And so it came to pass: Mail on Sunday - gay male couple offered fertility treatment including surrogacy

[Needmoresleep]

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6636419/Gay-male-couple-offered-IVF-treatment-NHS-time-Britain.html

Oh ffs, think of the women.

So nice to know the NHS has so much money that they can pay for men to rent a woman's body for 9 months.

I think we all knew this was in the post. If this becomes the norm across the country for anyone who cannot conceive as a couple (perhaps some singles too) a lot of surrogates will be needed.

How long before poor women get signed up to be surrogates at the Job Centre under threat of sanctions.

No mention in the article of how the surrogate mother will be found or how the arrangements will be made - is the NHS doing this on the men's behalf?

I just saw this on Facebook seems the gay community are in raptures. Meanwhile women have to prove they've been trying for 3 years and if you have a miscarriage back to the start line you go. Where is the common sense?

I was supposed to have six procedures*, one every six months over three years. I'm still waiting on a date for the third, three years in - lack of resources are apparently delaying things. I can't work and I spend days at a time in bed through pain and exhaustion.

I can rest easy now though, knowing that the menz are looked after.

*Crohn’s. And yes, I know there are seperate funding streams and all that. Still mightily fucked off though.

Ah still got to find an egg though - those pesky women hatching those eggs for themselves!

The article quotes someone from NHS Scotland saying they will not find a surrogate.

My mistake. Someone from the Scottish government said the NHS wouldn't find the surrogate.

The IVF is being paid for. It does not say the surrogacy is being paid for by the NHS.

No mention in the article of how the surrogate mother will be found or how the arrangements will be made - is the NHS doing this on the men's behalf?

There is. 'A Scottish Government spokesman confirmed fertility treatment was offered to men in same-sex relationships who had fertility problems, including same-sex male couples using a surrogate. But he emphasised the NHS would not find the surrogate'.

The implication is that the couple need to find the egg donor too.
And the funding doesn't look to be covering surrogacy expenses apart from the implantation:
The NHS will fund the process of a donor egg being fertilised and the resultant embryo implanted into the surrogate mother.

It's like the nhs is trying to distance itself from the ethically dubious issue of surrogacy while still funding the medical part of 'fertility treatment'. As it stands, this couple will have to find both an altruistic egg donor and surrogate ... just like the current storyline in The Archers, except for some of the medical expenses being covered.

I think this position isn't too unreasonable- provided that this is as far as it goes.

The NHS don't need to be involved in the surrogacy part. I suspect what is most likely to happen is that Stonewall etc.. will be currently lobby the government to make laws around paid surrogacy more like the US.

Capitalism will take care of the rest with a ton of pimps clinics popping up to provide women to those willing to pay for their bodies.

Surely this must be quite rare though that both men would have fertility issues?

How common is it for men to have fertility problems?

I don’t think it’s right that IVF is a postcode lottery, but I can’t get too worked up if this is a once in a blue moon situation.

On a seperate note I think surrogacy should be illegal.

@OvaHere a lot of gay couples are against the US system though and think our system is better they just need more legal recognition earlier.

Batteriesallgone

They don't both have fertility problems:

The married couple hope to conceive their own baby using sperm from one of them and a surrogate mother who will bear the child.

It's being treated as a 'fertility issue' because neither of them has a working womb and ovaries.

Shirley Trans eggs will be even better than cis eggs?

@JSmitty 😂 yes the trans women can provide. Problem solved!

This way this story is set out is confusing: the DM quote is that no anonymous egg donors were available to this couple.

What has this to do with the surrogacy? Agreeing to donate eggs and agreeing to carry a pregnancy through surrogacy are quite distinct and different things.

The UK removed anonymous sperm egg or embryo donation back in the 00s. Absolutely nobody can legally access anonymous eggs from a UK clinic.

Just googled egg donation. First ad for a company UK patients can now enjoy all of the benefits of the USA’s leading donor egg fertility program. In addition to donor egg choice and donor anonymity, SGF provides a simplified donor egg treatment process that only requires two trips to our centre located near Washington, DC
All the NHS egg donor information says donating to another woman, does this now include transwomen? Do egg donors have rights, can they refuse surrogates i.e. only donate to a mother? I feel slightly sick.

This is disgusting. Is not having a woman available for your seed a medical condition now? I was under the impression that the NHS is only meant to be correcting medical issues not providing women to men, have I misunderstood?

If you have PCOS or endometrioses, you have a medical condition that is being treated. Your body is functioning incorrectly so they are, as a medical service helping you to achieve your body's aim of pregnancy.

Are single heterosexual men going to be allowed this service as well? I can't see how it would be legal to discriminate against them on the basis that they aren't gay. They don't have a woman.

Oh shit sorry I misunderstood.

For some reason I thought people would use the turkey baster method and the surrogate would get pregnant from her own eggs.

I didn’t realise IVF was the preference. Gosh that’s a lot of drugs and intervention for the woman/women, although I guess the eggs might be ‘spares’ from women who’ve had IVF for themselves. Are there many surrogates around willing to subject themselves to IVF? I’ve never had it but close friends have and I understood it to be quite traumatic.

Batteries, its not woman/women, its two men. More complicated.

Eh?

I meant the woman as in the female surrogate and/or egg doner.

I appreciate the relationship is two men, but women still need to be heavily involved, right?

IVF doesn’t become less invasive because you’re not planning to parent the baby.

The married couple hope to conceive their own baby using sperm from one of them and a surrogate mother who will bear the child.

Saying the married couple hope to conceive their own baby is batshit. Two men can't conceive their own baby.
One of the couple hopes to conceive a child with a woman. It will be the man and woman's child. The other male will only be related to the baby legally.

that’s a lot of drugs and intervention for the woman/women

The two men who want a baby either don't realise this or don't care.

If there are no willing donors then there are no donors who one can use and maintain any claim to being an ethical person. Why is this the NHSs problem?