I started my cycle at 38, and from ovarian stimulation to handing my embryos over to the surrogate, the whole thing took nearly 7 months. The mistakes I made, the people I grilled, the protocols that got revised — way more than I expected. Honestly, at the beginning I couldn’t even tell the surrogacy process steps apart in the right order. Looking back now, every single step had something I could have prepared for in advance. So before you dive in, let me walk you through how it actually went.
How My Stimulation Protocol Got Decided at the First Video Consultation
My first video call with the doctor lasted only 40 minutes. She looked at my AMH of 1.1 and my 6 baseline follicles and went straight to an antagonist protocol — no micro-dose flare, no minimal stimulation. I’d been worried that at 38 they’d push me toward a gentler approach, but the doctor said: for someone with a low follicle base, what matters is maximizing eggs in a single cycle; dragging through two minimal-stimulation cycles ends up more expensive and more exhausting.
Later I learned that Georgian clinics tend to be fairly aggressive with older patients, but they’ll usually wait to see how you respond in your first cycle before locking anything in.
Actionable tip: at the consultation, ask three questions directly — which protocol, how many eggs they expect, and whether they’ll cancel the cycle if fewer than 3 eggs are retrieved. If a clinic gives vague answers, move on.
14 Eggs Retrieved, Only 4 Blastocysts in the End
My retrieval count was actually decent — 14 eggs. But only 11 were mature, 8 fertilized, and by day 5 I had just 4 blastocysts. After PGT-A testing, only 2 were normal. That was the first time I truly understood what an attrition chain means.
There was a 43-year-old woman cycling at the same time as me. She retrieved 9 eggs and didn’t get a single blastocyst — she had to start all over. On her second round, after switching to a short protocol plus growth hormone, she ended up with 3 blastocysts.
How to avoid this trap: don’t build your expectations around egg retrieval numbers alone. Run your own math backward: retrieval count × 70% mature × 75% fertilized × 50% make it to blastocyst × 60% pass genetic screening. If you’ve done that mental math beforehand, a disappointing report won’t break you.
Why the Doctor Insisted on Single Blastocyst Transfer
My first instinct was to transfer two at once and bump the success rate. But the clinic’s coordinator sent over their internal statistics: single blastocyst transfer yields roughly a 55% live birth rate, double embryo transfer nudges it to 58% — but the risk of preterm birth and low birth weight doubles. Their surrogacy contracts also state that single blastocyst transfer is the default.
Georgia is very detailed about how responsibility for surrogate pregnancy care is divided, and the costs of twin complications can ultimately fall back on the intended parents. So I agreed.
My first single blastocyst transfer worked — day 9 beta HCG came back at 312.
How to judge a clinic: if they don’t proactively bring up single embryo transfer, or if they claim “transferring two guarantees success,” that’s a red flag right there.
Surrogate Matching to Transfer: How Many Days It Actually Took
From matching confirmation to embryo transfer, my surrogate journey took about 5 months: 3 weeks for matching and a video meeting, 4 weeks for the surrogate’s medical screening and psychological evaluation, 4 weeks for contract notarization and court authorization, and roughly 8 weeks of the surrogate’s cycle preparation synced with my transfer window.
The biggest delay in all of that was actually me — I’d missed a dual-authentication (apostille-level legalization) on my marriage certificate, and re-doing it cost nearly a month.
A friend who went through surrogacy in the US told me their legal phase alone took 2–3 months, and the total cost was over 3x Georgia’s — though state law on parental rights is more established.
Immediately usable checklist: get dual authentication done in advance for three documents — passport, marriage certificate, and birth certificate — and keep two copies of each. Also confirm in the contract whether a re-transfer after a failed attempt costs extra; I’ve seen someone pay an extra $8,000 over exactly this clause.
If you’re planning to take this route too, get the stimulation protocol and the timeline clarified first, then turn the surrogacy process steps into a checklist you tick off one by one. Of my 7 months, at least 6 weeks were wasted on documents I hadn’t prepared in advance. You can absolutely skip that part of the pain — I already lived it for you.