What is included in a bundled egg donor and surrogacy journey?
A bundled journey means PLS coordinates both of your matches: your egg donor and your gestational surrogate. You sign with one agency, work with one team, and follow one plan from your first consultation to embryo transfer.
A bundle includes:
- The egg donor match. PLS presents screened donors, Mark Silverberg, DDS, MD, reads each donor's medical records before a match, and PLS coordinates the donor's screening and cycle with your clinic.
- The surrogate match. Nancy Block, RN, runs matching. Dr. Silverberg reads each surrogate candidate's prenatal and delivery records and writes a physician medical summary for your clinic.
- One case manager who keeps both timelines in view.
- One set of attorney referrals for the donor agreement and the gestational carrier agreement. Each party still has their own independent attorney.
- Independent licensed escrow for both the donor's and the surrogate's compensation and expenses.
What is not included: donor compensation, surrogate compensation, IVF and clinic fees, and third-party costs such as legal and escrow fees. Those are paid to the people and providers who do the work, as they would be in any journey. For the full donor program, see the egg donor program.
How do the two cycles run in parallel?
Without a bundle, many families finish the egg donor cycle first and only then start looking for a surrogate. That puts the two longest steps end to end.
In a bundle, they overlap.
- Signing. You sign with PLS. The surrogate search starts, and you start reviewing donor profiles at the same time.
- Donor match. You choose a donor and your clinic approves her.
- Donor cycle, about 2 to 3 months. The donor completes screening, signs her agreement, goes through about 10 to 14 days of stimulation, and has her eggs retrieved. Your clinic creates embryos and, if you choose, tests them with PGT-A, which takes about 1 to 2 weeks for results.
- Embryos frozen and ready. The embryos wait in storage while the surrogate search continues.
- Surrogate match. Today it takes about 9 months from signing to a surrogate introduction, with a target of 6 months or fewer.
- Surrogate clearance and transfer. The surrogate is medically cleared, the gestational carrier agreement is signed, escrow is funded, and the transfer is scheduled with embryos that are already tested.
The surrogate is never left waiting on embryos. And if the donor cycle produces fewer embryos than you hoped, there is time to plan a second donor cycle before the surrogate's transfer is scheduled, so she is not kept on medications while you wait.
What does bundling save in fees and months?
Fees. The PLS egg donor match fee is $11,000 on its own and $8,500 when bundled with a PLS surrogacy program, a saving of $2,500.
Months. Running the two cycles in parallel typically saves 2 to 4 months compared with finishing the donor cycle before starting a surrogate search. The donor cycle takes about 2 to 3 months, and in a bundle it happens inside the surrogate search instead of before it.
There are also savings that are harder to put a number on: one team that already knows your history, one set of referrals, and no hand-off between two agencies when the embryos are ready.
| Bundled with PLS | Separate donor agency and surrogacy agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Egg donor match fee | $8,500 | $11,000 at PLS; other agencies set their own fees |
| Surrogacy program fee | Program fee: confirm current schedule | Set by the surrogacy agency |
| Escrow | Independent licensed escrow for donor and surrogate payments | Often separate arrangements with each agency |
| Case management | One PLS case manager for both | Two teams, two points of contact |
| Typical time to embryos ready | About 2 to 3 months from donor match, during the surrogate search | About 2 to 3 months, often before the surrogate search begins |
| Typical time to transfer | About 9 months to surrogate introduction today, then clearance and transfer | Donor cycle plus the full surrogate search; typically 2 to 4 months longer |
How is escrow set up for two recipients of funds?
Both the donor and the surrogate are paid through an independent licensed escrow agent that you fund. PLS never holds client money, and you may choose your own escrow company.
The two sets of payments run on different schedules:
- The donor's compensation and expenses are deposited after the donor match and paid on the schedule in her donor agreement, typically with a portion when she starts medications and the balance after retrieval.
- The surrogate's compensation and expenses follow the surrogacy schedule: you fund $10,000 at match and the balance before the surrogate starts medications. Her payments then run on the schedule in the gestational carrier agreement.
Whether the escrow agent holds both under one account with separate ledgers, or as two accounts, is to be confirmed with the escrow agent PLS families use. Either way, each payment is tied to its own agreement and its own milestones, and you receive statements showing every disbursement.
What legal agreements are involved?
A bundled journey has two separate relationships, so it has two separate agreements.
- The egg donor agreement, between you and the donor. It covers her compensation, expenses, complication insurance, cancellation terms, and her relinquishment of any parental rights. Your attorney represents you, and the donor has her own attorney, whom you pay for.
- The gestational carrier agreement, between you and the surrogate. It covers her compensation, expenses, insurance, medical decisions and the parentage process. Again, each side has its own attorney.
You will also sign an escrow agreement and your clinic's consent forms. The donor and the surrogate do not sign each other's agreements and do not need to meet. PLS refers to independent reproductive-law attorneys and does not employ lawyers.
Who at PLS manages the bundle?
- Nancy Block, RN, runs matching for both the donor and the surrogate. She founded The Center for Egg Options Illinois in 2000 and ran egg donation and surrogacy matching there for 15 years before founding PLS.
- Mark Silverberg, DDS, MD, reads the medical records of donors and surrogates.
- Natalie Gaudio-Fricano and Jenni Symons, PLS case managers, carry the active matches. Natalie was an egg donor three times and a gestational surrogate. Jenni was a surrogate who delivered in 2019 and 2021.
- Jan Telman Berman, Global Surrogacy Coordinator, manages national and international cycles, including the scheduling between clinics.
When does bundling not make sense?
Bundling is not the right fit for everyone.
- You already have embryos. If you have embryos from your own eggs or from an earlier donor cycle, you need a surrogate, not a donor.
- You are using a known donor through your clinic. If a relative or friend is donating and your clinic is coordinating her cycle, you may only need the legal and escrow pieces.
- You have already chosen a donor elsewhere. If you have a donor through another agency or a frozen egg bank, PLS can coordinate timing with your surrogacy journey, but there is no donor match for the bundle to cover. See fresh vs frozen vs egg bank for how bank eggs fit.
- You already have a surrogate. If you bring your own surrogate, PLS Cycle Management can be combined with an egg donor match, and the bundle discount applies to the donor fee.
For the full cost of a journey, including program fees, compensation and third-party costs, see the cost of surrogacy.
Sources
- American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), guidance on oocyte donation and gestational carriers.
- US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), donor eligibility rules (21 CFR Part 1271).
- SEEDS, Society for Ethics in Egg Donation and Surrogacy.