What is the minimum age to be a surrogate?
The minimum age to become a surrogate with Private Label Surrogacy is 21. The Illinois Gestational Surrogacy Act requires a gestational surrogate to be at least 21, and PLS applies the same floor to surrogates in every state where it works.
The floor is about more than a statute. Surrogacy asks a lot of you at once. You sign a binding agreement with your own attorney. You take fertility medications on a calendar the clinic sets. You carry a pregnancy for another family while you raise your own children. PLS also requires that you have already carried at least one healthy full-term pregnancy and are parenting a child now. Put together, those rules mean that a 21-year-old who qualifies already knows what pregnancy, delivery and recovery feel like in her own body, and has a home life to plan around.
What is the maximum age to be a surrogate?
The maximum age at PLS is 43. Unlike the floor, the ceiling is not set by law. It is a medical judgment, made with the clinics that will perform your embryo transfer.
Candidates 40 to 43 are accepted when their records show uncomplicated recent pregnancies and the intended parents' clinic clears them. A candidate who is 41 with two easy deliveries in the last few years may be a stronger medical fit than a 30-year-old with a history of high blood pressure in pregnancy. Age is one line on the checklist, read alongside everything else in your records.
Why is the ceiling 43 and not 45?
ASRM guidance for gestational carriers allows candidates up to age 45. PLS stops at 43 for two reasons.
The first is your health. Rates of gestational diabetes, high blood pressure in pregnancy and C-section delivery rise after 40. Each of those adds risk to you, not only to the pregnancy. A ceiling is one way to keep the risk you take on within a range that physicians are comfortable with.
The second is how transfers actually get approved. Fertility clinics, not agencies, decide whether to transfer an embryo to a carrier, and most PLS partner clinics will not transfer to a carrier older than 43 or 44. If PLS accepted candidates to 45, some of you would complete screening, records review, a psychological evaluation and matching, only to be declined at the clinic. That is months of your time and an intended family's hopes spent on a transfer that was never going to happen. Setting the PLS ceiling where the clinics set theirs avoids that.
Is age measured at application or at transfer?
PLS measures age at the time of embryo transfer, not at application.
That matters if you are close to the line. Screening usually takes one to two months. Matching takes longer, and the medical cycle before transfer takes two to three months. A candidate who applies at 43 may turn 44 before her transfer date. If that is you, say so on your prescreen, and your case manager will tell you plainly whether there is realistic time.
What extra screening applies after 40?
There is no separate application for candidates over 40. The extra attention happens in the records review and at the clinic.
Mark Silverberg, DDS, MD, reads the prenatal and delivery records of every candidate, at every age. For a candidate over 40, he pays close attention to:
- Blood pressure readings across each pregnancy and after delivery.
- Glucose screening results and any diagnosis of gestational diabetes.
- How labor went, and the operative report if you had a C-section.
- How recent your last delivery was and how you recovered.
He writes a physician medical summary that goes to the intended parents' fertility clinic. The clinic's reproductive endocrinologist makes the final medical decision and may ask for additional tests before clearing a candidate over 40. Candidates 25 to 38 with recent uncomplicated deliveries are usually cleared fastest, simply because there is less to review. More on this in becoming a surrogate over 40.
What if you are 19 or 44?
If you are 19 or 20, you are not eligible yet. Nothing else about you changes that. When you turn 21, if you meet the other requirements, you are welcome to apply. In the meantime, the full list of surrogate requirements shows what else the clinic and PLS will look at.
If you are 44 or older, PLS will not be able to accept you. Most partner clinics decline at that age, and PLS does not want you to go through screening for a transfer that will not be approved. Some agencies or clinics may accept older carriers. If you explore that, ask each one directly which clinic will perform the transfer and what that clinic's age limit is, before you start any screening.
| Age band | PLS status | Typical clinic position | Extra screening |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 to 20 | Not eligible | Not eligible | Not applicable; apply at 21 |
| 21 to 34 | Eligible | Accepted when other requirements are met | Standard records review and clinic screening |
| 35 to 39 | Eligible | Accepted when other requirements are met | Standard; recent pregnancy history read closely |
| 40 to 43 | Eligible with uncomplicated recent pregnancies and clinic clearance | Accepted case by case | Close review of blood pressure, glucose and delivery history; clinic may order more tests |
| 44 and older | Not eligible | Most partner clinics decline | Not applicable |
If you are between 21 and 43 and the rest of the requirements fit, the next step is the five-minute prescreen at See if I qualify. If something else on your history worries you, read what disqualifies a surrogate first.
Sources
- ASRM (American Society for Reproductive Medicine), recommendations for practices using gestational carriers. asrm.org
- ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists), guidance on pregnancy at older maternal age. acog.org
- Illinois Gestational Surrogacy Act (2005). Pending review by counsel.