Assisted reproduction in the United States has both children and children

My boyfriend and I came out to our families quite early, and it was a tough time because my family was constantly pressuring me to get married. My boyfriend didn’t want to deceive our families by entering into a sham marriage or hurt an innocent woman. When we felt trapped by the pressure, we learned by chance about assisted reproduction. Assisted reproduction could allow us to have our own biological children and give our families a resolution.

However, the information we received left us feeling helpless and frustrated. Assisted reproduction is completely illegal in our home country, so it was essentially out of the question. Since we now had a direction, we decided to find a way on our own.

We then began to look into countries with advanced medical technologies. The U.S. allows assisted reproduction, and the legal framework is very well-developed, although the costs are quite high. We also considered surrogacy in India, but after further research, we found out that surrogacy in India is no longer available to foreigners. Then we looked into Thailand, but it turns out that Thailand now has very strict regulations on surrogacy, making it more complicated. Ultimately, we decided to focus on assisted reproduction in the U.S. The U.S. is open to surrogacy for people from around the world, and the technology is very mature.

When we delved deeper into our research, we discovered three unexpected benefits:

We could legally choose the gender of our child;

We could screen for genetic diseases;

We could choose the same egg donor so that our children would share a biological connection.

The most critical factor was that, while assisted reproduction in the U.S. is expensive, it was still within our budget.

After careful consideration, we chose the U.S. In February 2016, after reviewing several agencies, we visited the Little Monster Domestic Service Center during the Chinese New Year holiday. The staff there was very welcoming, and we had a good conversation, addressing all our concerns, and most of my doubts were alleviated. To be cautious, we decided to think it over and left after getting the contact details of a medical consultant.

After a period of detailed communication, we signed the contract and selected a Chinese-American egg donor. We hoped to have our own children with her eggs.

In April 2016, we finally boarded the plane to the U.S. After all the preparation—quitting smoking and drinking, eating a light diet—I was sure we would celebrate once we succeeded. After arriving in the U.S., we checked into a 4-star hotel. The next day, we went to the hospital for a physical check-up and to meet the egg donor. The entire process went smoothly. After sperm retrieval, we spent a few days enjoying the local culture.

By early May, we started receiving the embryo development reports from the staff. After screening, I had 4 healthy blastocysts, and my boyfriend had 3. Since I preferred boys and he preferred girls, we followed the expert’s advice and had one male embryo and one female embryo implanted in two loving surrogate mothers.

After the transfer, we were both on edge, frequently checking in with the staff. Fortunately, luck was on our side, and both of our surrogate mothers successfully became pregnant.

In February 2017, our two children were born two days apart. When the birth certificates were issued, both our names were listed! With the help of the staff, we smoothly returned to our home country and successfully registered the birth of our two babies!