Choose a fertility clinic for gestational surrogacy by checking whether it can review your carrier and work with your embryos, then comparing travel, treatment costs and communication. Start with where your embryos are stored, where your carrier lives and what treatment you have already completed. I’m Vivi at LittleBee. If you are comparing clinics from overseas, you may be fitting calls around work and wondering how many trips either household will need. You don’t have to choose a clinic from a success-rate headline before you have those answers.
Start with your embryos, your carrier and the travel involved
Your starting point matters more than a long list of clinic names. Perhaps you already have frozen embryos and want to keep the doctor you know. Or you are still planning IVF and can consider a clinic closer to your carrier before anything is stored there.
Make a short note of your embryo location, egg or embryo source, carrier location and treatment stage. If you do not have a match yet, note where you hope the carrier will live. Carrier medical history is part of the recommended review, while public outcome reports separate own-egg and donor-egg or embryo results.12
Then give each clinic the same starting details. Ask whether it can review this carrier case, which appointments would require travel and whether some monitoring can happen near her home. Include your own trips if you live abroad. The answers help you compare arrangements your family could actually manage, rather than two clinics describing different treatment plans.
For the stages around IVF, use our U.S. surrogacy process guide.
Find out what the clinic still needs to review
A qualified medical professional should evaluate the carrier fully before the clinic accepts her. Recommended screening also includes psychological evaluation and counseling; medical history, testing and assessment of the uterus help the treating team review her suitability.1
Ask for the records list and the name of the person receiving it. If something is missing, you need to know which report is needed, who will request it with her permission and where it should go. Ask which parts of the review can continue while you wait for that report. You don’t need her private medical history spread across every email thread to find out which step is pending.
A missing page can matter even when everyone is ready to move forward. In one journey I worked on, the clinic completed its medical review after a missing report from the carrier’s earlier C-section arrived. Before booking travel, find out whether the team has what it needs to finish the review.
In my experience, the whole medical, psychological and background-screening stage, including clinic review, takes about 1–3 months. That is the broader stage, rather than the time a clinic takes after receiving a complete file.
The treating clinicians assess medical suitability and recommend treatment. Your carrier gives her own informed consent. Discuss the embryo-transfer plan during this review: using one embryo per transfer is strongly recommended in carrier cycles because a multiple pregnancy increases her health risks.1 This is a conversation with the treating team, rather than a decision to make from a clinic’s promotional results.
Read success rates in the right group
A success percentage helps only when you know what was counted. The public clinic-results tool2 checked for this guide displays 2022 results. It separates own-egg from donor-egg or embryo outcomes, with measures per retrieval and per transfer.
For a family with frozen embryos, a retrieval result and a transfer result answer different questions. Put the reporting year, egg or embryo source and outcome measure beside any percentage you save. Ask the doctor which group is relevant to your embryos and what else they would need to discuss your prospects.
Published figures reflect different patient groups and treatment approaches; they cannot give your family a personal chance of success or settle which clinic to choose.34 A higher number on one screen is a reason to look at the group behind it, rather than to book immediately. Keep both clinics’ reports with their dates so you can return to the same figures during your consultation.
Stay with your embryo clinic or move to another one?
Staying avoids an embryo shipment; changing may make travel easier for your carrier, but adds receiving-clinic paperwork, transport and fees to check. Neither choice settles the travel question until you know which visits each clinic requires.
| Choice | What it may make easier | Extra work to settle | Who it may suit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stay with the clinic storing your embryos | Keep embryos in place and continue with the team you know | Check whether your carrier can attend required visits; plan travel and time away from her family | A family whose current clinic can review the carrier and whose travel arrangements work for both households |
| Move to another clinic | Required visits may be closer to your carrier’s home | Get the receiving clinic’s records list and embryo-intake answer; arrange shipment and check both clinics’ fees | A family for whom the new clinic’s appointments are easier to manage and the added work is acceptable |
If you stay, ask where the carrier’s monitoring and transfer would happen. A clinic may be familiar to you and still mean flights, childcare or time off work for her. Work through those arrangements with her before choosing dates.
If you change, ask the receiving clinic what it needs before it can accept your embryos. Keep the current storage arrangements in place while you work out the next steps. Ask both clinics who releases and receives the records, who arranges transport and which charges need separate quotes. If your embryos are outside the United States, tell the receiving clinic where they are and ask what it needs for that shipment.
You can view our fertility center network when making your shortlist. Ask the clinic you are considering about your own case. Being closer to your carrier could help with appointments; it does not tell you the total cost or how quickly the new arrangements can be completed.
Find out which steps the quote covers
Compare the steps covered by each quote before comparing its total. LittleBee’s 2025 planning estimate for IVF-clinic fees was approximately $30,000–$40,000, separate from surrogacy costs. Use that dated estimate to start a budget conversation, then get a current quote for the treatment you need.
You may already have paid for embryo creation. Another family may still need that treatment. Neither can tell whether a quoted package suits them without seeing where it starts and ends.
| Part of the plan | What to check in this quote | What to ask separately, and who to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Embryo creation or existing embryos | Which treatment and laboratory steps are included; which are already complete | The clinic about work already paid for and any outside laboratory charges |
| Carrier review and transfer | Which consultations, testing, monitoring and transfer steps are included | Any outside monitoring provider about its charges; the medication supplier about its quote |
| Storage or a clinic change | Which storage and receiving-clinic charges are included | The current clinic and transport provider about release, shipment and continuing storage |
| A cancelled cycle or another transfer | Which event creates a new charge and what remains usable | Each provider about its own cancellation or repeat-treatment terms |
Ask for missing items before setting aside the money. A clinic quote does not replace the quotes you need from other providers. Keep the written answers together so that an attractive total does not leave you guessing about the next bill.
Decide what to settle before you book
Choose after you can explain why the clinic fits both households and which questions still need an answer. Ask who has experience coordinating carrier cases and who will be your clinic contact. If you are overseas, agree on a channel and a time for calls that you can both manage.
For records, appointments and transport, ask the clinic and agency who will do each task. Put a name beside the unanswered question. If embryo intake, necessary travel or a significant charge is still unclear, pause those bookings while you get the answer.
Before treatment, each party should ask their own lawyer to check the paperwork: the fully executed agreement, clearance letter, informed consent and permission to share relevant medical information.1 You can then plan around completed steps, rather than treat a signed contract as the only thing left to do.
If you would like to discuss where your family is starting, talk with me. I am your contact for communication with LittleBee, and you can bring the questions you have about your current clinic or shortlist. You can also browse our guides for intended parents.
References
- Recommendations for practices using gestational carriers: a committee opinion (2022) — asrm.org, 2022
- ART Success Rates — cdc.gov, 2025-02-07
- How to Interpret ART Success Rates — cdc.gov, 2024-12-10
- Success Rates — sart.org, accessed 2026-09-25
About the author: I’m Vivi, a Client Manager at LittleBee Surrogacy. I communicate with intended parents about their starting point and questions as they plan a surrogacy journey.