Building a dream family through egg donation and surrogacy
Our Las Vegas fertility center had the honor of helping Scott and Bruce build their family with the support of egg donation and surrogacy. After moving from China to Canada in 2009, and marrying in 2013, the couple decided to start a family. “I love kids and was ready to get started,” Scott says. “2015 was the beginning of our new journey.”
They started researching their options and asking friends for advice. They eventually discovered our clinic. “We felt The Fertility Center of Las Vegas was ideal, as they are one of the top fertility clinics, and Nevada has wonderful surrogacy agencies and lawyers.”
When they met Bruce Shapiro MD, they immediately knew they could trust him. The couple jumped into the process of finding the ideal egg donor and gestational surrogate. While they were eager to move things along, they were also dedicated to taking as much time as needed to find the right matches.
“The donor we chose had a great cycle,” Scott says. “We ended up with six healthy embryos.” They dreamed of having twins, one boy and one girl, and decided to have a male and female embryo transferred to their surrogate’s uterus.
“Everything looked great until week six of gestation,” Scott remembers. “We discovered the male embryo did not make it. But the female embryo became our daughter, Hayley, who was born in Reno in 2017. She’s the apple of our eye.”
Surrogacy and the journey to meet their son
As Scott and Bruce were motivated to add a baby boy to their family, they dove back into the journey of building their family. “Luckily, we still had healthy frozen embryos,” Scott says. “All we needed was the right surrogate.” However, it was much harder for them to find the right surrogate this time around. “We brought multiple candidates to Dr. Shapiro, but he insisted they weren’t ideal choices,” Scott says.
Surrogates must meet specific medical criteria to qualify as a gestational carrier. These qualifications are strict, because the doctors at FCLV want to ensure that the surrogate has the best chance of developing and carrying a healthy pregnancy before having a successful delivery for the hopeful parents.
“At first, we were frustrated that it was taking so long to get a surrogate approved, but looking back, we’re grateful Dr. Shapiro was so selective,” Scott says. “His insistence that we find a great surrogate led us to the woman who helped bring our healthy baby boy into the world. She was the fourth candidate we brought to Dr. Shapiro.”
Their son Ethan was born March 2020.
Words of wisdom for other hopeful parents
Scott insists that patience was key in their experience. “Don’t compromise or rush,” he says. “Everything happens for a reason and will unfold at the perfect time. The waiting is worth it.”
They’re sure that Dr. Shapiro urging them to not rush into a decision about surrogacy led to their positive results. They insist they don’t have any regrets because of the time they took to carefully make decisions.
“We’re now starting the next stage of the adventure, and we’re raising our daughter and son to be good people,” Scott says.
Contact our Las Vegas fertility center for more information about our fertility services.
