When you first begin looking into surrogacy – whether you are a woman who is interested in becoming a surrogate mother or an intended parent hoping to grow your family through surrogacy – it can feel a little overwhelming. We’re here to help you navigate surrogacy in Utah, from the surrogacy process, to how to become a surrogate, to how to find a surrogate, and much more.
Utah is a surrogacy-friendly state for both gestational carriers and intended parents. Couples and individuals from a variety of backgrounds, ages, and sexual orientations turn to surrogacy to build their families.
The different types of intended parents from Utah who may use surrogacy and egg donation to grow their families include:
No two surrogacy journeys are the same!
If you live in Utah and you’re ready to start a surrogacy journey, there are many benefits for you as intended parents, including:
Circle Surrogacy has been helping singles and couples from Utah grow their families through surrogacy and egg donation for almost 25 years.
The surrogacy process can feel complex and overwhelming, as there are many moving parts. Working with an agency can help you navigate the milestones and events throughout your journey so that you can focus on the most important thing: preparing for the arrival of your baby!
You may choose to undergo your surrogacy journey independently or with the help of a surrogacy agency. With over two decades of experience, Circle Surrogacy recommends working with an agency to ensure you have the proper support to ensure you have a smooth and safe journey.
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 who 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 and surrogacy law is essential. They will help you understand the surrogacy laws in Utah.
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 where you’ll find bright and ambitious young women who are excited for the opportunity to help you grow your family.
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 Utah, 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 develop your relationship with your surrogate further, and if she lives close to Utah, perhaps even visiting her for appointments.
Once you’ve identified surrogacy as the way you’d like to grow your family, and you’ve selected an agency with which you’d like to meet, the first step is to schedule a consultation.
A surrogacy consultation is an in-depth meeting (about 2 to 2 1/2 hours long) with a parent intake consultant and a lawyer. This private meeting will allow us to get to know you and your story, as well as talk about surrogacy and the process as it relates to your personal situation. We’ll help you understand surrogacy programs and surrogacy costs, as well.
If you're not ready for a full consultation but would like more information, you can schedule a pre-consultation with our intake team by contacting [email protected] and someone will reach out to coordinate a time.
Bringing a baby into your family is one of the greatest joys you can experience. Intended parents from Utah 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.
Circle Surrogacy offers one all-inclusive surrogacy cost program for intended parents living in Utah: the Journey Protection Guarantee Program.
This program was designed to provide the utmost protection and financial security for intended parents, with no surprise costs or fees popping up during the journey. No other surrogacy agency can promise that!
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:
Unlike other agencies, Circle Surrogacy fixes the costs on fees associated with your surrogacy journey. With our Journey Protection Guarantee Program, intended parents can expect fixed costs on the following:
• Professional Fees
• Gestational Carrier (i.e., surrogate) and Egg Donor Fees
• Pregnancy, Labor & Delivery Insurance
Circle Surrogacy is proud to offer this all-inclusive program to help as many Intended Parents in Utah as possible bring home a baby while reducing variable costs.
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.
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 has worked with many surrogate mothers from Utah, as well as most of the surrounding states.
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 are considering 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 allows us to get to know you better and helps your 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 parents are matched according to their preferences on a variety of criteria, including:
If you are making an independent surrogacy journey, you can use the above as guidelines as to what you should be looking for in a suitable match.
We recommend intended parents keep the following 3 criteria in mind when searching for a surrogate mother in Utah:
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. Do her personality and surrogacy expectations match yours? 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 agree on expectations surrounding termination and selective reduction? We ask IPs and surrogates their views on termination of a pregnancy as 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 performs a thorough surrogate screening to match intended parents with surrogates who are strong, healthy, and the most likely to be successful.
Some intended parents require an egg donor in order to grow their family. This young woman will provide half of your child’s biology, so it’s important to choose carefully. As you start your search, it’s a good idea to think about what’s important to you in an egg donor match
Here are some things to consider that can help you find your perfect egg donor match:
Our Egg Donor Database
The first place most intended parents search is an egg donor database. Most egg donor databases can be searched by certain criteria. Circle’s egg donor database makes it easy to search on a variety of qualities, including:
It’s okay if you do not know what you’re looking for in a donor. We are here to help.
Gestational surrogacy in Utah is allowed, and a surrogacy agreement is legally binding as long as the legal requirements have been met. Below are some of the required terms of a surrogacy arrangement in Utah.
Determining Parentage in Utah
While the intended parents have full parental rights after the birth, a surrogate has full control over her healthcare decisions during the pregnancy. Moreover, compensation to the surrogate is permitted as long as it’s reasonable. Although the statute speaks of heterosexual couples, based on recent federal court decisions, local counsel has stated that same-sex couples can utilize the statute, as well.
Surrogates are kind, giving and selfless. They love being parents, and want others to be able to experience that same joy.
There is a lot of information out there about becoming a surrogate, but here are 5 quick things for you to know before you begin!
Ready to learn more? Read on!
At Circle, our Utah 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:
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.
Women who become surrogates are generous, adventurous, and kind. They are teachers, nurses, and stay-at-home moms. They are passionate about their families. They are spirited, caring, and selfless.
They are just like you.
Requirements for Becoming a Surrogate in Utah
You must meet the following requirements to qualify as a surrogate in Utah:
Women who live in Utah 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 Utah, 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 you will make as a surrogate will depend on a few criteria: the state you live in, if you have insurance, and if you’re an experienced gestational carrier.
Calculate your surrogate pay in Utah with our surrogate compensation calculator.
Surrogate payments are made monthly, and surrogate mothers start earning compensation and benefits even before they are pregnant.
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 Utah 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 entirely 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.