California IVF Fertility Center is a private practice clinic located in Northern California. As a professional fertility treatment center, we remain open and non-judgmental to all individuals regardless of their sexual orientation. We are very happy to work with gay and lesbian couples to help them achieve their dreams of having a baby. There are many treatment options available and our doctors will be happy to review these options during your initial consultation. Click here to find out how to get started.

We offer many services that are designed to help you have a baby. We can offer infertility testing and a wide range of treatments to overcome almost any obstacle. Our services range from working with donor sperm and intrauterine insemination, donor eggs and gestational surrogacy, to in vitro fertilization and pre implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD – FISH and CGH). Our compassionate and friendly doctors will provide you with professional care tailored to your individual needs and desires. Our staff will welcome you as part of our family.

Homosexual men and women seeking help to have a baby should not be confronted with hurdles and barriers to receiving good quality advice and treatment due to their sexual identity or preferences. There are unique challenges and benefits facing gay and lesbian couples. In most cases, the individual, or couples, are not affected by infertility. By using advanced fertility treatments, same sex couples will often have a higher chance of success than a heterosexual couple that has been trying for a year or more. There are additional legal challenges that affect the rights of the parents. The domestic partner laws and challenges to California’s marriage laws may help alleviate some of this pressure. Our doctors will provide compassionate and professional help to maximize your chances of having a baby.

Legal and Social Concerns for Men and Women

Women using sperm from a friend need to understand the potential problems. There are potential health risks and laws concerning parental rights that you should understand. Infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis can be transmitted from sperm used for insemination. Even in the absence of sexual intercourse, the sperm placed into the vaginal canal or cervix can remain highly infectious. Proper screening and evaluation of sperm donors requires isolation of sperm for at least six months before repeat infectious disease testing can be performed. When donor sperm from an approved sperm bank is used, there are stringent requirements to reduce the risk of infectious disease transmission. The quality of the sperm sample is monitored to be certain you have the best possible chances of pregnancy. In addition to concerns about infectious diseases and sperm quality, the legal concerns alone make using sperm from a friend a very bad idea. When a man provides sperm to a woman for the purpose of insemination, the man may desire legal, or paternity, rights in the future. When a man has donated sperm through proper channels and procedures, he waives this right. Since the laws do not specifically address insemination with sperm provided by a friend, you risk having problems with paternity rights in the future. In the reverse direction, the man risks the possibility of having the child’s mother demand child support. Fertility clinics can assist with directed donation of sperm, but we strongly encourage you to use anonymous donor sperm instead.

Men desiring to have a baby will need to engage the services of an egg donor and a gestational carrier, previously known as a surrogate. Traditional surrogacy involves the use of sperm from the intended father to fertilize a woman that will serve as the provider of the eggs as well as carrying the baby. In this situation, there are significant risks that could lead to legal headaches in the future. States usually recognize several factors in establishing parental rights. Genetic ties, delivery of the baby, and the intended parents are all factors used to establish rights. A traditional surrogate would have two of the three criteria and could present a significant argument to retain parental rights. Lawyers and contracts may be able to address these issues but you must remember that lawyers and contracts do not interpret or apply the law. As such, there are no guarantees when it comes to your parental rights. By using an egg donor and a completely different gestational carrier, homosexual men will have excellent chances of having a baby of their own with a drastically lower chance of any type of legal challenge.

Do not be reassured by a friends promise to not want anything to do with the baby. It’s easy to make such promises until the baby is actually born. Seeing and being a part of the birth of a child is a life altering experience. Many men and women that did not previously feel a bond to a baby may suddenly feel very attached. This could jeopardize your friendship and risk your rights to parent your child as you see fit. California IVF Fertility Center has helped many couples effectively use donor sperm and donor eggs to achieve a pregnancy. We can not provide legal advice outside of informing you of the potential hurdles you face and to recommend you seek legal advice regarding the possible challenges you may face.

On a brighter note, registered domestic partners are afforded some of the same protections and rights as married couples in the state of California. This often means that same sex couples can enjoy parental rights of their children born through donor eggs, donor sperm, or with the help of a gestational carrier. Many couples still look into adoption procedures to solidify their parental rights as they may pertain to other states that have less friendly laws. Our doctors can discuss these issues as they relate to fertility treatments but you should seek legal advice if there are any questions or concerns beyond the general information provided here.

Treatment Options

California IVF Fertility Center is a Northern California infertility clinic specializing in infertility treatments. Specific areas of expertise include in vitro fertilization (invitro), egg donor recipients, and oocyte donors, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), embryo freezing or cryopreservation, IVF & ICSI, and coordination with gestational carrier services. Treatment for both males and females including inseminations, or IUI with sperm from directed or anonymous donors can be coordinated. California IVF Fertility Center provides a highly specialized team to help you with your fertility treatment needs.

Insemination with Donor Sperm

Donor sperm can be obtained from anonymous donor sperm banks or from directed donation from a friend. We recommend anonymous donor sperm for the reasons outlined in the section above “Legal and Social Concerns for Men and Women”. Our clinic has experienced excellent success rates for female partners using donor sperm to achieve a pregnancy. Using ovulation induction with clomid or gonadotropins combined with intrauterine insemination can maximize your chances of pregnancy will keeping the treatments affordable. Donor sperm is obtained from a properly licensed donor bank. The sperm is shipped directly to the clinic and stored in our laboratory. A woman takes the medications to help the eggs grow. This process is monitored by ultrasounds so we can accurately time ovulation without having to rely on ovulation predictor kits or temperature charts. When the eggs are ready, medication is used to trigger ovulation. The insemination is scheduled to correspond with ovulation. The sperm are thawed and prepared for intrauterine insemination. During the insemination process, a speculum is used to view the cervix. A catheter is then placed into the uterus and the sperm are inserted.

To learn more about the insemination click here.

To learn more about clomid click here

To learn more about injectable medications click here

To learn more about donor sperm click here

Donor Eggs

Donor eggs can be obtained from anonymous or known sources. Anonymous egg donation is by far the most popular option. Multiple eggs are collected from an egg donor and used with sperm to make an embryo. This embryo remains in the laboratory for 3-5 days. When the embryos are ready for transfer, an appropriate number of embryos (usually 2), the embryos are placed into a catheter for insertion into the uterus of the intended mother or gestational carrier. More information about donor eggs can be found here.

Gestational Carriers

Gestational carriers are women that have agreed to carry a pregnancy for another person or couple. Gestational carriers use medications to make the uterus receptive for implantation and pregnancy. Embryos are placed into the uterus of the gestational carrier at the appropriate time. The gestational carrier would carry the pregnancy for the intended parent(s). There are additional legal considerations that will have to be addressed. A contract must be in place with a gestational carrier and an attorney must represent the intended parents to protect the parental rights. California IVF Fertility Center has experience working with gestational carriers and will be happy to help assist you in coordinating the process.

Success

Because gay and lesbian couples have not been attempting pregnancy for an extended period of time, there is not often a significant concern for infertility. Usually providing the sperm or eggs and a gestational carrier to the equation will result in very good success rates. There are many hurdles to natural conception that will still affect the chances of pregnancy. These concerns include age, blocked fallopian tubes, sperm quality, and regularity of ovulation. When these factors are not presenting a problems, the results homosexual individuals undergoing treatment can be approximately 10% higher than the treatment results that are posted for heterosexual couples. As an example, the literature supports a 10% pregnancy rate with intrauterine insemination for an infertile couple. In our clinic, a woman without infertility (single or lesbian) can experience a 17 to 20% rate of pregnancy using clomid, ultrasound monitoring, and intrauterine insemination. (data from actual 2006 through 2007). A similar increase is seen in the setting of in vitro fertilization, or IVF.

The welcoming and relaxed environment provided by California IVF Fertility Center certainly provides a welcoming feel that likely contributes to this success. Our doctors will review your history, order any necessary tests, and make recommendations based on your individual situation. Call today to become part of our family.