Embryo transfer places an already-created embryo in your uterus. 4 In our experience, cycle preparation through transfer takes about 1–3 months, embryo placement takes minutes,9 7 and fertility doctors’ patient guidance gives a typical blood-test window of 8–14 days after transfer. 10 We take your work and family responsibilities into account when coordinating monitoring.
If you’re considering becoming a surrogate, it’s reasonable to want to know who will collect your children, whether you’ll need time off and how much of the calendar is settled. Start with the events below. They make the appointment dates easier to understand, including the ones that may move.
How can you fit a transfer cycle around work and family?
Put the treatment appointments and your home arrangements on the same calendar, and leave room for changes. A tentative transfer date can help you plan, but it depends on how preparation progresses.
We coordinate about 5 embryo transfers per month on average. In my experience, records, professional reviews and the handoffs between them deserve as much attention as the transfer date.
Before treatment begins, ASRM recommends having the signed legal agreement, legal clearance letter, informed consent documents and medical-information authorization in place. Matching with intended parents is one part of the journey; it doesn’t complete these treatment prerequisites. The embryo comes from the genetic parents or gamete donors, so egg retrieval isn’t a step you undergo as the gestational surrogate. The full surrogacy process covers the stages beyond this transfer cycle. 4
Your calendar may refer to FET, meaning frozen embryo transfer. Medication can help prepare the uterine lining for that transfer. In a hormone-replacement cycle, hormones prepare the lining, and progesterone supplementation provides support because that cycle does not rely on the body making its own progesterone. Natural-cycle approaches follow ovulation instead, and their progesterone arrangements can differ. This explains why someone else’s medication calendar may look different from yours. Progesterone may be injected into a muscle or prescribed as vaginal medicine. The surrogacy medication guide covers the medicines in more detail. 12 13
As a planning example, a medicated cycle may include about two weeks of estrogen before a lining check. Protocols differ; use the written calendar for your medication start times and test date. A lining taking longer to develop can mean another scan, additional prescribed hormones and a changed transfer date. When booking travel or arranging cover at work, ask which dates are provisional and which appointments have been confirmed. Keep a backup for school pickups or childcare that would be hard to rearrange at short notice. 12 13
In the Leah story from our earlier transfer guide, planning grew beyond the transfer appointment itself. She brought medication reminders, morning checks, school pickups and travel into a shared calendar. Her story is a useful way to picture the household planning involved: when an appointment changes, the arrangements that depend on it need an update too.
When you work with us, you are not responsible for necessary surrogacy expenses. Before the cycle, check the agreement’s covered expenses and required receipts for travel, missed work and childcare, along with the payment conditions. Reasonable expenses are reimbursed under the agreement through the trust arrangement, with a coordinator following up. For our surrogates, transfer compensation is paid after each completed transfer, whether or not pregnancy results. The payment and reimbursement guide explains that part of planning.
What do monitoring appointments check—and why can your date change?
Monitoring checks how your body is responding to the cycle. A scan or blood test can change the next step, so these appointments do more than confirm a date on your calendar.
Visit counts depend on the plan and your response. For example, a natural-cycle schedule may include scans early and midway through the cycle, with further checks as ovulation approaches. 13 12
A medicated FET plan may use a transvaginal ultrasound to look at the thickness and pattern of the uterine lining. Blood tests check hormone levels while the lining is being prepared. Together, those findings help establish whether preparation is ready to move forward. 12 13
Progesterone is the hormone used to support the lining in these medicated approaches. Its starting time is linked to the planned thawing and transfer of the embryo. That’s why the exact instruction matters: starting it earlier or later to suit travel plans could disrupt the intended timing. 12 13 6
If the lining hasn’t developed as expected, you may need further monitoring and a change to the prescribed hormones or transfer date. A natural-cycle plan also looks for signs of follicle development and ovulation, so its checks need not follow the same pattern. A changed date tells you the plan needs updating; by itself, it doesn’t establish that you’ve done something wrong. 12 13
Janelle’s story in our earlier monitoring guide brings that change into everyday life. She felt frustrated because childcare was difficult to arrange. Janelle and the coordinator created a backup plan for early visits. Once she expected the schedule to change, those changes felt less like bad news.
Some monitoring may be possible closer to home. We can coordinate local monitoring and accompaniment when the treating IVF clinic agrees and the nearby facility can perform the required checks. Ask how the results will reach the treating team before arranging the next appointment.
When an appointment moves, first clarify the next check and the current tentative transfer date. Then update transport, work cover and childcare together. Keeping those practical arrangements aligned is easier than trying to rescue each one separately on the morning of a visit.
What happens when you arrive for embryo transfer?
You’ll have preparation and identity checks before the embryo is placed in your uterus through a thin catheter. The placement itself takes minutes; the whole appointment also includes check-in and recovery. 9 7
Confirm which IVF facility will perform your transfer before booking travel. Nearby monitoring doesn’t mean your transfer will be nearby too. Ask who can accompany you and whether they can join you in the procedure room. Check covered travel costs and receipts in the expense arrangements above.
Arrival checks may include photo identification and matching your identifying details with the embryo records. Their purpose is to make sure the correct embryo is being transferred to the correct person. Ask what identification to bring and what privacy or language support you’d like during the visit. 8
SART describes a thin catheter passing through the cervix into the uterine cavity to place the embryo. For physical preparation, a speculum allows the doctor to see the cervix, which is then cleaned, and abdominal ultrasound can be used during placement. If the plan calls for a full bladder for ultrasound, ask how much to drink and when. 10 9 12
SART says transfer usually doesn’t require anesthesia, followed by a brief recovery before leaving. You may notice belly cramps or a feeling of pressure, and the discomfort can vary. You may still need a ride home. An exception is sedation: if you receive a sedative, arrange someone to drive you to and from the appointment. A discharge plan may allow you to empty your bladder after transfer. 10 9 13
How many embryos are transferred—and could you still have twins?
ASRM strongly recommends single embryo transfer in gestational-carrier cycles because multiple pregnancy adds health risks for the surrogate. This is a professional recommendation, not a statement that your individual plan has already been agreed. Discuss the proposed number before giving consent. 4
One embryo does not guarantee one baby. SART explains that an embryo can split and result in identical twins. The number transferred and the possibility of twins are related but different questions. The separate surrogacy risk Q&A covers the wider risk discussion. 11 8
What can you do while you wait for the pregnancy test?
Make room for ordinary life within your activity instructions. The wait can feel long, especially when you’re trying to read meaning into every symptom or home-test line.
Keep taking your prescribed medicines
For a medicated FET, SART describes hormone support continuing until the pregnancy test. Continue prescribed estradiol and progesterone until you’re told to stop. Transfer day isn’t the automatic end of that support. Keep your medication reminders running, including when you feel well or have taken a home test. 10 13
Bed rest, work and caring for your children
You don’t need bed rest to improve embryo-transfer results. ASRM’s transfer guideline finds good evidence against recommending it for that purpose. That answers the fear that staying in bed is something you must do to help the transfer succeed. 5
It doesn’t answer every activity question. Individual needs can still mean restrictions, so ask specifically about your job, lifting your children, exercise and sex rather than treating “no bed rest” as clearance for everything. If activity is restricted, we can help coordinate childcare and household support, with expenses checked against the agreement and documentation requirements. Plan the help around the restriction you’ve actually been given. 5
Your pregnancy test, results and sharing plan
SART describes blood pregnancy testing as typically 8–14 days after transfer; a medicated-cycle example schedules it at 10–12 days. Those examples explain the roughly two-week wait. The blood test measures hCG, the hormone used to establish whether pregnancy has occurred. 10 12
An early home urine test can miss a low hCG level, so a negative home result doesn’t settle the outcome. Spotting or bleeding doesn’t remove the need for the scheduled test either. Don’t use a home result or bleeding as a reason to stop prescribed support; report symptoms to the treating team. 8 10 13
Before the result arrives, agree how you’ll hear it and how it will be shared with the intended parents. Ask who will contact you, what information you’re consenting to share and when an update will go out. Talking this through early gives you a communication plan without leaving everyone to guess on test day.
The formal result leads to different next steps:
- Positive: Continue prescribed hormone support; follow-up can include further blood tests and later ultrasound. A positive blood test starts follow-up; it doesn’t yet confirm how the pregnancy will develop. The separate guide to pregnancy after a positive test covers that next stage. 12 10 13
- Negative: Get the explanation of the result and the instructions for ending support and arranging a consultation. SART connects stopping supplementation with a confirmed negative test, not an early home test. The failed embryo-transfer guide covers the review and questions about another attempt. 12 10
- Unclear: A first blood result can need follow-up testing. Ask when to repeat it, what medicines to continue in the meantime and whom to contact with questions. Don’t classify one uncertain result as failure yourself or substitute someone else’s repeat-test schedule. 8 13
Symptoms that need prompt medical attention
ACOG advises emergency-room care for sudden severe abdominal or pelvic pain, shoulder pain, or weakness; fainting is also a serious warning sign in its ectopic-pregnancy information. Don’t wait for the next pregnancy test if these symptoms occur. They need medical assessment rather than a home diagnosis. 1
Contact the treating service for worsening pain, fever or difficulty breathing. Report bleeding and other concerning symptoms to that service. That contact route doesn’t replace emergency care for the severe symptoms above. Pregnancy and transfer risk discussions belong in the wider surrogacy risk Q&A; you have a right to understand those risks before agreeing to care. 9 3
Which treatment choices are yours, and what can we help arrange?
The treating team evaluates your medical needs and recommends a treatment plan; you decide whether to consent to care involving your body. We help with coordination and pass medical or medication questions to the treating team, relaying instructions that clinicians have confirmed. 3
ASRM’s gestational-carrier ethics opinion identifies you as the person giving consent for your medical care, from transfer through pregnancy, delivery and aftercare. It also says a contract cannot compel you to undergo or decline a procedure on your body. This is an ethical position about your medical autonomy, not a summary of every state’s surrogacy law. 3
Giving informed consent means understanding what is proposed, its risks and expected benefits, the alternatives and the option of not proceeding. AMA’s guidance calls for an independent, voluntary decision with an understanding of those choices. If you haven’t understood an explanation, it’s reasonable to ask for it again before agreeing. A signed agreement doesn’t replace that conversation about the procedure. 2
Our on-call coordinators cover night-time and urgent communication needs. Medical emergencies still require medical care, using the urgent routes described above.
A workable transfer plan connects the clinical appointments with your life: you know which dates are tentative, have support for changes and understand what follows the pregnancy test. It also leaves room for your questions and your consent. You don’t need every future date settled to start exploring whether surrogacy fits your family.
If you’d like to take that next step, Start your LittleBee surrogate application. Share your circumstances through the application to begin the conversation with us. Applying is the starting point for review and questions, rather than an agreement to treatment or a promise of acceptance.
References
- Ectopic Pregnancy — Originally published: 2020-04; Version read: 2026-04
- Informed Consent
- Consideration of the gestational carrier: an Ethics Committee opinion (2023) — 2023
- Recommendations for practices using gestational carriers: a committee opinion — 2022
- Performing the embryo transfer: a guideline — 2017
- Frozen embryo transfer (FET)
- The In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Process: The Embryo Transfer & Pregnancy Testing — 2014-10-01
- The In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Process: The Embryo Transfer & Pregnancy Testing — 2014-10-01
- Embryo Transfer
- ART: Step-by-Step Guide
- Questions and Answers
- Frozen Embryo Transfer
- Embryo Transfer