FAQ's

The entire Steps for Life program will take between 12 to 24 months  depending on different factors, since each pregnancy is unique, no exact  time frame can be set.

Surrogate assignment takes place two  to three weeks before the preparations start. the IVF doctor should select and assign a surrogate mother to the program after doing a careful physical examination to determine her health. Then, The ISC coordinator will send the parents a detailed profile  of the surrogate mother along with a screening sheet; parents can then make the final decision about the candidate.

It should be mentioned that during the surrogate mother’s preparation, there is always a slight possibility of her being substituted by another. There are various reasons for this and substitution takes place only to maximize the chances of success. Using an alternate surrogate mother may be implemented due to factors such as: endometrium thickness, sudden bleeding during her preparation, not being synchronized with the egg donor or the Intended Mother, or other medical reasons. Parents are always made aware of the change and are immediately updated about the replacement candidate’s personal details.

All the examinations before the fertility treatment itself can be  carried out in your own country. The first consultation with our Medical  Team can be done by phone or video call.   

You will have to visit Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan twice; once to provide the sperm (and or egg retrieval) and once to take your baby home. If the parents cannot make the timeline given by the clinic, we welcome them to come to clinic at their own discretion and provide the frozen sperm to the clinic, which will be used for fertilization in their IVF program.

NOTE : Only for the Kyrgyz program , It is also possible for parents , who are shipping frozen embryos to transfer limited Power of Attorney to the ISC coordinator by choosing this option in their contract and sending the original copy to us. The Power of Attorney contract needs to be notarized and authenticated in your own country; only then is the document considered legal. In this case, parents transferring frozen embryos for surrogacy will only need to travel to Kyrgyzstan once to pick up their baby.

Usually Intendent Parents want to start as soon as possible or by a  certain date. The Fertility Clinics has broad database of donors which  allows you to quickly find one and immediately start the fertility  treatment without lowering your donor’s requirements. You can expect the  delay, from your first contact with ISC to the embryo transfer, to be  between two and three months.

Assisted reproduction in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan sets  no age limit . But at ISC we set our standard to 50 for the  female partner  and 59 years plus 364 days to the male partner. This is exactly why we are  here, ready to help. We give back hope to our patients who are over 40  with a history of unsuccessful fertility treatments, the Steps for  Life will help you acheive your dream of a family.

After a human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) blood test is done to confirm pregnancy, the program coordinator will be responsible for sending updates about the progress of the pregnancy and sending ultrasound reports of the surrogate mother through our secure portal. Parents are more than welcome to share any questions or concerns they may have during the ongoing process. Parents can also visit Kazakhstan to see their surrogate mother at any time during the pregnancy; ISC will help to facilitate communication and to ensure comfortable interaction between the parents and their surrogate mother.

As part of our Steps for Life, when you fill the form, there are  questions regarding the level of involvement wanted by both parties, the  Intended Parents and the Surrogate Mother. Part of the ISC’s mission is  to match parties that have the same expectations regarding their  desired level of involvement to ensure the best possible experience for  everyone.

In the event of a first cycle failure parents are faced with two common scenarios. The first is that they may have frozen embryos left from their previous fresh cycle and can transfer them to the surrogate mother; the second is that they do not and they must have another fresh egg donor cycle done, or the intended parents need to be prepared again.

Fortunately, the payment of the agency’s consultation and coordination costs for the surrogacy program covers three trials, which means that for the second and third trials, parents do not pay agency fees for the surrogacy service; they only need to cover the actual expenses for the surrogate mother’s medication and preparation and their own medication if needed.

For example: if parents transfer frozen embryos for a second/third trial the cost is 3300 USD per IVF procedure (the price may vary slightly from one clinic to another). If they do need to go for a fresh cycle it depends on the number of surrogates they use and thus payment depends on the package they have selected. Parents should note that the agency fee payment will be waived, and they must only cover the surrogate mother’s medication and preparation cost and fresh IVF expenses as well.

This is a common question that parents often ask; more specifically, about having a guaranteed number of eggs, which is quite simply not possible. Unfortunately, nobody is able to predict an exact number before the actual egg retrieval process takes place.

However, to offer some measure of certainty, before involving the egg donor in the program, we will have an Antral Follicle Count performed on the egg donor in both of her ovaries; this will give us a rough estimate of the number of eggs we should expect. However, this is still not a solid guarantee that the same number of eggs will be received, as all the follicles may not respond to the stimulation in a same way.

This is a sensitive question, but one that must be asked and consequently answered for the sake of clarification: ultimately, pregnancy is confirmed once the heartbeat of the baby is heard. If the results of a HCG test come back positive and first ultrasound confirms the pregnancy, but fails to detect a heartbeat, at this stage, it is not considered to be a miscarriage; therefore parents will move on to the next trial without making an agency payment (if this is one of three trials included in the agency agreement ).

In the event that a heartbeat is heard and the pregnancy is considered stable, but the fetus stops developing later on, this is considered to be a miscarriage; in this case, the parents will have to start a new program along with making payment according to the agreement.. The payment to be made to surrogate mother at a specific stage of the pregnancy is detailed in the agreement

To determine the best medical treatment, it is necessary to carry out  some basic examinations of both the male and the female partners. Those  examinations can be carried out with your gynecologist. If you already  underwent the examinations, the results can be used as well. However,  the examination must have been performed within a year.

Everything is put in place in order to minimize health complications,  but like any medical procedure, complications are a possibility in rare  cases. The most common hormonal treatment complication is called Ovarian  Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS). When it occurs, the ovaries increase  in size (sometimes creating ovarian cysts) which increases the pressure  in the lower abdomen and sometimes the woman can experience an  accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity. Hyperstimulation usually  subsides spontaneously.