Surrogate motherhood is perhaps the most radical of all methods of ART. A woman resorts to the services of a surrogate mother if, according to objective medical indications, she does not have the opportunity to conceive, bear and give birth to a child on her own.

According to the Kazakhstan Association of Reproductive Medicine (CARM), surrogate motherhood programs in our country account for 3.1% of the total number of programs using assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

For the first time, successful surrogacy was announced in 1980. The first surrogate mother was a 37-year-old Elizabeth Kane from Illinois.

Indications for surrogacy are:

• Absence of uterus (congenital or acquired);
• Deformation of the cavity or cervix with congenital malformations or as a result of past diseases, insolvent scar;
• Asherman syndrome; endometrial hypoplasia; hyperplastic processes
• Unsuccessful repeated attempts of IVF during the transfer of good quality embryos;
• Extragenital and genital pathology, in which gestation of pregnancy is contraindicated or impossible.

In the Republic of Kazakhstan, surrogate motherhood is not available to women who are not married and single men.

Requirements for a surrogate mother:

• A woman who wants to become a surrogate mother must be between the ages of 20 and 35, have satisfactory physical, mental and reproductive health, confirmed by a medical organization, and also have her own healthy child.
• If the surrogate mother is in a registered marriage (matrimony), when concluding a surrogacy agreement, the written consent of the spouse must be submitted, which must be notarized.
• A medical organization that uses assisted reproductive methods and technologies must make an opinion on their use with full and comprehensive information about the biomaterials used for this purpose by the people who want to have a child or a donor bank.