Surrogacy after Hysterectomy

Carrying a pregnancy is an inexplicable experience for many women. The inability to carry and deliver a child is crushing to many. Hysterectomy is a surgical procedure where the uterus is removed from the body. Surrogacy is usually considered after a hysterectomy procedure. There are many reasons a woman would carry out the procedure and there are consequences following that decision. Chief of which is the medical inability to carry a pregnancy. There are some women that desire to have children after a hysterectomy, and there are still options that exist for such women.

What is a hysterectomy?        

A hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus from the body. This is usually referred to as a full hysterectomy. The fallopian tubes and ovaries are not removed in full hysterectomies. Partial hysterectomies only remove the upper part of the uterus, and the cervix remains. The uterus is a very important organ in pregnancy. When it is removed, the woman can no longer menstruate and she cannot carry any pregnancy. A woman who has had a hysterectomy will have to engage the services of a surrogate mother if she wants to have any children again.

What are the ways through which a woman can get pregnant after a hysterectomy?

While a woman who has had a hysterectomy cannot get pregnant normally again, with the development and advancement of technology, women can successfully have children through surrogacy. If a woman had just her uterus removed, the ovaries are still intact, and if the woman is still in her fertile years, these ovaries will still have and produce follicles. Therefore, her eggs can still be harvested and fertilized during the IVF procedure. The embryo transfer part of IVF cannot be performed on the woman due to the lack of a uterus and that is where a surrogate comes in. The embryo is then transferred to another woman known as a surrogate, thereby ensuring that the woman without a uterus can be able to have children genetically related to her. Surrogacy, however, is a complicated process, and the laws governing it differ from country to country and even from state to state.

What is Surrogacy?

Surrogacy is the practice where a woman agrees to carry and deliver a child for a couple or an individual. The woman is referred to as the surrogate, while the couple or individual is referred to as the intended parents or parent. After the delivery of the baby by the surrogate, the baby is then given over to the intended parents. The surrogate and the intended parents also have to legally ratify the terms of the surrogacy contract before the start of the surrogacy process. This is because the process is complicated and requires a great deal of emotional, financial, and physical involvement.

What are the types of surrogacy?

There are two widely recognized types of surrogacy, and they are traditional and gestational surrogacy.

Traditional surrogacy

Traditional surrogacy can also be referred to as altruistic surrogacy. This is when the surrogate uses her eggs to get pregnant for the intended parents. The surrogate is inseminated with sperm from the intended father or from a donor to achieve pregnancy. In this type of surrogacy, the child is genetically related to the surrogate because it is her eggs that are used for the pregnancy.

Traditional surrogacy is not very popular and is generally shunned by the majority of surrogacy agencies. This is because the genetic relationship between the baby and the surrogate can create a complication when the mother has to hand the baby over to the intended parents. The relationship gives her a legal hold on the baby if she changes her mind and wants to keep the baby.

Gestational surrogacy

This is the more common and widely practiced form of surrogacy. It is the best form of surrogacy for women that seek to build a family after a hysterectomy. This type of surrogacy requires professional legal advice, medical services, and emotional support throughout the process.

The gestational process involves the donation of eggs from the intended mother or a donor. There is also sperm donation from the intended father or a donor. Using the donated gametes, fertilization takes place, and an embryo is created in the lab. After fertilization, the embryo is then transferred to the uterus of the surrogate who then carries the pregnancy to term.

Since the eggs used for the process do not come from the surrogate, she has no genetic relationship with the baby. Therefore, she cannot have any claim. This makes the process less complicated than seen in the traditional form of surrogacy. Gestational surrogacy, however, is very expensive. It is a sure way of achieving the family-building desire of a woman who has undergone a hysterectomy.

What are the steps of egg donation?

The first step is egg donation for a woman who has undergone a hysterectomy and wants to undergo gestational surrogacy. The steps that she will go through in order to donate her eggs are listed below:

• Hyperstimulation – This is the first step in the egg donation process. The donor is administered some medication that stimulates her ovaries to mature multiple follicles. The medication comes with a few side effects like bloating and tenderness of the breasts. Additionally, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome is a possibility (OHSS).
• Egg harvesting – This is the process of extracting mature follicles from the ovaries. It is usually done transvaginally. The procedure is done under sedation and does not take longer than an hour. Since the operation is simple, hospitalization is not necessary.
• Preparation – After the extraction of the follicles, they are taken to a lab where a specialist aspirates the eggs and places them in a petri dish in preparation for their fertilization.