Agency Primer
All egg donor and surrogacy agencies charge a variety of fees to provide you with an egg donor or surrogate, and to ensure that all legal and psychological needs and certain insurance needs are covered. Following is a general range of egg donor and surrogacy agency fees. Fees may vary quite a bit from one agency to the next.
Generally speaking, egg donor agency administrative fees tend to be in the $8,000–$15,000 range. This does not include the egg donor’s compensation, medical fees, or egg donor expenses, such as travel. Some agencies give you a bundled fee that includes legal fees, psychological fees, insurance fees, and agency administrative fees. Others charge a separate fee for each service or ask you to pay each fee directly to the service provider. These fees are usually nonnegotiable. Most egg donor and surrogacy agencies spend a lot of money to recruit donors and don’t have a high profit margin. The other fees for legal, psychological, and other services are fairly standard and, again, have no wiggle room.
Egg donor fees are the greatest variable. An egg donor’s fee can range from $6,000 to $15,000. The donor’s fee could be as high as $30,000 or in rare cases higher. Generally, you need not pay that much to get what you want in an egg donor.
With surrogacy, the fees are higher because you’re dealing with a longer, more complicated process. It is a little harder to compare administrative fees, but it is pretty safe to assume that you get what you pay for. If the surrogacy agency has an extremely low administrative fee, the agency may be just a matching service. That is, they have surrogates to match, but you will need to handle the details on your own.
Full service surrogacy agencies charge an administrative fee of $18,000–$30,000. You want a program that will support you from match to birth and beyond. Some agencies are more hands-on when handling cases than others.
Surrogate compensation can vary from $30,000 to $65,000 and up. Surrogates do so much for what breaks down to a few dollars a day. These wonderful women more than earn their compensation for the wear and tear on their bodies and the strain on their families. Expect most surrogates to receive compensation for expenses plus incentive for attending monthly support group meetings.
Basic Egg Donor Agency Cost
The following fees do not include medical costs for services or medications required:
• Administrative fee for the egg donor program: $5,000–$12,000.*
• International fee: $500–$2,000.
• Egg donor fees: $7,000–$15,000.
• Egg donor expenses: $600–$6,000 (if travel is required).
• Legal fees: $1000–$1500.
• Egg donor insurance: $400–$500.
• Egg donor psychological screening: $400–$1,000. Depends on the level of testing. Expect the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) at a minimum. Usually intelligence testing will cost you more.
(check out thisEgg Donation Cost Calculator
Basic Surrogacy Agency Cost
The following fees do not include medical costs for services or medications required:
• Administrative fee for the surrogacy program: $18,000–$24,000.
• International fee: $2,000.
• Surrogate compensation: $30,000–$65,000.
• Allowance for surrogate: $200 per month.
• Surrogate support group meetings: $100 per month.
• Legal fees: $2,000–$8,000+. Depends on the extent of the attorney’s duties. If they manage the trust/escrow account, expect the fee to be on the higher end.
• Psychological fees for surrogate evaluation and support: $1,000–$4,000 (depending on how involved the psychologist is).
• Maternity clothing allowance for the surrogate: $600–$1,000.
• Embryo transfer fees: $750 - $1000.
• Fees for multiples: Expect to pay more for a twin pregnancy, and more still for triplets (always a high risk and not recommended) and additional multiples, due to additional bed rest required for the surrogate.
• Health and life insurance: All surrogates require health and life insurance. The cost of insurance can vary depending on the insurance plan. Getting health insurance to cover surrogacy can be difficult. The few health insurance policies that truly cover surrogacy tend to be expensive but worth the price. If a surrogate has her own insurance, she needs to ensure that the insurance company will include a surrogate pregnancy in her coverage.