‘We are expected to be OK wh not havg children’: how gay parenthood through surrogacy beme a battleground | Surrogacy | The Guardian

Contents:

• FOR GAY MEN, HAVG A BLOGIL CHILD N BE PLITED
• GAY MEN: HOW TO HAVE A BLOGIL CHILD
• CAN TWO MEN HAVE A BABY? GAY PARENTG OPTNS
• ‘WE ARE EXPECTED TO BE OK WH NOT HAVG CHILDREN’: HOW GAY PARENTHOOD THROUGH SURROGACY BEME A BATTLEGROUND
• THE GAY PARENTG ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (GPAP) OF MEN HAVG BABI

FOR GAY MEN, HAVG A BLOGIL CHILD N BE PLITED

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.

GAY MEN: HOW TO HAVE A BLOGIL CHILD

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. 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. There has been a lot of foc the scientific lerature on whether children turn out OK if they have gay parents.

CAN TWO MEN HAVE A BABY? GAY PARENTG OPTNS

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. 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.

‘WE ARE EXPECTED TO BE OK WH NOT HAVG CHILDREN’: HOW GAY PARENTHOOD THROUGH SURROGACY BEME A BATTLEGROUND

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.

THE GAY PARENTG ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (GPAP) OF MEN HAVG BABI

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? Before I was an OB/GYN, I thought, "This is a health accs issue, and if gay men want tws we should rpect their tonomy. What do add to have physician-scientists like you, who are gay, answerg rearch qutns about this populatn of prospective parents?