Is there any wait to be matched?
Learn the answer to this week's user-submitted question about surrogacy in this week's installment of Ask a Surrogacy Expert! Have a question about surrogacy that you'd like answered? Submit it at brightfuturesfamilies.com/ask
Hey, everyone, it's Jennifer White, CEO of Bright Futures Families Surrogacy, with this week's question, which is: Is there any wait to be matched? And given I don't know who's asking the question, I have to kind of infer some perspective and I'll give it the answer from both sides.
As an intended parent, there's probably always going to be at least somewhat of a wait to be matched. There are just unfortunately more people who need a gestational carrier than there are people who are qualified to do so. How long that match takes, of course, is going to depend on a lot of variable, such as what you are looking for. You know, how you feel about vaccinations, how you feel about termination, what location you're looking for, your gestational carrier, if you have any special requests or things like that, all of those things can make a difference. And we would invite you to reach out and make a consult with us and we can talk through your specific situation and what that looks like for you and whether, you know, hey, is what you're asking for totally normal, reasonable, or is what you're asking for going to make a very, very, very long wait? I always say don't, don't fold on what you're looking for. Just have realistic expectations sometimes.
On the surrogate side, is there any weight? Generally not as much so, because once there are, as I just said, obviously, other side is there are more intended parents who are waiting to match than there are gestational carriers who are able to do so. And so for the most part, for a gestational carrier, the match is relatively quick. And I'm going to say, I don't want to say that it's instantaneous because part of what a good program will do is that they will make sure that they find the exact right fit for you. And so some of that may be that administratively in the background they're working to figure out, asking a lot of questions. You're kind of moving pieces around and confirming to make sure that this really is the best fit for you. So not instantaneous, but generally pretty quickly, unless there's something that is an outlier. Generally gestational carriers who are lower termination or have something unique that they're looking for. It could be that that may take slightly longer, but I have to say, almost always we can find you a match. It's just a matter of being patience, patient.
So please, if either side intended parents or gestational care, if you have any questions, reach out to us. We are happy to talk through your situation and answer any of these questions.