How to Navigate Picking an Egg Donor
What’s it like picking an egg donor? This article is about the challenges and process that my husband and I have undertaken in approaching our selection of an egg donor. Choosing an egg donor is an exciting and important step in anyone’s journey to fatherhood through IVF and surrogacy, and I hope this article is helpful for anyone embarking on this stage.
Lesbian Moms Can Each Carry Their Baby: New Frontiers in LGBTQ+ Reproduction
Intravaginal culture (IVC) and ‘shared motherhood’ through a novel technology called INVOcell allows lesbian mothers-to-be to each carry their child. How does IVC work? Is IVC as good as IVF? What are the benefits and challenges of IVC? All these questions are answered in this article.
Navigating and Negotiating a U.S. Hospital Bill for International Intended Parents
Many international intended parents (IPs) pay their hospital bill for their newborn in the United States with cash. What can they expect the bill to cost? How do they navigate the bill and negotiate with the hospital? Are there resources to help with this process? All this and more in this original BabyMoon Family article.
Science Says: Gay Parents are Better than Straight Parents
New scientific research shows that gay parents outperform straight parents in terms of health and well-being of the children, coparenting, and the overall dynamics of the family. In our first BabyMoon Family journal club, I review the study in this article.
Queer and / or Gay? Identity Challenges When Building a LGBTQ+ Focused Company
How do men of the LGBTQ+ community identify? And how does this affect building a brand and business for them? This article discusses the challenges I have had to be both specific and inclusive in building BabyMoon Family.
Why and How I am Working to Extend Fertility Benefits at My Company and Across the Globe
Fertility benefits should be for everyone. This is a background on fertility insurance and benefits in the United States, and how I am working to extend benefits offered through my company to employees in over 100 countries outside the United States.
The BabyMoon Family Vision: A Comprehensive Reproduction Center for All Queer People
The ultimate vision for BabyMoon Family is a comprehensive reproductive center for all queer people, by queer people, leveraging the amazing LGBTQ+ community to make rainbow families a reality. This would be the world’s first queer reproductive center, but how would it work? Read more here.
Why Do Women Become Gestational Carriers?
Gestational carriers (GCs) are incredible. However, who are the women who do this? This article attempts to describe the persona and motivations for these amazing women to become GCs. Queer men would not be able to become biological parents without them, and so we are forever indebted to their partnership on this journey.
What is it Like to Undergo Egg Donation?
What is it like to donate your eggs or ovaries? This article aims to describe this process for women, and also to provide more understanding and empathy for intended parents (IPs). It’s important to know medical details and challenges that women go through in order to make the incredible donation of ovaries.
How Close are We to Becoming ‘The Pod Generation’ and How Would This Affect Queer Intended Dads?
The ‘Pod Generation’ is a movie that dives into the not-to-distant future to explore what it would be like to have a child through an artificial womb, or pod. How close are we to this technology? In this article, I dive into the most recent science to see when (not if, because they will be developed) artificial wombs would become a reality. It’s an amazing field of research, and artificial wombs would be a game changer for queer men having babies.
Masturbating in a Clinic as a Queer Dad-to-Be
Continuing on our personal journey to fatherhood, my husband and I traveled from Stockholm to Los Angeles to our fertility clinic. This article describes the physical exam, lab testing, and all important sperm deposit. What is it like to masturbate in a clinic and give a sperm sample? If you ever wanted to know, read on.
Psychological ‘Labor’ for Queer Dads-to-Be
Having a baby is a big deal for anyone. However, having a baby as a queer man adds another layer to the process, but what can queer men do in order to mentally prepare for having a baby? Psychologists have devised ‘psychological labor’ to describe the preparation that men can undergo to have a baby. Read this article to learn more.
The Surrogacy Crisis in Greece and How the World Should Respond
The worst thing that could happen with regard to surrogacy has happened in Greece. An IVF clinic and agency has exploited women in Ukraine, Romania, and Georgia. This is horrible. Unfortunately, it is exactly what fuels the anti-surrogacy movement. However, there is a way to perform surrogacy with significant regulations and oversight that leads to a beautiful journey of family creation. Hopefully, the world can move in a positive direction after this Greek scandal and not towards more countries banning surrogacy.
Will More Queer Parents and Their Children Make the World a Better Place?
Queer intended parents (IPs) go through significant financial, emotional, and psychological challenges to have children through surrogacy. They desperately want these children. Given this, will these children grow up to be happier and have a more positive on society as a whole? This phenomenon is not new. After the passing of Roe v Wade in the U.S., children - on average - were more wanted. This led to a decrease in societal issues such as crime. Will the same be true of rainbow families?
Surrogacy and Its Ancient History
Surrogacy has roots thousands of years deep in human history. This article takes us through Biblical times, ancient Egypt, Hammurabi, and South Asian religious beliefs to discuss how assisted reproduction and surrogacy have evolved throughout human history.
ChatGPT Wrote an Article on Gestational Surrogacy
What does ChatGPT know about surrogacy? In this article, I give ChatGPT a prompt regarding gestational surrogacy for queer men. I then share its its output as well as my critical review of the contents. Let’s see what AI knows about surrogacy, and what it can still be taught from humanity and the Internet.
Discussing the Primal Wound Theory and Surrogacy
This Primal Wound Theory has been a topic related to adoption for years. Are children raised away from their biological mothers always doomed to suffer deep-seated emotional pain? And, given the differences between adoption and gestational surrogacy, is the Primal Wound Theory applicable to children born via surrogacy?
Why Every LGBTQ+ Person — Especially Intended Parents (IPs) — Should be Furious at Italy Right Now
Meloni’s right-wing Italian government is doing everything possible to erase current and future rainbow families. There are policies that have already resulted in queer mothers being removed from their children’s birth certificates, essentially removing their rights as a parent. Future steps discussed in this article will make surrogacy done in any country illegal in Italy, essentially preventing queer men from pursuing fatherhood through this option. Read more and be supportive of our Italian rainbow brethren during this horrific time.
The Beginning of Our Surrogacy Journey
My husband and I are currently pursing IVF and surrogacy in California while living in Sweden. This is the first of what will be many articles detailing our journey. In this article, I discuss all the major decision points for the process, as I believe it is important to have a full understanding and a complete perspective as to the type of journey you want to have before embarking on it. This article provides an overview of all the major decisions and team members you will need to involve in your own journey to gay fatherhood through surrogacy.
Gay Celebrities and Surrogacy
Celebrities are trailblazers when it comes to bringing attention to emerging social phenomena. Surrogacy is no exception to this, and many gay celebrities have embarked on a journey to build their families through IVF and surrogacy. This article showcases some of these public figures and includes quotes regarding their own process to queer fatherhood and admiration for their incredible gestational carriers.