Latest news with #surrogacy
CBC
4 days ago
- General
- CBC
How social media is helping with a shortage of surrogates in Canada
Having a child via surrogacy in Canada is becoming more and more popular. But that hasn't made setting up the process simple. And as Sarah Reid reports, the difficulties have many couples turning to social media.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Surrogates at greater risk of new mental illness than women carrying own babies, study finds
Surrogates have a greater chance of being newly diagnosed with a mental illness during and after pregnancy than women who carry their own offspring, researchers have found. In addition, regardless of how they conceived, women with a previous record of mental illness were found to have a higher risk of being diagnosed with such conditions during and after pregnancy than those without. While laws around surrogates, or 'gestational carriers', vary around the world, the practice is booming. According to Global Market Insights, the market is expected to grow from $27.9bn (£20.8bn) in 2025 to $201.8bn (£150.2bn) in 2034. 'Our findings underscore the importance of adequate screening and counselling of potential gestational carriers before pregnancy about the possibility of a new-onset mental illness, or exacerbation of a prior mental illness during or after pregnancy,' said Dr Maria Velez, the first author of the research, from McGill University in Canada. 'As well, the provision of support during and after pregnancy may be particularly important for gestational carriers.' Writing in the journal Jama Network Open, Velez and colleagues report how they analysed data from 767,406 births in Ontario that occurred between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2021. Of these, 748,732 involved unassisted conceptions, 758 involved surrogacy, and the others involved IVF in mothers who carried their own babies. Velez said the vast majority of surrogacy cases in Canada involved the surrogate being unrelated to the child, meaning the surrogate's eggs were not used in conception. Among those excluded from this initial analysis were women with a record of mental illness prior to the estimated date of conception. The team analysed the number of women in each group who received a diagnosis of a new-onset mental illness since the estimated date of conception, such as anxiety disorder, mood disorder, self-harm or psychosis. These diagnoses occurred in 236 surrogates, 195,022 women who had an unassisted conception and 4,704 women who had received IVF. After accounting for factors such as age, income, smoking and number of children, this corresponded to a 43% and 29% higher incidence rate of new mental illness per 100 people per year of follow-up in surrogates compared with women who had an unassisted conception or IVF, respectively. For all three groups, mood or anxiety disorder was the most common diagnosis, while median time from conception to diagnosis was similar, at about two and a half years. The researchers found the risk of new mental illness remained elevated in surrogates, but to a lesser degree, when compared with women who had an unassisted conception but no longer lived with their child a year after the birth. 'The finding might suggest that some gestational carriers may experience grief from relinquishing their newborn, like that described after adoption or removal of the child into foster care – something that needs further studies,' said Velez. The team then carried out further analyses that included women with a previous record of mental illness and found all groups in this category had a higher rate of new-onset mental illness than those with no previous record. Despite Canada requiring would-be surrogates to undergo psychological assessments, the results revealed 19% of surrogates in the study had a documented diagnosis of mental illness before pregnancy. The study follows previous research by the team that found surrogates were more likely to experience complications including severe postpartum haemorrhage and severe pre-eclampsia. Dr Zaina Mahmoud, an expert on the socio-legal aspects of surrogacy at the University of Liverpool, in England, who was not involved in the work, said further research was needed to explore whether the greater risk of new mental illness in surrogates was down to the pregnancy itself, and the mechanisms at play. '[The researchers are] not addressing why or how surrogates have these emotional trajectories,' she said, adding that the team had used very broad definitions of mental illness. 'They hypothesise that grief from relinquishing the infant may contribute, but they don't actually measure that grief.' But Mahmoud backed the call for greater screening and support for potential surrogates, saying the work suggested support should last for more than two years after the birth. The studies 'really highlight the need for robust information and consent procedures', she said.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
A pregnant surrogate for a defunct California company doesn't know what will happen to the baby she's carrying
Alexa Fasold thought she was a surrogate for a couple having fertility issues and was all set to give birth to a baby boy this fall, after carrying a transferred embryo since January. Then she learned that the agency she was working with was under investigation. A couple behind the Arcadia, California, agency has been accused by surrogates of running a potential scam in which multiple women across the country were unknowingly carrying embryos for the same couple at the same time. Fasold first realized that something was amiss when the agency, Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC, suddenly stopped responding to legal questions in May. The couple, Silvia Zhang, 38, and her husband, Guojun Xuan, 65, residents of the Arcadia home and owners of Mark Surrogacy, were arrested that month on suspicion of felony child endangerment and neglect, police said. They have not been charged and were released on bond pending the investigation, police said. According to police, they discovered 21 children, mostly born to surrogates, connected to the couple. Fifteen of those children, whose ages ranged from 2 months to 13 years, were found in the Arcadia home. The agency, which dissolved in June according to public records, was registered to that same address. An additional six children tied to the couple were found in the care of family and friends. All the children were retrieved by authorities following a local hospital call to police to report that a 2-month-old baby had arrived with head injuries. The children are now in protective custody. Fasold, 26, said she's devastated and unsure of what will happen to the baby she's carrying. She might try to foster for a period, she said, and has been working with a lawyer she retained in the early stages of the surrogacy process. 'We're heartbroken for the baby and his future,' said Fasold, a motor coach bus driver based in Pennsylvania. 'We were supposed to be completing a family or helping a family start. And it turned into this horror movie.' Fasold, who is married with children, is one of several surrogates who have recently come forward to say they also have worked with the agency. Fasold said she can't share the identity of the parents of the child she is carrying because her contract with Mark Surrogacy lists a confidentiality clause. Kayla Elliot, a 27-year-old surrogate for Zhang and Xuan who delivered a baby in March, told NBC News that Mark Surrogacy told her that the couple had one teenage child and had given up on attempting to have a second after 10 rounds of failed fertility treatments. Elliot said she learned that the baby she birthed was among those who are currently in foster care. Even as details of the agency have surfaced, Fasold said she received an email from them as recently as over a week ago. The email, seen by NBC News, asked her for details about the hospital where she plans on delivering the baby. Fasold hasn't responded to the email. 'I understand there's an investigation but our main focus now is who's going to take the baby? Where is the baby going to be?' Fasold said. 'We're still honestly not sure of where, but it's a race against time to figure out what that might look like.' Attempts to reach Zhang and Xuan were unsuccessful. It wasn't immediately clear whether Zhang and Xuan had retained a lawyer who could speak on their behalf. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office also did not immediately respond. The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services said in a statement that it cannot share details about the 'lives of children and families who come to our attention.' Video evidence recovered from the Arcadia home shows that some of the younger children were 'subjected to physical and emotional abuse,' a spokesperson for the Arcadia Police Department told NBC News last week. Authorities say that they believe that Zhang and Xuan were aware of the abuse and 'let it happen.' Police are expected to resubmit the case after a review of evidence to the district attorney in the next two to three weeks, Lt. Kollin Cieadlo told NBC News. An arrest warrant has been issued in connection with the case for a 56-year-old nanny, who authorities say was seen on camera violently shaking and striking a 2-month-old baby. The baby lost consciousness and was hospitalized, police said, and was the subject of the call that triggered the investigation back in May. Fasold said that for the last few weeks, she's been in contact with the FBI and Child Protective Services. Her contract with Mark Surrogacy states that she wouldn't fight for parental rights. But Fasold said the new circumstances mean there's a likelihood that the baby will go into foster care, and she's looking into the requirements to become a foster parent. Fasold's surrogacy process began over a year ago, when she was looking to help some acquaintances with their fertility journey, she said. Things ultimately did not work out with the acquaintances' surrogacy agency, which told her she was medically disqualified from carrying, she said. Fasold suspects that her pregnancy with her youngest child, which involved a gallbladder surgery, ultimately ruled her out as a surrogate with that particular agency, but she still hoped to find another way to participate in the process, she said. That's when Fasold began seeking advice on Facebook and posting in surrogacy groups, she said. Fasold and her husband initially had their hearts set on another agency, but Mark Surrogacy found them through their social media posts and reached out, she said. 'They asked us what it was we were looking for, if we would be up to allowing them to compete with the agency that we found, if they could compete with compensation, or if there's anything more that we would ask for in a company,' Fasold recalled. Fasold said that, in retrospect, it was suspicious that the company agreed to all of the conditions she and her husband wanted. Among other things, they required to stay anonymous in the process, with limited contact with the baby's intended parents and no direct line of communication with them, she said. They also didn't want the parents to have complete control over the pregnancy. 'Everything that we were looking for in a parent is basically what we got, anything that we said kind of went,' Fasold said. 'Looking back now, that should have been a red flag, because that very, very rarely happens. There is usually compromise.' After months of discussions, Fasold and her husband signed a contract with Mark Surrogacy in May 2024. The surrogacy process generally costs couples between $125,000 to $175,000, Stephanie Levich, founder and president of Family Match Consulting told TODAY. Surrogate fees, including medical testing and carrying and delivering the baby run between $30,000 and $60,000. Fasold did not disclose her compensation. 'We did jump the gun a little bit,' she said. 'We just kind of chose them because of the flexibility, the communication being pretty on point and that they never left a question unanswered for us.' Fasold said that most of her communication with the company was done between Facebook Messenger and email, with weekly check-ins before the first embryo transfer. The only face-to-face interaction she had with the company was after the embryo transfer in September 2024, she said. While she had expected the intended parents to show up to the procedure, Fasold said she was told the couple was dealing with health issues that kept them from attending. But two representatives from Mark Surrogacy greeted them instead, she said. 'They brought us a gift basket at our first transfer,' Fasold said. 'They were excited. They were happy.' That first embryo transfer didn't pan out, Fasold said, and she suffered a miscarriage. But the second transfer, which occurred in January, was successful. Red flags began to crop up around mid-May, when Fasold said her attorney attempted to contact the company. Though they had generally been quite responsive over email, they weren't responding to the attorney's communications, Fasold said. 'When she tried calling the agency directly, it was actually bringing her up to 'Future Spring Surrogacy,'' Fasold said. It was around that time, Fasold said, that the attorney found out about the investigation related to Mark Surrogacy. And a few weeks later, the agency's business license was terminated. The news has been a lot to take in, Fasold said. But she added that despite all that's transpired she still believes that surrogacy is a 'beautiful thing' and that her experience is not representative of the norm. 'There are good agencies, and there are good people out there,' Fasold said. 'Once this baby's born, and after a time of healing … My husband and I plan on going through another surrogacy journey again.' This article was originally published on Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Surrogates at greater risk of new mental illness than women carrying own babies, study finds
Surrogates have a greater chance of being newly diagnosed with a mental illness during and after pregnancy than women who carry their own offspring, researchers have found. In addition, regardless of how they conceived, women with a previous record of mental illness were found to have a higher risk of being diagnosed with such conditions during and after pregnancy than those without. While laws around surrogates, or 'gestational carriers', vary around the world, the practice is booming. According to Global Market Insights, the market is expected to grow from $27.9bn (£20.8bn) in 2025 to $201.8bn (£150.2bn) in 2034. 'Our findings underscore the importance of adequate screening and counselling of potential gestational carriers before pregnancy about the possibility of a new-onset mental illness, or exacerbation of a prior mental illness during or after pregnancy,' said Dr Maria Velez, the first author of the research, from McGill University in Canada. 'As well, the provision of support during and after pregnancy may be particularly important for gestational carriers.' Writing in the journal Jama Network Open, Velez and colleagues report how they analysed data from 767,406 births in Ontario that occurred between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2021. Of these, 748,732 involved unassisted conceptions, 758 involved surrogacy, and the others involved IVF in mothers who carried their own babies. Velez said the vast majority of surrogacy cases in Canada involved the surrogate being unrelated to the child, meaning the surrogate's eggs were not used in conception. Among those excluded from this initial analysis were women with a record of mental illness prior to the estimated date of conception. The team analysed the number of women in each group who received a diagnosis of a new-onset mental illness since the estimated date of conception, such as anxiety disorder, mood disorder, self-harm or psychosis. These diagnoses occurred in 236 surrogates, 195,022 women who had an unassisted conception and 4,704 women who had received IVF. After accounting for factors such as age, income, smoking and number of children, this corresponded to a 43% and 29% higher incidence rate of new mental illness per 100 people per year of follow-up in surrogates compared with women who had an unassisted conception or IVF, respectively. For all three groups, mood or anxiety disorder was the most common diagnosis, while median time from conception to diagnosis was similar, at about two and a half years. The researchers found the risk of new mental illness remained elevated in surrogates, but to a lesser degree, when compared with women who had an unassisted conception but no longer lived with their child a year after the birth. 'The finding might suggest that some gestational carriers may experience grief from relinquishing their newborn, like that described after adoption or removal of the child into foster care – something that needs further studies,' said Velez. The team then carried out further analyses that included women with a previous record of mental illness and found all groups in this category had a higher rate of new-onset mental illness than those with no previous record. Despite Canada requiring would-be surrogates to undergo psychological assessments, the results revealed 19% of surrogates in the study had a documented diagnosis of mental illness before pregnancy. The study follows previous research by the team that found surrogates were more likely to experience complications including severe postpartum haemorrhage and severe pre-eclampsia. Dr Zaina Mahmoud, an expert on the socio-legal aspects of surrogacy at the University of Liverpool, in England, who was not involved in the work, said further research was needed to explore whether the greater risk of new mental illness in surrogates was down to the pregnancy itself, and the mechanisms at play. '[The researchers are] not addressing why or how surrogates have these emotional trajectories,' she said, adding that the team had used very broad definitions of mental illness. 'They hypothesise that grief from relinquishing the infant may contribute, but they don't actually measure that grief.' But Mahmoud backed the call for greater screening and support for potential surrogates, saying the work suggested support should last for more than two years after the birth. The studies 'really highlight the need for robust information and consent procedures', she said.
Daily Mail
24-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Surrogacy fixer 'took more than $16 million intended for mothers' and used it to launch her RAP CAREER
A Texas woman who allegedly stole $16 million from desperate couples in order to launch a rap career has been ordered to pay some of the cash back. Dominique Side, 45, was sued by 37 couples who had paid her to organize a surrogate so they could have children. They allegedly discovered that she had instead used their money to fund a lavish lifestyle of designer clothes, luxury vacations and a recording studio as she sought to become a music star. Side, the former owner of Houston-based Surrogacy Escrow Account Management (SEAM) failed to respond to a legal filing seeking damages, leading to a partial judgement signed last week by Judge Donna Roth. The affected families, some of whom can't have children because of cancer and autoimmune diseases, will now be rewarded $1,045,158 in damages, according to the lawsuit obtained by KTRK. Marianne Robak, the attorney representing the victims, said her clients are just some of the families from around the globe, as people in China, Egypt and France have also allegedly been scammed by Side. 'Some of them had surrogates that were currently at the time pregnant with their babies, and they had no way to pay for their medical care,' Robak told the outlet. Robak said that since Side's co-defendant and business partner, Anthony Hall, did respond to the lawsuit, the case will have to head to trial before the families are paid. Kelly Palladino, with husband Daniel, opted for surrogacy after struggling to conceive because of multiple autoimmune diseases but payments from her account stopped after a month She is confident she will get the full $1.7 million her clients are seeking when it's over. Other than the payout, Robak said she has also frozen Side's assets, including her music equipment and real estate. 'Once these judgments become final, we will be able to go after those assets, liquidate them, and help these families become whole,' the lawyer added. Robak anticipates a trial to kick off next summer as the FBI investigation into Side remains ongoing. A civil lawsuit against Side, her business partner and their production company claims a total of more than $16 million in escrow funds have disappeared, the Houston Chronicle reported. Heartbroken couples shared their anguish after claiming they were left high and dry by Side's alleged antics. Jenna and Roy Copeland, a Georgia based couple, told GMA that they lost approximately $40,000 with Surrogacy Escrow Account Management. 'We sent the money and she walked away with it,' said Chris Perkins Yans, who had to work overtime alongside his husband to pay their surrogate after they claimed $71,000 disappeared. 'It's devastating, it's terrifying, you start to feel even more hopeless than you did,' said SEAM client AnnaMaria Gallozzi who chose surrogacy after being diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in 2019. New York City mom Laura Daniels said she was left scrambling to find $10,000 to pay her surrogate after her funds vanished. 'It's just, it's been so awful and it was occupying so much of my time,' Daniels said. 'I think I smile to keep from crying.'| Kelly Palladino opted for surrogacy after struggling to conceive because of multiple autoimmune diseases. She and husband Daniel from Sarasota, Florida found a surrogate in fall 2023 and deposited $60,000 after arranging to pay her through Side's company. But it was little more than a month before the surrogate alerted them that the payments had stopped. Kelly said that Side repeatedly made excuses before refusing to take their calls. 'We thought this would be a great way to build our family,' Kelly told Fox13. 'She did this knowing what we go through. It's not an easy process and what's coming out is just – I never would have thought.' Shortly after her alleged lies were uncovered, people sending messages to her email address received automated responses telling them she is subject to an 'active investigation by federal authorities.' It went on to say that she is, on the advice of counsel, 'not permitted to respond to any inquiries.' Arielle Mitton from Bellingham, Washington, had $38,000 in the account when payments to her surrogate in Indiana stopped in May. 'When people come to surrogacy, it's not a choice,' she said. 'It's not like, 'Oh, this is my first choice. I want to do this.' It's like, 'I don't really have another option'.' 'It feels premeditated to me,' she told Click2Houston. 'How can someone have millions of dollars disappear without some sort of plan?' Not only did Side splurge on expensive trips, studio space and clothing, but she also launched a 'luxury, 100% vegan ready-to-wear apparel line for individuals seeking chic yet sustainable pieces,' Vwire reported. In the June 2023 release of her brand 'Nikki Green,' Side was described as a Sustainability Expert, Luxury Vegan Lifestyle Influencer and Serial Entrepreneur' as she laid across an emerald green couch while wearing a matching pants suit. 'I love luxury, I love designer, but I'm constantly searching for quality 100% vegan pieces,' the disgraced business owner said. The website for her clothing brand is no longer active. All of her social media accounts have since been deleted or made private. Side filed for bankruptcy in 2003, and a court seized and sold land owned by SEAM in 2022 over unpaid property taxes. Her mother, Caron Parks-Hinton, previously insisted her daughter 'has a conscience' while denying the allegations against her. In an interview last year with ABC13, her mother said Side was 'struggling' after her company shut down amid an FBI probe. 'She's having a very hard time,' Parks-Hinton told the outlet. 'Because of the type of person she is. She has a conscience.' When pressed on whether she believes her daughter deliberately funneled money out of the escrow account, she emphatically stated, 'No, I don't.'
