To move forward safely as a surrogate, you must first confirm that you meet essential health, background and pregnancy history requirements through a comprehensive surrogate screening process. Screening evaluates key factors like your BMI, pregnancy and delivery history, lifestyle habits and background check results to ensure your body and family are ready for a healthy gestational pregnancy.
Understanding these requirements gives you clear insight into your eligibility, helps protect your physical and emotional well-being and ensures you can move through each stage of your surrogacy with total confidence.
At American Surrogacy, our specialists guide you through every step of pre-screening—including medical record reviews by an in-house fertility nurse, psychological evaluations and background checks—so you never have to navigate requirements alone.
To see whether you meet initial qualifications and take the first step toward a safe, supported surrogacy, take a moment to check whether you qualify today.
What Happens During the Surrogate Screening Process?
First, you must meet our preliminary qualifications to begin your surrogacy process:
Once these baseline criteria are met, American Surrogacy provides a structured roadmap to evaluate whether surrogacy is medically, psychologically and practically appropriate before moving forward. If you want to see the complete checklist, you can review our full list of surrogate requirements.
The screening sequence includes:
Medical Record Review: ~1-5 weeks Background Check: ~1 week Psychological Evaluation: Results available in ~1 week Insurance Review: ~1 week
These steps work together to establish safety, trust and clear expectations for everyone involved before matching with intended parents.
Step 1. Complete Your Social and Medical History Forms
Your screening starts with completing detailed social and medical history forms that cover your personal health background, family health history and details from past pregnancies.
Along with these forms, American Surrogacy asks you to provide supporting documents, including:
- Official government-issued identification
- Health insurance policy cards
- Signed medical record release forms
- An OB/GYN surrogacy recommendation form from your physician
Gathering these items requires some personal effort, but your surrogacy specialist will guide you through the paperwork so the process remains manageable and straightforward.
Step 2. Medical Records Are Reviewed: ~1-5 Weeks
American Surrogacy requests your complete medical records from past pregnancies, labor and deliveries, along with a formal medical clearance letter from your current OB/GYN.
Once gathered, our on-staff labor and delivery nurse conducts an in-depth review of your medical records to confirm that carrying another pregnancy is safe for your body.
Requesting records from hospitals and clinics often takes the longest amount of time during screening. Starting this step early helps prevent unnecessary delays when you are ready to match.
Step 3. You and Your Household Complete Background Checks: ~ 1 Week
To ensure a safe, stable and transparent environment, American Surrogacy requires comprehensive background checks for you, your spouse or partner and any household members aged 18 or older.
These checks review criminal histories, financial backgrounds and public social media profiles to confirm that your home environment is safe and legally compliant for carrying a pregnancy. Requiring background checks protects everyone involved—guaranteeing that intended parents are entrusting their future child to a secure household while ensuring you are entering a fully transparent partnership.
At American Surrogacy, our specialists handle every detail of background screening and coordinate all required background checks for intended parents as well, protecting your peace of mind so you can focus on a safe, supported surrogacy process.
If you are ready to learn more about our safety standards, take a moment to explore our screening requirements today.
Step 4. Surrogate Psychological Evaluation: ~1 Week to Get Results
You and your spouse or partner will participate in a clinical evaluation conducted by a licensed mental health professional specializing in reproductive technology. This step is a vital safeguard designed to protect your emotional well-being, confirm your support system, and give you complete confidence in your decision before making deeper personal commitments.
This evaluation involves:
- Discussing your personal motivations for becoming a surrogate: Exploring why you want to help another family and ensuring your personal goals align with the emotional realities of the process.
- Reviewing your family support systems and communication expectations: Evaluating the strength of your home support network and setting clear boundaries for how you, your partner, and intended parents will communicate throughout the pregnancy.
- Completing standardized personality assessments, such as the MMPI or PAI: Using objective, industry-standard psychological tools to evaluate mental health history, stress resilience, and overall emotional stability.
- Exploring scenario discussions to develop healthy coping strategies for unexpected challenges: Walking through potential real-world situations—such as bed rest, medical decisions, or postpartum recovery—so you feel fully equipped to handle any outcome.
Ultimately, this assessment confirms that you have the emotional readiness and support needed throughout your experience. At American Surrogacy, our specialists coordinate your entire evaluation with compassionate, experienced professionals who understand third-party reproduction, ensuring you feel respected, heard, and fully advocated for at every step.
Step 5. Health Insurance Is Reviewed: ~1 Week
Our team reviews your current health insurance policy to evaluate whether pregnancy, prenatal care and delivery under a gestational surrogacy arrangement are covered or if the policy contains a specific surrogacy exclusion clause.
If your policy excludes surrogacy or if you currently lack insurance, this does not disqualify you. American Surrogacy can connect you with intended parents who provide a surrogate-friendly policy to ensure you face no out-of-pocket medical expenses.
How Long Does Surrogate Screening Take?
Surrogate screening typically takes between 1 and 3 months to complete. The exact timeline depends heavily on how quickly medical facilities release your records and scheduling availability for your clinical appointments.
Contact your medical providers to authorize sharing your medical records Upload your insurance card and policy booklet (if applicable) Submit IDs for all household members 18+ Send your profile materials to your specialist as soon as possibleTips to Keep Things Moving
What Can Disqualify You from Becoming a Surrogate?
Surrogacy screening guidelines identify specific circumstances that prevent an applicant from moving forward to protect her physical health and safety.
Permanent disqualifying factors include:
- No prior successful pregnancy: Applicants must have carried at least one prior pregnancy to term without major complications according to established clinical standards.
- Significant pregnancy complications: A history of severe, high-risk pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia or placental abruption.
- Extensive delivery history: Having had more than three C-sections or five births.
- Unsafe medical conditions: Chronic or acute conditions such as HIV, hepatitis B and C, certain autoimmune conditions, or other medical issues that make pregnancy unsafe.
- Unresolved mental health concerns: Severe or unmanaged psychological conditions, such as active psychosis or untreated personality disorders.
- Criminal history concerns: Past felony convictions for any household adult that prevent clearance during background checks.
While these criteria help ensure the highest standards of safety, we know that every personal story is unique. If surrogacy is not the right fit for you at this time, we warmly invite you to explore our surrogate referral program as a meaningful way to stay connected and help other families achieve their dreams.
Does Screening Change If You’ve Been a Surrogate Before?
If you are an experienced surrogate, you already understand the dedication required for the surrogacy process. However, because health, medical parameters, and personal circumstances naturally change between pregnancies, an updated review of your current eligibility is still required.
Because you already have documented surrogacy records, an established medical history, and familiarity with clinical steps, the screening process typically moves much faster for repeat surrogates. Rather than going through a full, multi-step medical history review and comprehensive psychological evaluation from scratch, several steps are streamlined:
- Streamlined Reviews: Instead of a full medical history overhaul and initial psychological assessment, clinicians review your most recent pregnancy records and conduct a targeted psychological check-in to discuss how past surrogacy impacted your family.
- Refreshed Verifications: Essential safeguards—such as your background check and routine medical updates—are refreshed to ensure everything is current.
Accelerated Matching Beyond faster screening, experienced surrogates benefit from an expedited matching process. Once screening updates are complete, our matching timeframe for experienced surrogates is just 0–4 weeks, allowing you to move quickly into your next journey with an intended family.
Why Surrogate Screening Goes Beyond a Healthy Pregnancy History
Surrogate screening is designed as a safety framework that protects your physical health, safeguards intended parents and supports the baby throughout a medically, legally and personally significant process.
Agencies and fertility clinics base their clinical standards on established guidelines from national reproductive organizations. Connecting health records, psychological readiness and background reviews ensures that avoidable medical or emotional risks are reduced, creating a safe environment where you can feel fully supported rather than judged.
American Surrogacy Helps You Through Every Stage of Screening
Managing medical records, clinic appointments, and legal requirements on your own can feel overwhelming. At American Surrogacy, our primary goal isn't simply to approve applicants—it’s to protect your health, safety, and emotional well-being by ensuring you are fully prepared for the journey ahead.
From day one, our team guides you through every single requirement, relying on experienced medical and psychological professionals to evaluate your readiness. We handle all the heavy lifting for you by:
- Obtaining Your Records at No Cost: Our on-staff Labor & Delivery nurse personally reviews your pregnancy and hospital records to ensure your safety before moving forward.
- Coordinating Professional Care: We arrange your psychological evaluation with experienced specialists to support your emotional readiness, and manage all household background checks.
- Covering 100% of Screening Expenses: You will never pay any out-of-pocket costs for your screening process.
- Streamlining Clinic Delivery: We package and send your complete, thoroughly vetted file directly to the fertility clinic.
This comprehensive preparation ensures that screening acts as a protective shield alongside mutual matching, independent legal representation, and full financial safeguards. You can learn step-by-step how to become a surrogate with our agency or take a moment to request free surrogacy information today to speak with a specialist.
What Comes After You Pass Surrogate Screening? Passing your screening opens the door to the core stages of your surrogacy experience:
- Profile creation and mutual matching: You create a surrogate profile detailing your preferences and choose the intended parents you wish to carry for.
- Fertility clinic clearance: You complete a physical exam, bloodwork, and a uterine evaluation at the intended parents' clinic.
- Legal contracts: You work with an independent attorney to establish a comprehensive gestational carrier agreement that outlines parental rights, compensation structure, medical decisions, and journey expectations.
- Embryo transfer: You follow a prescribed medication protocol before the fertility clinic performs the embryo transfer procedure.
- Compensation and support: You receive base compensation in monthly installments alongside covered medical and travel expenses throughout your pregnancy.
At American Surrogacy, matching is always a mutual decision, giving you an active voice in selecting the family you choose to help.
Find Out Whether You Qualify to Become a Surrogate
Taking the first step toward becoming a surrogate begins with learning where you stand. When you complete our initial contact form, an American Surrogacy specialist will review your history, answer your specific questions and help you understand what screening looks like for your situation.
Checking your initial eligibility gives you clarity about your options, helps you understand the protections provided to you and allows you to move forward toward matching and earning competitive compensation with confidence.
If you are ready to find out if surrogacy is right for you, take a moment to fill out our application form to get started.