Options for Insemination

There are a few options for lesbians and gay men to reach insemination.

• Women may use their own eggs along with a donor’s sperm or they may use a donor’s eggs along with the donor’s sperm.
• Females also have the option of working with a surrogate mother along with eggs and sperm from donors.
• Gay men may work with a surrogate mother using her eggs or they can work with an egg donor separate from the surrogate mother.

Invitro Fertilization (IVF) unites the egg and sperm in vitro (in the lab). The egg donor/birth mother/surrogate will take fertility drugs that stimulate her ovaries to produce a number of mature eggs. The father will donate his sperm at a sperm bank. The semen is "washed" in the laboratory, and the sperm is separated from the other components of the semen and concentrated in a small volume. Subsequently the embryos are transferred into the uterus through the cervix and pregnancy is allowed to begin.