In New York, a gay uple fightg to make their surers pay for fertily treatment have found themselv the middle of a culture war. What happens when the right to parenthood volv someone else’s body?
Contents:
- CAN TWO MEN HAVE A BABY? GAY PARENTG OPTNS
- FOR GAY MEN, HAVG A BLOGIL CHILD N BE PLITED
- GAY MEN: HOW TO HAVE A BLOGIL CHILD
- ‘WE ARE EXPECTED TO BE OK WH NOT HAVG CHILDREN’: HOW GAY PARENTHOOD THROUGH SURROGACY BEME A BATTLEGROUND
CAN TWO MEN HAVE A BABY? GAY PARENTG OPTNS
Stanford physicians have published the first study of gay men's experienc wh g assisted reproductive technology to have children. * gay couples babies *
A gay or transgenr person’s optns for parentg clu:. Or, let’s say we have a gay cisgenr uple, Alex and Zack. Others may be ncerned that sgle men or gay male upl would have a harr time adoptg jt bee they are men, but this may not be te.
“For gay male sgl/upl, we have particularly easier the matchg procs, as there is no other mom 'replacg' the child’s birth mother and often get chosen quicker. This is thanks large part to the growg number of adoptn and surrogacy optns available to gay upl today, pared to what was available a ago. Other optns for gay upl clu adoptn and foster re.
And for gay upl, surrogacy mak that dream a realy.
FOR GAY MEN, HAVG A BLOGIL CHILD N BE PLITED
Geic rearch is advancg to the day when gay upl uld fulfill their dreams of havg children related to them both. * gay couples babies *
However, is still not possible for a gay uple to have a child g DNA om both fathers. But for gay men, this procs is plited and expensive. The procs tak about two years and sts around $200, 000 per child - and prospective gay fathers don't meet eligibily creria for most health surance plans' fertily benefs, although this is begng to change.
GAY MEN: HOW TO HAVE A BLOGIL CHILD
Beg a Parent Through SurrogacyGay men face more challeng beg parents than any other group, both blogil and fancial. The... * gay couples babies *
Brent Monsr, MD, recently helped lead a study to document tails of how gay men e assisted reproductive technology to build their fai, cludg qutns such as how many children they wish to have and how often their efforts succeed. As a gay person growg up a nservative environment, this was a challenge I thought about.
I asked them how I uld start a fay as a gay man. We don't take re of gay men...
Your paper giv historil ntext for how shiftg attus toward LGBTQ fai have changed the climate for gay men who want to bee fathers.
‘WE ARE EXPECTED TO BE OK WH NOT HAVG CHILDREN’: HOW GAY PARENTHOOD THROUGH SURROGACY BEME A BATTLEGROUND
* gay couples babies *
There has been a lot of foc the scientific lerature on whether children turn out OK if they have gay parents. A gay uple New York State recently sued, sayg those creria are discrimatory. Why is important for the experienc of gay men seekg fertily re to be reflected the scientific lerature?
Cisgenr gay men are almost never clud this rearch, so as physicians we don't know anythg about their characteristics as reproductive health patients, even basic rmatn such as their mographics, clil cisn-makg patterns or out. Our paper ed data om one of the very few fertily benef pani that do offer fertily verage to gay men.
That gave a wdow to a natnal group of 119 cisgenr men, cludg five sgle men and 57 gay upl, who uniquely had fertily benefs.
For same-sex upl who want kids, surrogacy is one of only two optns. It is a lengthy and expensive procs, and bee of differg laws om state to state, n be an even more plited procs for gays and lbians. * gay couples babies *
It's important to keep md that our data reflect the experienc of dividuals who n afford reproductive medil re bee their employer-sponsored fertily benefs ver , and that is still an unual suatn for gay men. This data served as the foundatn for a grant applitn we've jt had approved to nduct a much larger populatn study that will give accs to rmatn on about 2, 000 embryo transfers annually gay men.
A lot of people see a fertily doctor bee they have an unrlyg medil issue, whereas gay male upl ually have two possible sperm sourc, a young egg donor and a gtatnal rrier who has already had succsful pregnanci. I thk that, bee of the medil factors, birth rat for gay upl uld serve as a morn standard for evaluatg the succs of IVF labs. We regnize that this may be bee a lot of gay men requt tws or may ultimately want two children, and fertily doctors may be transferrg two embryos to try to save their patients money so they only have to go through the fertily treatment procs once.
But we need to ask: Are we puttg gtatnal rriers at unnecsary risk om tw pregnanci, and puttg gay upl at unnecsary risk of havg babi the NICU?