Split-cycle IVF is a beautiful way for both fathers to be deeply involved in the process

Fertility Specialists of Texas is a wonderful place to visit if you’re seeking gay family-building options. Not only do we offer a welcoming and inclusive environment, but our team also provides innovative fertility treatments. In addition to donor egg IVF with gestational surrogacy, our team also provides split-cycle IVF. This option allows both fathers to provide their sperm for the pregnancy.

All gay family-building options share the same first steps

The first step of bringing home a baby as a gay man is to meet with one of our fertility doctors. During this initial appointment, you and your partner will discuss your medical histories and family-building goals. You’ll also get to know our egg donor and surrogacy coordinator, your patient care coordinator and one of our financial counselors.

All types of gay family-building, including split-cycle IVF, require you to select an egg donor and a gestational surrogate. The egg donor provides her eggs and the surrogate carries the pregnancy.

• To select an egg donor, you can use our in-house egg donor program or a donor from a different egg bank or program. You also have the option to ask someone you know to be your egg donor.
• For surrogate selection, we can connect you with a reputable surrogacy agency. All agencies we recommend have their surrogates go through extensive screening. They can also help guide you through the process of conceiving with a surrogate.

Once you’ve selected your donor and surrogate, our team will walk you through the next steps of this exciting process.

Split-cycle IVF allows both fathers to provide sperm for the pregnancy

When you and your partner decide to move forward with this type of IVF cycle, you’ll both provide sperm samples. Andrologists in our laboratory will test the samples to ensure they can successfully fertilize an egg.

If both sperm samples are healthy and strong, our embryologists will use them to fertilize the donor eggs. Typically, they will use a process called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). This involves injecting a single healthy sperm into each egg. The embryologists will then monitor the growth and development of the resulting embryos.

When it’s time to transfer one of the embryos to the surrogate’s uterus, you have several options.

• Your doctor can transfer an embryo that was made using your sperm or an embryo from your partner’s sperm.
• If you don’t want to know which embryo contains which partner’s sperm, your doctor can transfer a healthy embryo without telling you information about who is the father.

We will freeze and store all the remaining embryos for future pregnancy attempts.

About two weeks after the embryo transfer, your surrogate will visit our clinic for a blood pregnancy test, and we will hopefully be celebrating your good news. Our team will care for your surrogate for the first few weeks of pregnancy. We will then release her to the care of her obstetrician for the rest of her pregnancy.

We know the gay family-building process can seem overwhelming at first, but we’re here to support you. Contact our LGBT fertility clinic to learn more about split-cycle IVF.