The schoolyard saying goes, “first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby carriage” - but we live in a society where that progression is largely outdated. Some singles and couples choose to start their families without considering marriage, while others wonder if children are even part of their future plan. But for Stef, she knew a year or so before she and her wife, Denise, got married.

For many LGBTQ moms to be, questions about how you’re going to build your family, either by yourself or with a partner, revolve around logistics. What are my options? Can my partner and I both be involved? How much is this going to cost? Will my insurance cover this? Here at Gay Parents To Be we have the team and the tools available to get you answers to those questions, but we also want you to feel empowered and in-the-know about your personal fertility.

Looking for an LGBTQ-friendly doctor can feel like a daunting part of the gay family-building process. Between choosing a path to parenthood, your egg/sperm donor choice, and any additional agency that you may need, we know that the choices involved in LGBTQ family building can seem overwhelming.

One of the choices you will navigate during your biological family building journey will be choosing a surrogate. Here at Gay Parents To Be, all intended parents using surrogacy to grow their families are equipped with a team that includes a specific nurse, navigator, financial advocate, as well as Dr. Leondires. Together, this team will counsel you on your journey and will connect you with a vetted surrogacy agency - whose job is to locate, prescreen, and match parents with surrogates, along with a whole host of other legal and administrative tasks.

Here at Gay Parents To Be we’ve helped countless LGBTQ individuals and couples become parents through IVF and surrogacy. In fact, one of my favorite parts of my job is helping prospective parents understand the process. I know that it can be complicated, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed with information that you find online or hear from second-hand sources.

For many LGBTQ parents to be, an egg donor can be an integral part of their family building journey. For same sex male couples or single men starting a surrogacy pathway, they will require the help of an egg donor to conceive their child. For same-sex female couples where one or both partners is experiencing fertility struggles, using an egg donor may allow them to complete a family building journey where one or both partners are able to carry a pregnancy.

By now, you’re probably aware that the journey to parenthood via surrogacy is an expensive process. Although a growing number of companies offer LGBTQ family building benefits that include surrogacy, many dads-to-be still pay for their surrogacy journey(s) out of pocket. To help budget for your surrogacy journey, we want to make it clear what the costs are for a gay dad’s journey to fatherhood.