A Limited Market: The Infertility Industry's Recruitment of Gay Men as Surrogacy Clients

• In Event: 2184 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Reproductive Health and Decision-making

Abstract

Gestational surrogacy via egg donation is an increasingly popular route to planned fatherhood for gay men. The U.S. surrogacy market plays an important role for gay men seeking these services, as it is currently the only legal commercial market available to them. While a small ethnographic literature on the experiences of gay fathers via surrogacy exists, less is known about the state of the surrogacy industry toward gay men as clients. How welcome are gay men in this market? In this paper, I investigate the receptivity of the U.S. infertility industry toward gay men via a content analysis of patient/client recruitment on fertility clinic and surrogacy agency websites. Findings indicate that fertility clinics and most surrogacy agencies are organized around women’s needs and all, according to my survey of 547 clinic and surrogacy agency websites, service women. For gay men, this appears not to be the case. The majority of fertility clinics (62 percent) and 40 percent of surrogacy agencies do not advertise or appear to be welcoming for gay men. A minority of gay-friendly clinics and agencies actively recruit gay men and have created a limited but niche market. These agencies and clinics who recruit gay men as clients cluster geographically in the U.S. The unequal recruitment of gay men as infertility clients may reflect unequal access to services and the continuing marginalization of both men in the reproductive realm and gay men as fathers.

Author

• Heather Jacobson, University of Texas-Arlington