Gestational carriers are healthy, enjoy being pregnant, want to help others and have a good support system.  

Specific requirements include:

• Good physical and mental health
• Living in a stable environment, including financial stability
• 21 to 40 years old (though some clinics work with women up to age 45)
• Being a parent to your own child or children
• Previous healthy pregnancies of your own
• No more than two previous C-sections
• No more than five previous deliveries
• Willing to take medications (oral, patches, vaginal and/or injections) for several weeks
• Non smoker and NO exposure to second-hand smoke
• Must abstain from alcohol, drugs, and make lifestyle modifications as requested
• Having a healthy body mass index (BMI), ideally less than 30 and a maximum of 32

In addition if you are in a relationship, your partner must be supportive of your decision, willing and able to complete infectious disease testing and psychological assessments, and sign legal contracts.

Each state has its own law about whether a woman can legally deliver a baby as a surrogate and how the parents will be named.

Forward Fertility works with surrogates in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa!  We've had excellent candidates from each of these states.  Majority of our surrogates are from Wisconsin -- but we'd love to see more of you from Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa!

• Many women become gestational carriers after someone they know struggled with fertility. Seeing how difficult infertility can be leads them to help others.
• Most gestational carrier applicants LOVED being pregnant, but are done with their growing their own family. Why not help others?
• Many women love being moms and want others to have the chance to experience parenthood too.
• Some stay-at-home moms love the ability to earn income and continue caring for their own children.
• For most gestational carriers, they also appreciate the supplemental compensation to help their family achieve their goals of buying a home, paying off student loans, or going on a special vacation. If the financial compensation is your only motivation, being a gestational carrier is probably not ideal fo you!
• Some gestational surrogates want to help gay men become dads as an act of justice and equality.

For Parents to Be, surrogacy can be a gateway to a dream. It can also mean facing an incredible financial expense or the emotional struggle of not carrying your own baby.  Most clients using surrogacy fall into one of the following categories:

• Women who have had repeat miscarriages.
• A woman who has Asherman’s Syndrome, a condition characterized by having adhesions or scar tissue inside the uterus
• Gay men or single men using an egg donor
•  A woman with a previous hysterectomy or endometrial ablation
• A woman who has a medical condition that is not compatible with pregnancy (clotting disorder, cancer survivor, some autoimmune disorders, etc.)
• Clients who have had multiple, unexplained, failed IVF attempts

If after reading all of the above, gestational surrogacy sounds like something you would like to explore further, click here to complete a short screening application. Or, review the Process for Surrogates or Common Questions from Surrogates pages.

Begin the Gestational Surrogacy Screening Application »

The rewards of surrogacy are great. However, carrying a pregnancy for someone else comes with serious responsibility as well. Maturity, excellent communication skills, emotional stability and a flexible schedule that allows for required medical visits are all necessary. Being pregnant does have risks and you must be willing to accept those risks for you and your family. Being pregnant as a gestational carrier for other people has special emotional and psychological challenges and it is important for you to weigh these as well.

With each gestational surrogacy match, Forward Fertility strives to create the most optimal situation. Knowing yourself is a critical first step toward that goal.