Every year, two things reliably bring the surrogacy world together: the matches that start lifelong friendships, and the conferences where carriers, intended parents, and advocates share the same room. This week, the latter is happening in a big way on the West Coast.
The Men Having Babies 2026 West Coast Surrogacy Conference & Expo kicked off this weekend, drawing hundreds of attendees — surrogates, LGBTQ+ families, agency representatives, legal experts, and fertility specialists — to one of the industry's most celebrated annual gatherings. It's the kind of event that tends to generate real energy in the community, and this year's edition is no exception.
What is Men Having Babies?
Men Having Babies (MHB) is a nonprofit organization that's been running since 2012 with a specific focus: helping gay and bisexual men build families through surrogacy and adoption. But in practice, the conferences they run have become much broader community hubs — bringing together anyone invested in gestational surrogacy, from first-time surrogates to multi-journey veterans, and from fertility clinics to escrow specialists.
The West Coast conference rotates cities along the California coast and Pacific Northwest and is consistently one of the most well-attended surrogacy events in the country. It draws a notably diverse crowd: surrogates from across carrier-friendly states, LGBTQ+ intended parents, hetero couples, single parents by choice, and the full ecosystem of professionals who support them.
Why surrogates should pay attention
At first glance, an event organized around helping gay men build families might not seem squarely aimed at carriers. But experienced surrogates know better. Here's why MHB conferences consistently draw high surrogate attendance and rave reviews from women who carry for LGBTQ+ families:
The LGBTQ+ surrogacy advantage (for carriers)
- LGBTQ+ intended parents often have exceptional agency at navigating the process — they've typically done more research than any other group before their first meeting with a surrogate
- The community is disproportionately well-represented at top-rated agencies — surrogate-reported data consistently shows high satisfaction in LGBTQ+ matches
- MHB-affiliated agencies are typically screened for ethical standards and transparency, a significant differentiator in an industry where vetting is still largely DIY
- Carriers who attend MHB events frequently cite the warmth of the community as one of the best parts of their surrogacy journey
For surrogates actively looking for a match, the networking dimension of events like this is genuinely useful. Many carriers have met their IPs — or at least their future agency — at industry conferences. There's no substitute for seeing how an agency presents itself, how it treats surrogates in a room full of potential intended parents, and whether its values match yours.
What's on the agenda
MHB conferences typically run a full weekend of programming — panel discussions, one-on-one meetings between IPs and agencies, Q&A sessions with attorneys and physicians, and plenty of informal networking. Common programming themes include:
- Compensation transparency panels — agencies presenting their packages, often in a competitive format that benefits surrogates
- Legal updates — state-by-state breakdowns from attorneys, especially relevant given the wave of surrogacy legislation moving through statehouses this year
- Surrogate panels — experienced carriers sharing their journeys, what they wish they knew, and how to pick the right agency and match
- Medical Q&A — fertility specialists answering questions about the IVF process, embryo transfers, and what carriers should expect medically
- Financial and insurance sessions — navigating escrow, insurance riders, and tax questions (a perennial hot topic)
The expo floor is also worth noting: it gives attendees a chance to speak directly with agencies in a setting that's far more informative than a cold website visit. For surrogates who've been on the fence about which agency to approach, a few conversations at an expo can be clarifying in a way that no brochure matches.
The bigger picture: community momentum
The timing of this conference lands in a March that's been notably active for the surrogacy industry. In just the past two weeks, the Philippines filed its first comprehensive surrogate-protection legislation, New Zealand made headlines with its first natural surrogate twins, and Florida passed a foreign-adversary surrogacy restriction that's prompted industry-wide discussion about where surrogacy law is heading.
In-person community events like MHB's West Coast conference often become the venue where these legislative and industry developments get discussed, debated, and explained in plain English — by the attorneys, advocates, and experienced surrogates who lived through them.
That context matters. Surrogacy is a field where most information is filtered through agencies with a financial stake in the picture you receive. Events that bring together carriers, advocates, independent attorneys, and multiple competing agencies in one room are among the rare settings where you can get something closer to an unvarnished view.
There's also a morale dimension that shouldn't be dismissed. Surrogacy can be a surprisingly isolating experience — most of the journey happens in clinical settings, legal offices, and your own body. Meeting other surrogates, hearing from women who've done this two or three times, and spending a weekend in a room full of people who understand what you're doing and why — that genuinely matters to carrier wellbeing, surrogate-reported data consistently shows.
For surrogates: how to plug in
🌿 For Surrogates
If you didn't make it to this year's West Coast conference, there are still ways to connect with the broader community it represents:
- MHB hosts multiple conferences per year — the East Coast event and a virtual edition are both options for carriers who want to engage
- Agency panels and information sessions from MHB conferences are frequently recorded and made available — worth searching after each event
- Many of the agencies attending are among the industry's more transparent operators. If you've been researching agencies, their conference presence is itself a data point worth noting
- Use our compensation calculator to benchmark any packages you hear discussed at events like this against surrogate-reported real-world data
- Check our agency directory for carriers' own reviews of agencies that regularly attend MHB events
For intended parents
💛 For Intended Parents
If you're an LGBTQ+ parent or any intended parent still early in your research, events like this serve a specific function that online research can't fully replace:
- Speaking with agencies in person — and watching how they interact with surrogates in the same room — tells you a great deal about their actual culture, not just their marketing
- Meeting surrogates who've completed journeys and are willing to talk candidly is genuinely rare and valuable
- The legal and medical sessions can help you ask better questions when you eventually sit down with your own attorney and fertility clinic
- The community MHB has built tends to attract agencies with meaningful experience in complex intended parent situations — single parents, same-sex couples, international families — making it one of the better environments for nuanced research
The Men Having Babies conference is one of those events that tends to energize the community every year — and with 2026 shaping up to be an unusually active year for surrogacy legislation, industry consolidation, and compensation discussions, the conversations happening this weekend are worth following even if you're not in the room. We'll be watching for any significant announcements and will cover them here.
In the meantime: if you've attended an MHB event and want to share your experience — as a carrier, an IP, or a first-timer figuring out whether surrogacy is right for you — we'd love to hear from you.