Gay men face hurdles to having biological kids – Futurity: Research News

A new study documents how gay men use assisted reproductive technology to build their families, including how many children they want and how often their efforts succeed.

Most people hoping to become parents envision having children who are genetically related to them. But for gay men, this process is complicated and expensive. Seeing it through involves collaboration with a fertility doctor, a lawyer, a gestational carrier (a.k.a. surrogate mother), and an egg donor.

The process takes about two years and costs around $200,000 per child—and prospective gay fathers don’t meet eligibility criteria for most health insurance plans’ fertility benefits, although this is beginning to change.

Brent Monseur, who is completing his postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford Medicine in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, speaks about the study in Fertility & Sterility Reports here: