What has to happen before a match is offered?
Before Private Label Surrogacy (PLS) shows you a surrogate's profile, she has finished every step of agency screening. The order is deliberate: you should never become attached to someone who cannot go forward.
Every surrogate completes these steps first:
- Application against the PLS criteria: age 21 to 43, US citizen or permanent resident, BMI under 33, at least one healthy full-term pregnancy and currently parenting, non-smoker, no government assistance, and a stable home.
- Interview with the PLS team about her reasons for carrying and her support at home.
- Records review by Mark Silverberg, DDS, MD, who reads her prenatal and delivery records and writes a physician medical summary for your fertility clinic.
- Background check.
- Insurance review of her health plan for surrogacy exclusions.
- Psychological evaluation by an independent licensed professional, not a PLS employee.
Your side has steps too. You have signed with PLS, completed the Intended Parent Questionnaire and paid the first program fee installment. On the current schedule that installment is $15,000 at signing; a proposed $20,000 may apply to new agreements. Program fee: confirm current schedule.
Nancy Block, RN, then compares your answers with the surrogate's on the decisions that cannot change later: number of embryos to transfer, termination, selective reduction and vaccination. Only when those align does she present a profile. For the full process, see how surrogate matching works.
What does 'official match' mean and who decides?
You and the surrogate decide. PLS does not match anyone on its own.
The sequence runs like this. PLS presents her profile to you and your profile to her. If both sides want to talk, PLS sets up a video meeting with a member of the PLS team present. After the meeting, each side has time to think it over at home. Then each side tells PLS, separately, whether it wants to go forward.
A match is official only when both of you have said yes. Written confirmation from both sides, sent separately to PLS after the video meeting, is the formal trigger for an official match.
Confirming separately means neither side feels pressure to agree in the moment. A no at this stage carries no penalty for either of you, and PLS keeps matching.
What payments and steps does a match trigger?
An official match sets four things in motion:
- The second program fee installment. On the current schedule this is $15,000, due at surrogate acceptance; a proposed $17,000 may apply to new agreements. Confirm whether this installment is due at match or at contract signing.
- The initial escrow deposit. You fund an independent licensed escrow account with $10,000. The balance is due before the surrogate starts medications. PLS never holds client money, and you may choose your own escrow company. See how escrow works.
- Referral to independent attorneys. Each side retains its own attorney to draft and negotiate the gestational carrier agreement. PLS refers but does not employ attorneys. You pay for both.
- Medical and insurance steps. Your clinic schedules the surrogate's medical screening, and the insurance review is completed.
| Before match | After match | |
|---|---|---|
| Screening completed | Application, interview, physician records review, background check, insurance review, independent psychological evaluation | Clinic medical screening at your fertility center |
| Documents | Your questionnaire, her application, both profiles | Gestational carrier agreement drafted by two independent attorneys |
| Payments | First program fee installment at signing | Second program fee installment; $10,000 escrow deposit; escrow balance before medications |
| Next steps | Profile presentation, video meeting, separate written confirmation | Legal and medical foundations, then the medical cycle |
What happens between match and contract signing?
Legal and medical foundations take 1 to 2 months. Two tracks run side by side, while you fund escrow.
The legal track. The two attorneys draft and negotiate the gestational carrier agreement. It covers her compensation, expenses, insurance and health decisions. Her attorney answers only to her. Yours answers only to you. See surrogacy legal contracts.
The medical track. The surrogate travels to your clinic for its own medical screening, which follows ASRM guidance for gestational carriers. The clinic has Dr. Silverberg's summary in hand before she arrives.
From this point a PLS case manager carries the match day to day. That is Natalie Gaudio-Fricano or Jenni Symons. Both have carried as gestational surrogates themselves. They are the first call for either side.
One rule holds throughout: nothing medical starts until the agreement is signed by everyone and escrow is funded.
Can a match be undone, and what happens then?
Yes. A match is a commitment, but it is not yet a contract. It can end before signing for reasons neither side controls. The clinic's medical screening may find something that rules out a transfer. The attorneys may not reach terms both sides accept. A family situation may change.
When that happens, PLS rematches you. Your embryos, clinic and questionnaire answers carry forward. How fees and escrow are handled depends on where the journey stopped. See the refund and rematch policy.
A proposed Assured tier at $55,000 would add priority matching, unlimited rematches, and no new agency fee if the first surrogate does not succeed. Confirm current schedule.
How is a match different from a profile presentation?
A profile presentation is a proposal. A match is a mutual decision.
A presentation means this surrogate has passed screening and her answers line up with yours on the decisions that matter. Either of you can stop there, and nothing is owed.
A match comes later. It follows the video meeting and both sides' confirmation. Only a match triggers payments, attorneys and the clinic's medical screening.
Keeping the two separate means you never pay on a profile you have only read, and she never commits to a family she has not met.
Sources
- ASRM (American Society for Reproductive Medicine), guidance on gestational carriers. https://www.asrm.org
- SEEDS, Society for Ethics in Egg Donation and Surrogacy, of which Nancy Block, RN, is a former President.