The Ultimate Guide to Surrogacy in Texas

Whether you live in Dallas, Austin, Houston, or anywhere in between, it’s good to know that surrogacy for both gestational carriers and intended parents is supported in Texas. Here’s everything you need to know about gestational surrogacy.

Couples and individuals from a variety of backgrounds, ages, and sexual orientations use surrogacy and egg donation to grow their families. These intended parents are a very diverse group of people who may include:

• Heterosexual couples who have struggled with infertility
• Intended mothers who are unable to carry a child
• Intended parents who have a genetic defect or health condition they don’t want to pass on to their child
• LGBTQ+ intended parents who want to have a genetic link to their baby

Every surrogacy journey is unique!

Texas is home to some of the world’s best IVF clinics, and many of Circle’s intended parents who live in the Midwest, travel to Texas to work with top reproductive endocrinologists.

Also, while it’s not always a guarantee, Texas surrogate mothers can request to be matched with intended parents who are working with a TX IVF clinic.

Benefits of Surrogacy in Texas

If you are a Texas resident, there are many benefits for you as intended parents, including:

• Local IVF clinics. Circle works closely with the most successful IVF clinics, some of which are located in Houston and Dallas. Working with a local clinic helps reduce travel costs associated with your journey. If you’re already established with an IVF clinic, we’re happy to work with your clinic of choice.
• Local surrogates. If you’re interested in working with a surrogate mother who lives close to you, Circle works with surrogates from throughout Texas.
• Flexible consultation schedule. We are available for consults via Skype during the day and evenings. We also hold consults in Texas in person regularly.

Surrogacy and egg donation helps straight and LGBTQ+ singles and couples in Texas grow their families. Texas is a surrogacy friendly state, and home to well-known IVF clinics.

Below you'll find information about surrogacy in Texas, including what the surrogacy process looks like, how much surrogacy costs, what surrogacy program can help you, and so much more. The process can feel overwhelming at first, but the more you read and research, the more familiar it will become to you. Many professionals are involved in a surrogacy journey, and it is a life-changing experience.

Circle has local staff in Texas who support intended parents and surrogates on their journeys.

We're ready to help intended parents from all over Texas – from Houston, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and San Antonio – and everywhere in between!

Circle Surrogacy has been helping straight and LGBTQ+ singles and couples from Texas grow their families through surrogacy and egg donation for 25 years. While you may choose to undergo your surrogacy journey independently, Circle recommends working with a reputable surrogacy agency that will give you proper support and help your journey be as smooth and safe as possible.

Choosing an Agency

Beginning your journey toward surrogacy is a big step, so it’s important to do your research! Not every surrogacy agency is a good fit; finding a surrogacy agency with which you have good chemistry and that shares your views about the surrogacy process is key to a successful journey.

Also, surrogacy laws vary by state, so working with an agency that has lawyers knowledgeable in ART (assisted reproductive technology) and surrogacy law will help you understand the surrogacy laws in Texas.

Finding a Surrogate and Egg Donor

Before matching with your surrogate, you’ll need to match with your egg donor (if needed). You can search our egg donor database of intelligent young women who are excited to help intended parents grow their families.

Your Matching Team will help you find the perfect surrogate match and encourage you to form a strong bond with the woman who will carry your baby(ies). If you’d like to find a surrogate in Texas, you can share your preference with your Matching Team.

Pregnancy and Parenthood

During pregnancy, your agency will be supporting you through each milestone, helping you prepare for traveling for the birth and ensuring you have everything you need to return home safely and securely. This is a wonderful time to further develop your relationship with your surrogate. Many intended parents visit their surrogates for appointments when they live close enough to do so.

Bringing a baby into your family is one of the greatest joys you can experience. Intended parents from Texas have been using surrogacy as a means to grow their families for decades. Surrogacy is a safe way to have the family you’ve always dreamed of.

Understanding surrogacy laws, the surrogacy process, and surrogacy costs will help you make an informed decision to grow your family.

One of the first questions we are asked by intended parents is, "How much is it going to cost for a surrogate?" In Texas, surrogacy costs can be compartmentalized into four categories:

• Professional Fees
• Gestational Carrier (i.e., surrogate) and Egg Donor Fees
• Medical and Insurance Expenses
• IVF Expenses

Most agencies do not offer fixed costs for any of these cost categories, which can result in surprise fees and financial uncertainty throughout the surrogacy journey. However, Circle Surrogacy fixes the costs for professional fees, gestational carrier and egg donor fees, and medical and insurance expenses.

Circle Surrogacy’s programs and pricing are structured to achieve two primary goals: success and cost security.

Circle is proud to offer the all-inclusive Journey Protection Guarantee Program, which is designed to help as many Intended Parents in Texas as possible bring home a baby while reducing variable costs.

Journey Protection Guarantee Program

Surrogacy only: $157,750
Surrogacy plus egg donation: $184,750
(both prices exclude IVF)

Our Journey Protection Guarantee offers Intended Parents:

• An all-inclusive program that covers all Surrogate fees and expenses for unlimited transfers and any complications that may arise during your journey
• No surprise costs or invoices, even in scenarios that require a rematch with a new Surrogate
  

The costs outlined above are for our Surrogacy Only and Surrogacy Plus Egg Donation Programs. For more information about the costs of our other programs, please email us or call us at 617.439.9900.

Financing Surrogacy Costs

Some intended parents may have the opportunity to qualify for financing for their journey. Please speak with our Parent Intake Team or Consultation Team or by filling out this form.

Finding your surrogate match is an exciting time in your journey to parenthood. Circle works with many surrogate mothers from Texas, as well as most of the surrounding states. Additionally, we have a strong representation in the south and mid-west, making it even easier for surrogates and intended parents to connect.

Get Started

It’s hard to imagine what it will be like finding the right woman to carry your baby(ies). In many cases, intended parents aren’t quite sure what they should look for in a gestational carrier.

The first steps in finding a surrogate mother match (whether in Houston or Austin, TX, or other nearby town) are to determine what you’re looking for in a surrogate, your relationship with your surrogate, and your expectations for your journey.

Thinking about what’s important to you in your gestational carrier and journey will make it easier to find a surrogate on your own (if you’re making an independent journey) or to determine if your surrogacy agency has presented you with a good match.

We’ll help find your surrogate mother match.

You’ll be asked to fill out an intended parent profile that not only allows us to get to know you better but also helps our Matching Team find your surrogate match.

This profile is filled with information about you, your relationship (if you are coupled), your family, your hobbies, your plans for parenthood, and what brought you to surrogacy. We’ll ask that you also share photos of yourself, your loved ones, and anything else that gives a good sense of who you are as people.

In addition to your profile, there are specific criteria on which you will be matched with your gestational carrier. Intended parent matching criteria includes your preferences on:

• How much communication you want to have with your surrogate during the journey
• How far away your surrogate mother lives
• How many embryos you want to transfer
• Whether you’re ok with selective reduction and termination, if necessary

If you are doing an independent surrogacy journey, the above guidelines can be useful to consider when looking for a suitable match.

It is helpful for intended parents (IPs) to consider the following criteria when searching for a surrogate mother in Texas:

1. Is she an appropriate legal fit? In the United States, each state has its own laws regarding surrogacy. In addition, each country we assist in has different requirements and laws regarding surrogacy. Therefore, our legal team ensures that the laws of the surrogate’s home state (where the delivery will take place) complement the laws of the intended parents’ home state/country (including laws around same-sex parenting). The legal department will always approve a match from a legal standpoint before a surrogate profile is presented to the intended parents. We will never knowingly present matches that are not a safe legal fit.

2. Does your personality and surrogacy expectations match with hers? At Circle, your Matching Team (which includes a lawyer) will work together to find you the best surrogate match. Surrogates and intended parents undergo phone calls or in-person meetings with the Circle team early in the process; these meetings help determine your personality as it relates to surrogacy. We also look at IPs’ and surrogates’ expectations and hopes for the journey, including the number of embryos to transfer and communication styles.

3. Do you share the same views on termination and selective reduction? We ask IPs and surrogates their views on termination of a pregnancy because we want to create a match of IPs and surrogates who share similar views. We want to ensure that the views of the surrogate and the views of the intended parents align in the event a situation arises where a reduction or termination is considered. In our experience, many intended parents prefer the option to make the choice of termination.

Circle Surrogacy matches intended parents only with surrogates who have passed a rigorous 3-step screening process to help both the intended parents and the surrogate have a positive, successful journey.

Some intended parents require an egg donor to grow their family. Your egg donor will provide half of your child’s biology. Here’s how to go about finding your egg donor match from Texas or another state.

Finding the perfect egg donor can feel like an overwhelming task. How do you begin to find an egg donor who will help you grow your family?

Helpful considerations include:

• Do you want her personality or appearance to be similar to yours?
• Are there any qualities that are a MUST HAVE for you? That’s a good place to start.
• What are you looking for in education? Appearance? Ethnicity? Personality?

Our Egg Donor Database

Most intended parents start their egg donor search in an egg donor database. These databases typically allow you to search for an egg donor by certain criteria. Circle’s egg donor database is easy to use and easy to navigate.

It can be helpful to make a list of search criteria before you begin. Things to consider are:

• Physical attributes (hair/eye color)
• Race/ethnicity
• Education
• Previous fertility
• Geography

You may not know what you’re looking for in a donor and that’s okay! Intended parents often tell us, “I'll know her when I see her."

Texas offers favorable surrogacy law and excellent medical care and IVF centers in Houston and Dallas. Texas is a great state to live in to be a surrogate mother and intended parent because it’s one of the few states that has kept up with the scientific advances of assisted reproduction.

Circle Surrogacy works with many women from Texas as surrogate mothers and meets with intended parents interested in surrogacy regularly in person, as well as via video whenever it's convenient for those interested in learning more about becoming parents through surrogacy.

Determining Parentage in Texas

In Texas, the law governs gestational surrogacy arrangements—making them valid and enforceable— and allows surrogates to receive compensation for their time and services.

Establishing parentage is seamless as Texas surrogates relinquish their parental rights before the baby is even born. Further, intended parents are recognized as the child’s legal parents upon his or her birth certificate. The statute eliminates the need for post-birth legal proceedings, such as a post-birth order or second-parent adoption. This generally means surrogates won’t ever appear in court. Even in cases where a post-birth action is warranted (i.e., intended parents have citizenship needs), the surrogates won’t need to appear in court.

There is so much to learn about becoming a surrogate. We're here to help you navigate surrogacy in Texas, from understanding what a surrogate is, what to expect, how being a surrogate can affect your life, to how to apply become a surrogate mother.

Texas is a surrogacy-friendly state, with many top-rated IVF clinics used by intended parents. We work women from all over Texas – from Houston, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and San Antonio – and everywhere in between!

Circle has local staff in Texas who support intended parents and surrogates on their journeys. Plus, we have a large community of experienced carriers in the area who are open to answering questions from potential surrogates.

Read on to see how rewarding being a surrogate can be when you help those who aren't able to have a baby on their own experience the joys of parenthood.

A surrogate mother – also called a gestational carrier or gestational surrogate – is a woman who carriers a baby for people (the Intended Parents) who are unable to have a baby on their own. Most surrogate mothers are gestational surrogates, meaning the surrogate mother does not use her own eggs and doesn't share any genetics with the baby.

Circle Surrogacy only works with gestational carriers – women who do not share biology with the baby they are carrying.

Surrogate mothers get paid for carrying someone's baby, and they are protected by a legal contract signed by both the surrogate mother and the Intended Parents.

Surrogates are women who have children of their own, have had relatively easy pregnancies and births (they like being pregnant!), and many have completed their own families. Surrogate mothers want to help others have their own families.

At Circle, our Texas surrogates receive the support and guidance of our experienced social workers and program coordinators, many who have been surrogates themselves. We support women wherever they are in the process whether they are ready to apply now or are interested but want to talk with experienced surrogates or Surrogate Advisors. Here is an overview of the process:

• Pre-screening
• Consultation
• Matching with intended parents
• Medical screening and legal contracts
• Monitoring appointments and embryo transfer
• Pregnancy
• Delivery

Learn more about the surrogacy process at Circle.

Wherever you are in your journey, we suggest completing our online surrogacy application. It takes only about 10 minutes to complete and there is no obligation to proceed if you aren’t ready.

Circle Surrogacy works with many women from the great state of Texas; in fact, Texas is one of the top 3 states where our surrogate mothers live.

Women who live in Texas and apply to become surrogate mothers do so because they have the desire to help others experience the joy of parenthood. While there is a monetary incentive to be a surrogate, the indescribable sense of fulfillment our surrogates get from helping intended families bring a child into the world cannot be found doing anything else.

As a surrogate mother in Texas, you have the opportunity to earn between $50,000 and $60,000 in payments and benefits. Surrogate mothers are paid a base fee of between $30,000 to $40,000, plus additional compensation and benefits for milestones along their journey.

How much our surrogates make in Texas will depend on a few criteria: the state they live in, if they have insurance, and if they're experienced as a gestational carrier.

Calculate your surrogate pay in Texas with our surrogate compensation calculator.

Surrogate payments are made monthly, and surrogate mothers start earning compensation and benefits even before they are pregnant.

• Location, location, location! With close proximity to cities like Dallas, Houston, and Austin, Texas surrogates have access to quality care at some of the world’s best medical centers.
• Gain an incredible sense of self-fulfillment from giving the greatest gift humanly possible to another family
• Earn up to $55K+ with a customized benefits package
• Build a life-long relationship with forever-grateful intended parents
• Work with a personal program coordination team and licensed social worker
• Opportunity to work with local and international intended parents

The Circle Surrogate Promise was created for surrogates because we truly care about our carriers, and we want each of them to have the most successful and rewarding journey possible.

In the past, our carriers shared thoughts and improvements with their social workers, or during their exit interviews, and we took all of those conversations and suggestions to heart and improved on our offerings to our gestational carriers.

Guaranteed Pay, Security and Support

The Circle Surrogate Promise is a program exclusive to Circle Surrogates; no other agency can offer the same level of security and support.

Circle Surrogacy promises:

1. Guaranteed Compensation. Circle Surrogacy financially backs their Intended Parents, so a surrogate’s escrow account is always funded to ensure she is always paid in full and on time.
2. No medical bill liability. Circle Surrogacy takes on the liability of medical bills. We listened to our past surrogates and their frustrations with medical bills and we’ve made big changes. While we can never stop having you receive medical bills (since you are the “patient”), our new Fixed Cost programs for Intended Parents allow us to protect both the surrogates and the intended parents, and ensure all medical bills will be paid in a timely manner.
3. $5,000 compensation, even if you leave the program. If you are accepted into our surrogate program and you are medically cleared and matched with intended parents – but you don’t achieve a pregnancy – we will compensate you for your time, energy and dedication thus far in your journey (up to $5,000 total).
4. Empowerment in birth choices. Not every gestational carrier has the same desires when it comes to the birth of their surro baby. At Circle, our surrogates have choices for her preferred birth options, such as doula care, a hospital birth, or using a birth center with a midwife.
5. Personalized, small agency feel, with the resources of a large agency. The first person you speak with at Circle will likely be an experienced carrier who guides you through the process until you are matched with intended parents, personally introducing you to your dedicated social worker and journey support team, all of whom are in house at Circle. You’ll always be supported by a Circle employee, who knows all the details about you and your journey (you’ll never have to worry about working with a third party who doesn’t even know your name!) Plus, with our expanded team, we are able to offer support groups, virtual events, one-on-one surrogate mentorship and more.

Circle provides best-in-class surrogate support because so many of our staff are experienced surrogates – and they have shared with us the type of support surrogates need on their journey. Our surrogates receive top-notch prescreening, social work, and legal and journey support from the moment they fill out their application until months after they deliver. Our team is ready to answer any question you can dream of (and then some).

You'll also be connected with other surrogate mothers through private social groups, and you'll experience exclusive events with the Circle team.

We can also connect you with skilled, trustworthy experts. For example, when it’s time for you to review legal contracts, we’ll recommend an attorney local to you with whom we’ve worked previously and who has a strong working knowledge of assisted reproduction technology law. It’s just one more way we can clear the path for you and make the entire surrogacy program as seamless as possible. Read our blog post about the 10 steps to becoming to a surrogate.

As a Texas gestational surrogate, the question of who you help is almost as important as your decision to help. After all, you and the prospective parents will embark on a monumental journey together. You want to be sure that you connect with and trust them fully. That’s why Circle Surrogacy built an extensive and thorough matching process.

As a first step, your Surrogate Support Team will try to find the perfect intended parent(s) for you based on personality fit and legal circumstances. You’ll get to review each other's profiles, ask questions, and generally feel each other out. There will also be an initial Skype call and, possibly, an in-person meeting. It’s all about making sure both you and the intended parent(s) feel completely comfortable with the match. And of course, the surrogacy agreement only moves forward if you do.

Circle works with single parents, LGBTQ+ and heterosexual couples, domestic and international couples, and more. We’re confident you’ll be able to find a great match.

Whether you are intended parents or interested in becoming a surrogate or egg donor, the surrogacy process can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life. Learning more about surrogacy is the first step of your journey.