Surrogacy is a wonderful family planning process that allows individuals or couples to have a child when they cannot conceive on their own—a group that includes single people, LGBTQ couples, and straight couples who have struggled with infertility.

There are many reasons why straight couples might turn to surrogacy to start their families. Certain conditions prevent a woman from conceiving a child, such as certain uterine issues or extensive scarring. There are also several medical conditions that make it unsafe for a woman to carry a child to term, including type 1 diabetes or cancer. Other women have no difficulty conceiving, but experience repeated miscarriages. In these cases, women may have certain uterine problems, hormonal imbalances, or genetic abnormalities that lead to recurring miscarriages. After the repeated loss, many women may eventually turn to surrogacy as an alternative way to start their families.

Many straight couples who pursue surrogacy will still be able to use their own eggs and sperm to create embryos—meaning they will both be biologically related to the resulting child. Both intended parents will need to go through extensive testing to ensure the eggs and sperm produced will create high equality embryos to use during IVF.

Other couples, however, may not be able to contribute eggs or sperm for any number of reasons. They might have certain genetic markers or illnesses they do not want to pass on to their offspring, for instance. Some women are born without ovaries, while others produce very few eggs or eggs of poor quality—even with hormonal stimulation. Men, too, may need to rely on a sperm donor in certain instances, such as if their sperm count is too low.

Sometimes, straight couples can make certain lifestyle choices to help improve the quality of their eggs and/or sperm, such as losing weight, eating healthy, and reducing stress. But in other instances, it may be impossible to procure healthy samples. In this instance, straight couples will need to turn to egg and/or sperm donation in order to create embryos to use during their surrogacy journey. Of course, plenty of straight single men and women turn to surrogacy to start their families as well—and single intended parents will obviously also need to rely on a sperm or egg donor, whichever they lack themself, to create embryos for use in a surrogacy journey.

Fertility clinics will work with intended parents to create as many high-quality embryos as possible. Around this point in the process, intended parents can also begin to turn their attention to finding a surrogate. Reputable surrogacy agencies can help intended parents with the matching process by finding a surrogate who will be a good fit for the couple. A fertility doctor will then complete IVF transfers until the surrogate successfully conceives.

Straight couples pursuing surrogacy may be concerned about certain legal aspects of the process—it’s important to ensure they, and not the surrogate, have full legal rights and responsibilities over the child. The process for securing these rights varies widely. Some places allow for this legal arrangement to happen prior to the birth of the child—meaning that both intended parents will be listed on the birth certificate, and the surrogate’s name will not appear. Other places take care of this process after the baby is born, meaning a surrogate’s name will appear on the birth certificate—and the intended parents will need to go through a process through the courts to place both of their own names on the certificate instead. It will be important for intended parents to work with a seasoned reproductive attorney who is familiar with the laws in their jurisdiction.