Doctors usually recommended surrogate pregnancy due to certain women’s reproductive health issues, which either may be due to the absence of the uterus or functional problems in the uterus. Medical surrogate pregnancy also requires certain other special cases apart from these health-related disorders.
Absence or underdeveloped uterus
Uterus present in women’s reproductive system plays a major role in pregnancy. This dome-shaped organ is the house of the fetus which holds the fetus and serves the nourishment to grow till its birth.
Some women do not have their uterus which may be congenital or acquired. Women with the absence of a uterus are unable to support the growth of the fetus.
Congenital disorder
Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser is a disorder occurs due to female sexual chromosomal issue. A female child born without a uterus or underdeveloped uterus is the characteristic feature of this disorder. But affected individuals have normal external genitalia with their normal ovarian function.
Women with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser do not have their menstruation cycle till their 16 years of age due to the absence of the uterus. This is the main sign of the disease. Affected women have their normal development of breast and pubic hair growth.
Acquired issues affect
In certain cases, females are born with normal reproductive organs including the uterus, but certain health issues like fibroids, uterine prolapse, endometriosis, adenomyosis, chronic pelvic pain, and vaginal bleeding, uterine benign or malignant tumors formation, develop later in life require hysterectomy treatment. Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus to correct treat these conditions.
Presence of uterus
Few women have their uterus, but due to physiological problems, the uterus may not function properly to support pregnancy. Following are certain health issues that also require surrogacy pregnancy to build up a family.
Read Also: People’s View of Surrogacy
Non-functional uterus
The presence of multiple myxomatosis negatively affects female reproductive health by imparting profuse menorrhagia, chronic pelvic pain, and severe symptomatic anemia. The surgeon usually referred to a hysterectomy to correct the condition. But this treatment induces infertility in the affected patients.
Asherman’s syndrome is a condition associated with the presence of scar tissue in the uterus, which leads to repeated miscarriage. Women with Asherman’s syndrome are unable to complete the full terms of the gestational period. The presence of Asherman’s syndrome also hinders getting pregnant and lessens the menstruation flow.
Pelvic radiotherapy often causes endometrial atrophy by thinning the endometrial tissue lining in the uterus. Thinning the endometrial tissue restricts the blood supply to the uterus and does not support the placenta for supplying oxygen and nutrient to the fetus. Women with endometrial atrophy require surrogacy pregnancy support to build their families.
Functional uterus
Apart from uterine issues, certain health conditions like renal failure, heart disease, autoimmune disease conditions, rheumatological and oncological pathogenesis do not support carrying the pregnancy. Even clinician does not allow to become pregnant for women with certain psychological issues. In such cases, surrogate pregnancy is indicated.
Functional uterus but with a history of reproductive failure
Repeated fertility treatment failure like IVF cycle failure or repeated miscarriages also indicates surrogate pregnancy.
Other situations
The thought process is changing. Many male homosexual people live together and want to continue by building a family. Many male celebrities ant to become single parents of their biological child. Transgender individuals also try to start their families. In all these cases, surrogacy pregnancy is the only fertility treatment available to possibly their dream.
Read Also: Surrogacy: Religion and Science
Ravi Sharma is a self-motivated, successful entrepreneur and has a solid experience in the fertility segment. and he is the director at ARTbaby Global (ARThealthcare). He is a pharmacy graduate with post-graduation in business administration and has 14 years of rich experience in the field of infertility segment. He loves to write about IVF, Surrogacy, and other ART (assisted reproductive technology) news, issues, and updates. He is a Pharmacy graduate (B. Pharm) and M.B.A (marketing).
His most recent success includes the successful launch of the medical tourism company, ARTbaby, which offers treatment options for infertility, egg donation, and surrogacy. He likes spending time with his family and writing about various aspects of IVF surrogacy and donating eggs.