A good surrogacy consultation should feel like an interview you’re conducting, not one you’re sitting through. Questions to ask surrogacy agency candidates matter more than almost any other decision in this fertility journey, since the wrong agency can cost you months and real money before you notice a problem — often well after the point where switching providers is easy.
Here are the questions to ask a surrogacy agency that actually reveal how they operate on international surrogacy, why each one matters, and how ADONIS Fertility Solutions answers each one specifically.
The 10 Most Important Questions to Ask a Surrogacy Agency
Each question below comes with the reasoning behind it, so you know what a strong answer should actually sound like, not just what to ask.
1. How Many Surrogacy Journeys Has Your Agency Successfully Completed?
Agency experience isn’t just a number — ask specifically how long they’ve operated and how many births they can actually document, not just how many families they’ve signed.
A newer agency isn’t automatically worse, but it should be transparent about being newer, rather than borrowing the reputation of a parent company it barely resembles, or a partner clinic it doesn’t actually control.
ADONIS Fertility Solutions’s Answer
25 years in reproductive medicine, over 15,000 births, and intended parents from 32 countries. Fourteen clinics and hospitals back that track record, not a single office with a marketing budget.
That history also means documented outcome data going back years, not a handful of recent success stories chosen for a website.
Agencies operating three or four years simply don’t have that depth of history yet — which doesn’t disqualify them outright, but it does mean a different set of follow-up questions is warranted before committing.
2. How Do You Screen and Select Surrogate Mothers?
Surrogate screening should be multi-stage — medical, genetic, infectious disease, and psychological. If an agency glosses over any of these, that’s worth pressing on.
Ask specifically what disqualifies a candidate, not just what a passing profile looks like, since the disqualification criteria reveal more about actual screening rigor than any marketing description ever will.
ADONIS Fertility Solutions’s Answer
Every gestational carrier completes a full medical workup, infectious disease panel, and psychological evaluation before being approved.
Candidates must be 21 to 35, have already had one healthy pregnancy, and show no medical contraindications to carrying again.
None of this happens after matching — it happens before a profile is ever shown to an intended parent, and every candidate who doesn’t clear one of these stages is removed from consideration at that point, not flagged for later review.
3. How Does Your Surrogate Matching Process Work?
Surrogate matching should be based on documented compatibility criteria, not whoever happens to be available first. Ask how long matching typically takes, and what happens if the first match doesn’t feel right to either side.
ADONIS Fertility Solutions’s Answer
Matching typically takes 4 to 8 weeks, drawing from an actively maintained database rather than a small local pool. Intended parents review profiles and can request a video introduction before anything is finalized.
Rematching is possible before embryo transfer if a pairing genuinely isn’t working, without starting the fee structure over from zero — some agencies quietly charge a full new matching fee for exactly this situation, so it’s worth confirming upfront rather than discovering it later.
4. Which Fertility Clinics and Medical Specialists Do You Work With?
Some agencies outsource every medical step to whichever clinic happens to be available. Others, like ADONIS, run the medical side in-house. Ask by name which clinic performs the embryo transfer — a vague answer here is a genuine warning sign, and a specific one you can independently research is exactly what a confident agency will offer without hesitation.
ADONIS Fertility Solutions’s Answer
ADONIS operates its own embryology laboratory and works with 925 doctors across 66 medical specialties — fertility specialists who are part of the same organization managing your case, not a subcontracted clinic.
That structure means a medical question gets answered by someone with direct access to your file, not a call center reading notes secondhand. It also means continuity — the same physicians overseeing retrieval and transfer stay involved through the pregnancy, rather than handing your case to an unfamiliar team partway through.
5. What Exactly Is Included in Your Surrogacy Program Cost?
Surrogacy costs should be itemized, not a single vague number. Ask what happens if a cycle fails — is a second attempt included, or billed separately?
Ask, too, whether travel, legal fees, and surrogate compensation are bundled into one figure or quoted piecemeal, since a program that looks cheaper upfront can easily end up costing more once every real expense is added back in.
ADONIS Fertility Solutions’s Answer
Programs run from $45,840 to $77,430 in Ukraine and $56,900 to $103,900 in Mexico, all fixed and published. Higher tiers include multiple embryo transfer attempts and coverage for early pregnancy loss, so a failed first cycle doesn’t mean paying for a second program from scratch.
Financing up to $35,000 is also available for families who’d rather spread payments than pay the full program cost upfront.
Every dollar is accounted for in the published tier structure — nothing arrives as a surprise line item three or four months into treatment.
6. How Are Surrogate Payments and Funds Managed?
Payment structure matters for transparency on both sides — the surrogate and the intended parents. Ask how compensation is scheduled, and whether the surrogate herself has any say in the terms she’s agreeing to, rather than simply being handed a contract already finalized by someone else.
ADONIS Fertility Solutions’s Answer
Compensation is scheduled around program milestones rather than paid in one lump sum, with every payment documented as part of the surrogacy agreement before treatment begins. Both sides see the same schedule in writing — there’s no separate, undisclosed arrangement running in parallel.
Transparency here protects the intended parents just as much as it protects the surrogate herself, since ambiguity about payment terms is one of the more common sources of mid-program disputes.
7. What Legal Support Do You Provide During the Journey?
Independent legal counsel for the surrogate — separate from the intended parents’ attorney — is close to non-negotiable in a properly run program. Ask exactly when parentage gets established, and whether that happens automatically or requires a separate court filing after birth, since that single detail can add weeks or months to how quickly you can travel home.
ADONIS Fertility Solutions’s Answer
An in-house legal team drafts and notarizes the surrogacy agreement before any medical procedure starts.
In Ukraine, parentage is automatic at birth, with intended parents named directly on the birth certificate — no court order required. That single detail removes weeks of legal uncertainty that families face in countries without an explicit surrogacy statute, and it’s exactly the kind of specific answer a vague agency won’t be able to give you.
8. Who Will Support Us Throughout the Journey?
A single point of contact who actually knows your case beats a rotating call center every time. Ask whether that person is available outside strict office hours, since medical milestones rarely respect a nine-to-five schedule.
ADONIS Fertility Solutions’s Answer
A dedicated English-speaking coordinator manages communication from the first surrogacy consultation through delivery, coordinating everything from medical appointments to document translation. The same person stays assigned throughout, rather than handing your case off between departments as it progresses.
That continuity matters most during the pregnancy itself, when questions come up with little warning.
9. What Happens if Something Does Not Go According to Plan?
Ask directly what a failed embryo transfer, a medical complication, or a rematch actually costs — in money and in time. This is the question that separates a program built for the easy case from one genuinely prepared for the harder one, and every program looks similar when things go smoothly.
ADONIS Fertility Solutions’s Answer
Guarantee-tier programs cover up to five transfer attempts within the original fixed price, plus early pregnancy loss protection up to 12 weeks.
A single failed cycle doesn’t reset the clock or the budget. If a rematch becomes necessary, the coordinator manages it directly rather than asking families to start the search over from scratch — that built-in resilience is worth pricing against a program that lacks one, even when the base number looks lower on paper.
10. Can You Provide References From Previous Intended Parents?
A reputable agency should be comfortable connecting you with families who’ve completed the exact program you’re considering. Hesitation here, more than almost any other answer on this list, tells you something real about how confident the agency actually is in its own track record.
ADONIS Fertility Solutions’s Answer
Coordinators can connect prospective families with intended parents from comparable programs and family structures, on request, to hear about the journey directly rather than through a testimonial page.
A real conversation with someone who’s already been through it tends to answer questions a brochure never will — the small logistical details, the moments that felt hard, the things nobody thinks to put in writing.
Red Flags: When a Surrogacy Agency Cannot Answer Your Questions Clearly
The questions above matter because a weak agency answers them poorly, evasively, or not at all. Here’s what that actually sounds like in practice.
- Vague or shifting cost estimates that grow once you’ve engaged — a number that was firm in the first call becomes a range by the second
- Reluctance to name the actual fertility clinic or specialists involved, or answers that stay deliberately general
- No independent legal representation offered for the gestational carrier, or a single attorney claimed to represent both sides fairly
- Pressure to sign quickly, before you’ve had time to compare options or consult anyone outside the sales call
- No willingness to connect you with past intended parents, even in a limited, moderated way
Any single item here is worth a pause, not necessarily a dealbreaker on its own. Two or more together are a real reason to keep looking elsewhere before committing money or time.
Questions You Probably Don’t Need to Ask First
Not every question deserves equal weight in a first consultation. Donor egg specifics, delivery hospital preferences, and detailed travel logistics all matter eventually — but they’re solvable once you’ve confirmed the agency’s fundamentals are solid.
Leading with these can eat the time better spent on screening standards, legal structure, and real cost transparency. A first call is short. Spend it on the questions that would actually disqualify an agency, and save the finer preferences for the second or third conversation, once you already trust the foundation.
Downloadable Surrogacy Agency Interview Checklist
Print this list, or keep it open on your phone during every consultation call — the same ten questions, asked consistently across every agency you talk to, make it far easier to compare answers honestly rather than relying on which sales call simply felt the most polished.
- How many surrogacy journeys has your agency successfully completed?
- How do you screen and select surrogate mothers?
- How does your surrogate matching process work?
- Which fertility clinics and medical specialists do you work with?
- What exactly is included in your surrogacy program cost?
- How are surrogate payments and funds managed?
- What legal support do you provide during the journey?
- Who will support us throughout the journey?
- What happens if something does not go according to plan?
- Can you provide references from previous intended parents?
