New research shows current beliefs and restrictions around traditional surrogacy in Australia could be out of touch with reality.
Ellice and Rhys had a baby via surrogacy in Canada, but a complication and unfortunate circumstances left them with an enormous $120,000 hospital bill.
Research presented at the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand annual conference on the Gold Coast highlights that legislation and IVF unit policies on surrogacy practice may not be related to the real-life experiences of surrogates and intending parents.
Narelle Dickinson, a Brisbane-based clinical psychologist specialising in peri-natal health, said many fertility clinics in Australia refused to facilitate traditional surrogacy and legislation in some states expressly prohibits the practice.
“Traditional surrogacy has for a long time been viewed as more risky than gestational surrogacy because of concerns that a surrogate will be less willing to relinquish a child to intending parents if she is the biological mother and the gestational carrier,” she said.
“This greatly limits access to traditional surrogacy and increases the complexity and cost of undertaking a surrogacy for intending parents who cannot use their own oocytes. They must find a surrogate often outside of a professional setting without the support and guidance of fertility specialists.”
A new study has exposed possible misconceptions about traditional surrogacy in Australia.
Traditional surrogacy is where a surrogate conceives with her own egg and sperm from the intended father or a donor.
In gestational surrogacy there is no biological link between the surrogate and the baby.
Narelle said researchers from Lotus Health and Psychology in Brisbane recruited surrogates across Australia to compare psychological, social, financial and legal outcomes of gestational and traditional altruistic surrogacy arrangements.
There were 19 participants in the antenatal study group, comprising 17 gestational subjects and two traditional surrogates who conceived using their own eggs and an intending father’s sperm. The post-surrogacy group comprised 42 gestational surrogates and seven traditional surrogates.
The findings showed no significant difference in perceived financial, emotional and physical support from their intending parents throughout the surrogacies. No significant difference in depression, anxiety or stress symptoms and no significant difference in levels of conflict between surrogates and intending parents with over 80 per cent of participants reporting no conflict.