SURROGACY FOR HIV POSITIVE
At New Life Mexico, we assist people with HIV to create their families and become parents through utilizing the latest advances in Assisted Reproductive Technologies and the special technique of sperm washing. We are proud to be one of the pioneers in the field to offer surrogacy and egg donation service to people in need and are striving to take every step possible to ensure the safety and health of a child and surrogate mother.
We are happy to provide the following programs (with sperm washing) to HIV-positive intended fathers:
- Surrogacy
- Surrogacy + Egg Donation
- IVF for HIV negative partner + Egg Donation
- Surrogacy with frozen embryos
In order to ensure safety our surrogate mothers and a future child, all intended parents go through a rigorous health
screening process. We ask HIV-positive intended parents:
- To present medical record documenting at least six months of a viral load
- Be willing to undergo complete infectious disease screening process
Since the procedure is performed at a specially equipped and highly-skilled facility to manage HIV-positive patients, the surrogacy package fee for HIV-positive patients differs from the standard one.
Sperm washing is a special procedure of washing the semen form an HIV positive man for the purpose of using it for IVF. It was first performed in 1992. It envisages isolation of sperm cells from the rest of the semen since HIV does not appear to infect sperm cells and are floating as free viral particles in it. Ability to measure the amount of HIV in the blood (the viral load) and using the first three-drug regiments to suppress HIV to undetectable levels enables us to select intended fathers with the lowest risk of having HIV in their semen. This unique technique reduces the risk of HIV transmission to the female (baby carrier) and consequently the unborn child.
Researchers have reported high success and safety levels with sperm washing. In 2007, researches published retrospective data from the network of the Centre for Reproductive Assisted Techniques for HIV in Europe (CREAThE), consisting of eight fertility centers in six European countries. Together, the centers performed a total of 3,315 cycles of assisted reproduction, including more than 2,000 cycles of IUI with washed sperm, without a single case of HIV transmission. Moreover, studies involving couples (one HIV positive and one HIV negative) have concluded that an HIV-infected person on antiretroviral therapy with an undetectable viral load is not sexually infectious, i.e. cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact (Swiss Federal Commission for HIV/AIDS, 2008).