Surrogacy Program in Nigeria

[Naijafans]

Surrogacy Program in Nigeria

Surrogacy is part of the services render in all IVF hospital across the globe including Nigeria. IVF means in vitro fertilization. It is a fertilization of eggs and sperm in the IVF lab to generate embryos that can be transferred into the intending mother or a surrogate mother as the case maybe. Surrogacy is a fertility intervention under ART ( Assited Reproductive Technology) for women who can not carry their pregnancy due to medical issues. ART is a recognized and approved practice by Lagos State ministry of health. There are various reasons why someone or a couple can decided to do Surrogacy.

In this present time, single men or women can decided to be a parent and thus required the services of a surrogate mother also known as gestational carrier. In this case , a donor egg or donor sperm might be needed for the IVF. The embryos generated by the combination of the egg and sperm will be transferred into surrogate mother to carry the pregnancy. There is a possibility of using a donor egg and donor sperm (third party IVF) if the intending parent's or intending parents' egg or sperm or eggs and sperm as the case maybe are not viable for the process. Donors are not surrogate mothers. Most Fertility hospitals offer gestational surrogacy where the surrogate mothers are not genetically related to the baby or babies she is carrying. The Surrogacy and donor services in Nigeria are done with utmost privacy as their identities are well protected from each other and from general public. Anonymous surrogacy program is what is obtainable in all donor and surrogacy program except in the situation where the intending parent introduces either the donors or the surrogate mothers.

Another reason why surrogacy is done is because some women has medical issues that pregnancy can complicate. These can range from heart issues to kidney issues to cancer etc. In addition , getting pregnant requires the mother to the physically and psychological prepare for this . A woman who is not psychological ready can opt for surrogacy program. On physical readiness, a woman might decide to use a surrogate mother if she has issues with her womb. Issues with the womb could range from adhesion to fibroid to total womb removal ( hysterectomy).

On legality, contracts are signed between the intending parent and the agency and between the agency and the surrogate mother,or between the intending parent and the surrogate mothers in a situation where the surrogate mother is a known person to the intending parent.

Surrogacy agency in Nigeria acts as intermediary between the intending parent and the surrogate mother. The agencies do Surrogacy and management of the surrogate mothers through approved fertility hospitals or clinics in Nigeria. The agency recruits surrogate mothers ,egg donors and sperm donors for the fertility hospital in Nigeria. Most good agencies are registered with Corporate Affairs Commission.

The cost implication for surrogacy in Nigeria ranges between N7,000,000 to N25,000,000 depending on the services in the program. Some agency run an end to end surrogacy program offering all the services in partnership with fertility hospitals while some allow the intending parent to get involved in the management of the surrogate mothers.

Some fertility hospitals also recruit egg donors, sperm donors and Surrogate Mothers by themselves while some will request that the intending parent brings in their surrogate mother and limit involvement to IVF.

Article written by
Olaronke Thaddeus
(Meet surrogate mothers agency)