🏥 Medical Terms

From the first screening to delivery day, surrogacy involves a lot of medical steps and terminology. Here's a plain-English breakdown of everything you'll encounter.

Gestational Surrogacy
Gestational surrogacy is a surrogacy arrangement where the surrogate carries an embryo created from ... Traditional Surrogacy
Traditional surrogacy is an arrangement where the surrogate uses her own egg — making her the biolog... IVF (In Vitro Fertilization)
IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) is the medical process of fertilizing an egg with sperm outside the bod... Embryo Transfer
An embryo transfer is the medical procedure where a fertilized embryo is placed into a surrogate's u... Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET)
A frozen embryo transfer (FET) uses a previously frozen embryo — one that was created during an IVF ... Medical Clearance
Medical clearance is the formal approval from a fertility clinic that a surrogate is physically read... Psychological Screening
Psychological screening is a mental health evaluation required for all surrogates (and often their p... BMI Requirements
BMI requirements are the body mass index thresholds that surrogacy agencies and fertility clinics us... Mock Cycle
A mock cycle (also called a trial cycle) is a preparatory hormone treatment that simulates a real em... Beta-hCG
Beta-hCG (beta human chorionic gonadotropin) is the pregnancy hormone measured in a blood test appro... Fetal Heartbeat
Detection of a fetal heartbeat on ultrasound — typically around 6–7 weeks of pregnancy — is one of t... Selective Reduction
Selective reduction is a medical procedure to reduce the number of fetuses in a multi-fetal pregnanc... Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy, characterized by high blo... Preeclampsia
Preeclampsia is a serious pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure and signs of o... Egg Donation
Egg donation is the process by which a woman provides her eggs to be used in an IVF cycle — either f...