When we started this process over a year ago, there was a pretty steep learning curve. As with most subject areas (especially where science and law are involved), there are many new terms to learn.

So, what’s a surrogate and why am I specifically a gestational one? When talking about surrogacy, there are two types of surrogate. The first is the Traditional Surrogate (TS). She is genetically related to the baby.

The other is me: a Gestational Surrogate (GS). A gestational surrogate is not genetically related. The egg is either from the intended mother or an egg donor and the sperm is either from the intended father(s) or a sperm donor. In our case, there’s an egg donor.

Why would we go this route? Well, while I’m willing and able to carry a baby for her dads, I’m not a spring chicken. My eggs are likely past their use by date, given risks of chromosomal defects rise significantly after 35. I wasn’t really willing to take that chance. Also, the lovely woman who donated the eggs was a traditional surrogate for the dads’ first child so these children will be biologically related to each other. Young eggs + biological connection = wins all around.

Of course, there’s other lingo (and endless acronyms) that’ll appear through the course of these posts. Here’s some of it:

HART: Human Assisted Reproductive Technologies - abbreviation used as the umbrella term for describing fertility intervention … in humans. Also ART. In New Zealand, there is a group called ACART (Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technologies) who set the guidelines for ECART (Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technologies). They review cases to ensure that ethical standards are being met where ART is concerned. More on that in another post.

IM / IF / IP: Intending Mother / Intending Father /  Intending Parent - this is used to describe the parents that will raise the baby at the end of the pregnancy. As of when we filled in the paperwork last year, it still said IM/IP, assuming a hetero (or lesbian) couple. One of the things you need to indicate is why the IM cannot get or be pregnant. In our case, it’s because neither of the IPs had a womb to gestate in (there’s a Monty Python sketch in here), but our form still had to be doctored to be IP1 and IP2. Hopefully that’s changing.

ED: Egg Donor - this person who donates eggs (of course).