Basic Requirements & Disqualifications

Basic Requirements

Basic requirements under the American Society for Reproductive Medicine vary. They put out guidelines, and we're stricter because we work with stricter clinics. Other agencies will take different things, so this is specific to Roots.

You are between the ages of 22 and 39. You have a BMI that's around 30. We can't take anything more than 32, and we'd like it to be under 30.

A side note about BMI: I understand it's not the best measure of health, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. These requirements are set by the clinic, not by us; without them, we just can't get you approved. That said, if you're 10 pounds over where you need to be for a 30 or 32 BMI, talk to us about it. Let's figure it out. Don't make that the thing that stops you from moving forward. If you have 50 pounds to lose, it's going to be a much longer and harder road. But if you're really close, don't use it as a reason not to apply. Talk to us. We're happy to walk through ways to get where we need to be.

You are a US citizen, a green card holder or a permanent resident. Under the current administration, we can't take anyone on a visa.

You have carried your own child or children. You need at least one pregnancy, no more than five pregnancies, and no more than two C-sections.

You can apply while you're breastfeeding, but you can't be breastfeeding when we enter you into a match. You need to be weaning by then, and you need to have two cycles back.

You can't have an IUD in right now. If you do have one, take it out. You can also become pregnant easily even if your period hasn't returned after an IUD, so be very careful and use contraception.

And lastly, I get this question a lot: "I had a tubal ligation, or my tubes tied. Can I be a surrogate?" Yes, no problem. We don't use your tubes, because we don't use your eggs. In surrogacy, all we need is the uterus. You do need to have your ovaries, but other than that, a tubal ligation is totally fine. Those are the basic requirements.

Disqualifiers

We do not work in the following states: Texas, Indiana, Louisiana, Arizona, Nebraska, Alaska or Alabama. Almost all of them have laws that aren't friendly to surrogacy, so we can't work there. To my friends in Alaska, I'm so sorry; it's just too far away.

You have to be a citizen, a green card holder or a permanent resident. If you're on a visa, we can't work with you right now.

Unique to surrogacy: you can be married or you can be divorced, but you can't be separated. The court system sees that as a really big complication, because an estranged spouse could come back and say, "I want to be part of this. I want some of her compensation." They're not part of the legal agreement, so it becomes complicated. You need to be either married or divorced. If you're going through a divorce, still apply and just let us know. We can't match you until the divorce is final, but we can work on it.

In your medical history, things like preeclampsia; gestational diabetes that was controlled with medication, insulin specifically; a postpartum hemorrhage; IUGR, where the baby was really small, usually under five pounds; delivering before 38 weeks; or preterm labor that was stopped with medication will all be disqualifiers. Any major medical complication in pregnancy is a disqualifier.

Then there are abortions, terminations and miscarriages. One in four pregnancies in the United States ends in miscarriage. It happens to a lot of people. You can't have more than one, sometimes two, miscarriages. It depends on the circumstances: how long ago they were, and whether you've changed partners, since a miscarriage may have been related to a previous partner. Just disclose them, and we can walk through what that looks like. As for abortions, no more than two terminations. Put them on your application and talk them through with the intake team.

You can't have a felony at all, and you can't have a misdemeanor within the last seven years. Your partner can't have a felony, and your partner can't have a misdemeanor within that seven-year window. Please be really honest about this.

Lastly, we'll put you through a psychological evaluation. It sounds complicated and intimidating, but it's very easy. You'll talk to a psychologist and do some behavioral testing. If you've been on mental health medications, like mood stabilizers, during any of your pregnancies or postpartum, it will likely be a disqualification.

I say likely because if your dad died and you were on Zoloft for six or eight months afterward, that's situational. It began and ended: you got better, you healed and you moved forward. If you have a diagnosis that you need medication for, you need to stay on those meds. The same goes if you had postpartum depression and needed medication for a long time; we don't want that to happen to you again. Or if you use medication to manage bipolar disorder, ADHD or anything else in your day-to-day life, let us know. It's definitely case by case. We're not asking you to get off your medication, but it is a disqualifier in surrogacy, because many of those medications aren't safe in pregnancy or add risk.

In addition, any suicidal tendencies, thoughts or attempts in your medical records are also a disqualification.

Be Honest With Us

I know people who really want to become surrogates sometimes leave information out: something in their medical records, or something in their background that they hope won't come up. It always comes up. So it doesn't help anyone to hide these things. Talk to us. We're trying to help you become a surrogate. We want you to become a surrogate.

So tell us what's in your medical records or what happened in your past, and we'll try to work through it. It doesn't help to get all the way through the process and then have us find out. We get your medical records directly from your providers, and we run a background check with your Social Security number and a private investigator. If there's an arrest or a conviction, we're going to find out.

The Extraordinary Piece

Beyond the basic requirements and disqualifiers, there's one more thing we're looking for. We're going to be an extraordinary agency for you. We're going to communicate, we're going to support you, and we're going to make sure you get paid on time. We'll do everything we can to make sure you're supported and that you have a really great journey, matched with the right people.

We want to partner with the same kind of people. We don't take surrogates who are primarily financially motivated. If this is all about the money for you, you're not a good fit for Roots. We want you to be involved in the process, to have a relationship with the intended parents, to communicate and to be connected. That's really important, because it's what the parents are looking for too. If one side isn't connected, the other is left feeling untethered.

So we want to make sure you're connected to the process, and that you have the time and space in your life to do this: that your boss will let you take time off, that you have a support system at home, and that your partner is truly supportive. Even if they didn't start out that way, you've gotten them to a place where they're supportive now. We need a support system, love and kindness, communication and respect. We need you to be extraordinary too, because that's the kind of team we're building, and we ask the same of the parents.

So just let us know, and be honest. Those are the basic requirements and disqualifiers for becoming a surrogate with Roots.