. She has already assisted hundreds of intended parents throughout their surrogacy journey. Kateryna also communicates with surrogate mothers throughout the entire surrogacy program – she is the best person to tell you what the process looks like from the inside, what your rights are as the intended parents and what documents are needed. We hope you have learned more about surrogacy before you make the final decision to go ahead with the program.
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In the case of surrogacy, a genetic link is required by law so at least one of the parents need to be linked, either the mother or father. If you want to be a parent with no genetic link, you can use adopted embryos, but you need to transfer to yourself.
Unfortunately, this is not possible in Ukraine.
There is a certain amount of money in every package that covers emergency hospitalization for the surrogate.
Yes, for sure, this can happen. The procedure is that, firstly, all the non-invasive tests are done in order to confirm such illness. With genetic abnormalities, for example, Down syndrome, in order to confirm this, Prisca 1 and Prisca 2 tests are performed. If they are both positive, the doctor recommends performing an amniocentesis. This is an invasive test but it gives us a 99.9% percent certainty about the possibility of any illness. The parents can then decide whether they would like to proceed with the pregnancy or whether would like to terminate. If they decide to terminate, we can perform this up to week 22.
This depends upon which program you are interested in. There are four programs, so I would need clarification about which program to answer the question.
Our psychologists often report that the surrogates are thinking about their own children; they are involved in surrogacy mostly in order to improve the conditions for their own children. I have not attended a big number of deliveries but, when I do, right after delivery, they are mostly thinking and talking about their own children.
Depending on the language, of course, we offer a native language translator. All surrogates are Ukrainian, so there will be an interpreter/translator available to the intended parents. Most of our coordinators speak different languages: Polish, French, Spanish, Chinese, English, of course, and German. If there is a need for some less-widely spoken language, then we can employ a translator from an agency.
We offer the opportunity to meet with the surrogate if she agrees. Sometimes it also can happen that brings her husband and her children along.
The nationality of the child is identified as the father’s, so if your husband is German we will approach the German embassy in order to get a passport for the baby.
In order to start, we need a couple of months. Once you have signed the documents and paid for the first stage of the program, we will need around one month to prepare the surrogate, which will be, of course, confirmed by a doctor. Some time will be needed for you to consider whether you would like to work with her or not, or whether you would like to choose someone else. Then the medical side takes over, that is the synchronization of the cycles of the intended mother or egg donor: this also takes around one month. Nine months of pregnancy add up to around 11 months. Then, one to three months, depending upon the country of residence – different countries have different lengths of legal procedures after the child is born. Normally, none of our patients stay in Ukraine longer than one and a half to two months, but it depends, as you understand.
All contracts are in a double version, Ukrainian and English.
We need around one month in order to provide the surrogate’s profile and then around another month in order to synchronize her cycle in order to start the program. So it’s about two months in total.
Very roughly, this would be around 41,500 euros.
The main thing is which passport the father holds. The citizenship of the child is according to the citizenship of the father.
If she agrees, of course, I see no problem.
I am guessing that it would be possible for the 23rd chromosome, but I’m not sure what the cost would be. I would need to clarify that with the lab.
This is actually a recommendation from our psychologists and is part of the surrogate’s work after week 18. Our psychologists say that, after week 18, the child starts to recognise sounds from the outside world, so we ask our parents to send some recordings of them reading fairytales, singing songs and so on. It’s a really good idea.
As I mentioned earlier, there are different packages so I would need to know which package. We can always get in touch directly with a detailed quote.
It depends on the country really, because for Irish patients, for example, it takes around three weeks: for Americans, it’s around three to four weeks and depends on a DNA test. So it really depends on the country, but if you can tell me where you are from I can better answer your question.
It is 41,500 euros.
The surrogates receive around 12,000 euro, around 25% of the 41,500 euro cost.
We cannot work with surrogates who are citizens of other countries, only with Ukrainian citizens.
We would definitely accept them.
It depends upon the requirements of the embassy, but, normally it is would be a DNA test.
Normally, the coordinators of the surrogacy department of InterSono offer intended parents the profiles of surrogate mothers and they choose whether or not they would like to work with any of these women. If none, then the coordinators offer other profiles.
In this case, there is no possibility of joining a surrogacy program, but depending on your medical condition, there is an option of transferring an embryo to your body.
Yes, this can be arranged.
According to German legal processes, it takes between two and three weeks.
Not generally, but some of them can speak English.
It’s 37,500 euros.
If you have an egg donor that you would like to order from some other agency or from another country, there is no problem.
Yes, we work with our own courier department, but, of course, you are free to use any courier company on the market.
[In fact, we have already had a webinar about cryo-shipping and will be running a second on this topic soon. You can find all information, including transcripts of the first cryo-shipping webinar, on the eggdonationfriends website.]
I would need some clarification on this.
Logistically, it would be more affordable to create embryos abroad and then ship them to the clinic than for the donor to travel to our clinic.
When you choose the guaranteed program we give you a 100% certainty that, no matter how many tries you need, you will have a healthy baby.
If you mean performing PGD on frozen embryos, this is not recommended by our doctors. This is because the embryos need to be thawed, biopsied for the test and then frozen again to wait for the PGD results. It takes around two weeks to get the results. Double thawing and freezing is not recommended, so it’s better to use fresh ones.
It is 53,500 euros.
Basically, that’s right. There are three mandatory times that we need to see you, but more if you wish. The first is to sign in the documents, the second is for the IVF cycle, where the mother gives her oocytes or the father provides a semen sample, and the third time before the end of the pregnancy. You can also come at any other time you want.
Yes, Absolutely. Everything can be organized by a cryo-shipping company so that the donor does not have to travel.
Yes, sure. They will be frozen if they aren’t be used in the program, then stored until you decide to use them, ship them to some other clinic or to eliminate them.
Yes, this is our general practice.
We strongly trust our own courier department.
The profile includes her name, age, region of residence, marital status, information about the husband, information about her hobbies, information about her medical history – basically her delivery and gynecological history, the reasons she decided to become a surrogate and, of course photos. There is a list of people, apart from the coordinator and the psychologist, who can support her during the program, people to whom she will be able to speak openly and to share her feelings. This can be her husband, sister or mother, but not her children – they’re underage – but someone close. There is also information about whether she agrees to have two, or just the one embryo transferred.
If we are speaking about the surrogacy program with the use of a donor egg and partner semen, it will be 41,000 euros.
According to the Ministry of Health regulations, there is no age limit.
We need a semen analysis test and also DNA fragmentation of the semen in order to understand the chances of success of the program. Before fertilization, your husband will need to do a critical infection test: for HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B and C. These can be done any anywhere convenient for you, either at our clinic or perhaps at a different clinic. The sample has to be shipped to Ukraine frozen, or if the patient comes to our clinic, fresh.
The child lives in Australia.
She basically has a number of tries, how many times she can try in the program, as set by the doctor. If she never gets pregnant then she cannot proceed in the problem.
Basically, this means an IVF program. I’m not able to answer that here because I work only in surrogacy and I’m not really familiar with the prices of the IVF Department. I can ask my colleagues from the IVF Department to answer you directly by email.
The cost would be 37,500 euros for the program, with the cost of shipment on top. Shipping costs depend on your country of residence.
Yes. This is your personal coordinator, who will be with you from the start, right up to your going home.
There are some online, on our website, in the reviews section. Some of them are about IVF treatment and some of them they’re about surrogacy treatment.
[You can also check Intersono’s clinic profile on eggdonationfriends.com. There are some patient reviews about IVF and surrogacy.]
Yes, we will be able to give the contact details of the lawyers who deal with French citizens and surrogacy.
