The appointments, the physical demands, the conversations at home, the emotions along the way. Intended parents may not see every part of a surrogate’s experience.

What’s one thing you wish they understood better?

We are based in Australia and reached a deadlock with Tammuz. Any IPs in Australia currently seeking legal action against Tammuz? Just looking for advice on how to navigate this. Thanks

I am a 38YO F and husband 40YO M. Canadian. We have been together 20+ years and have a son conceived spontaneously when I was 30 (now 8 years old). We began trying for second child 5 years ago and did IVF eventually with good success of euploid embryos, but through this process I cannot carry a further pregnancy. We then got onto many surrogacy lists in Canada and have been looking independently as well, but have not found a match. We are interested in some suggestions of what options could be next for us. In terms of what we are looking for - we would like to find a surrogacy match in Canada and consider international options. Good fits for us would be places allowing us to ship our embryos and with wait times to match of under a year. We are not wealthy but comfortable- cost is a consideration. We would consider our surrogate a precious gift, but respect their body and are quite easy going about how the process unfolds in terms of how involved they would want to be or want us in the appointments etc. We asked for feedback from the agencies and they told us that we are not typically what surrogates or looking for because we are heterosexual and have one biologic child already. Anyways interested in opinions on what may be a good next step. Thanks for reading this far.

My husband and I are desperately seeking an altruistic gestational carrier. We live in central Indiana. We simply cannot afford the $100k to go through an agency. We had a family friend who went through the paperwork, the tests, the shots, everything until the one embryo we had died on the day of transplant. We are creating new embryos in November, but she is no longer available to try again, as we expected to have the baby by now. This would be our one and only child and we really need a miracle to find someone to carry for us.

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What actually happens at the IVF clinic after you match with a surrogate?

Matching with a surrogate is a major milestone. But what happens next at the fertility clinic? For many intended parents, the medical side of surrogacy can feel like a series of decisions happening behind the scenes.

From preparing embryos to navigating transfer and early pregnancy, understanding what the clinic evaluates and decides is an important part of preparing for the journey.

Together with Global Fertility & Genetics, Pineapple Family is co-hosting hosting a free webinar on Thursday, November 5, with Dr. Melvin Thornton, Reproductive Endocrinologist & Fertility Specialist to walk through the medical side of a surrogacy journey.

He'll be covering topics like:

• What happens at the fertility clinic after matching
• How embryos are prepared for transfer
• What the clinic evaluates before proceeding
• How the embryo transfer process works
• What happens between transfer and early pregnancy
• Which medical decisions are made by the clinic

There will also be a live Q&A, and questions can be submitted anonymously.

It's Thursday, November 5, at 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET. Registration is free, and both intended parents and gestational carriers are welcome.

DISCLOSURE: I'm a co-founder of Pineapple Family, which is hosting this webinar. This is an educational session, not medical advice. Medical decisions should be discussed with your treating fertility clinic.