Eurasia Surrogacy & Egg Donation INT interview with Dr. Tamar

  TBILISI, GEORGIA - 10/03/2017 (PRESS RELEASE JET)

In short, if I was going to answer to an American client, what is the success rate of your program here?  

My program here  has success rate before age 35 about 40 to 45%.   "And over?" Over it depends on patients’ age as well, under 35 years of age or sometimes they're only trying to get surrogate mother they are using only their eggs but they are 40 or 45, the success rate will only be about 15% because the quality of the embryo is depending on the age of the women. So it depends on the age of the patients if the patient is under 35 years of age or she takes egg donors for sure we’re taking egg donors from younger ones or also surrogate mothers or also surrogate mothers are younger ones under 35 years of age, yes, success rate is 40 to 45%, it is not 100%.  This is marketing issue, some clinics, some hospitals are advertising that they are having the highest success rates, there having 80, 90, 100%,  this is impossible.  Even when we are making PGD diagnosis   Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) or  Preimplantation Genetic screening, even in this situation when we are selecting embryos, we don't have hundred percent success rate, though we are selecting that this is good embryo but besides embryos they also factor of endometrium. So in molecular basis we can't see receptors maybe this is the problem in endometrium not in  embryo so hundred percent success rate is impossible.  So in short if I was going to answer to an American client what is the success rate of your program here?  My program here  under 35 years of age group is 40 to 45%. "And over?" over it depends on the ages because after between 35 and 37 there is 25%, from 37 to 40 years of age there is 15%, after 40 years to 42 years there is less than 6% (success rate) so it is broken down after 40 years of age a quality is very poor  in this age group so they must realize this. "Is there anything else that you're doing or offering here in this program that is unique to your clinic or to other countries?"  In Georgia we are offering almost everything which is in other countries except PGS and PGD but yesterday on Saturday we were on a presentation at the new laboratory near here where they opened PGS laboratory but the problem is, in Georgia , so we can send embryos in Georgia and they will diagnose the embryos but the problem now is and maybe it  will be arranged,  neither clinics are having biopsy machine or biopsy device which is important to biopsy embryos, if you can't biopsy embryos than you have to freeze the embryo and send them and then they will thaw this embryo and then take cells from the embryos and then refreeze embryos and so embryologists in the world are saying that this double freezing and thawing process will not effect on the quality of the embryo, but anyway to my mind, it's better to take once the cells and send only sample to the lab, and keep your embryos in your clinic.  So they opened  it, and they are starting also on the abortuses or on any sample,but very important is PGS and PDG most of all patients from abroad are asking about it. Only we are having the problem of diagnosing embryos before implantation we have to send either to Kiev or  to Belarus or in Georgia in the lab so maybe it will be arranged in several months because they opened this laboratory and they want to work without making this process they could not afford, so otherwise we are having all procedures; IVF, IVF ICSI, any type of sperm processing.  Also we work on infected patients with HIV, we can work with HIV patients "Oh, you can?" yes because HIV viruses is washed during the sperm processing so the risk of infecting the surrogate mother is less than 0.1%.  But different situation is with hepatitis B and C. Hepatitis B and C are a bit difficult because their DNA  are incorporated in human DNA so the risk of  infecting  the  surrogate mother is higher so and HIV it's not  a problem but beforehand we are  informing the surrogate mother that we are having patient for example with the mother or for example the partner is infected with HIV we know HIV  is  not detected now in the sperm if she will agree for transfer  we will do it. but in this case the price is a bit higher, as  surrogate mothers are demanding high prices because  this is very low but anyway there is a risk so they are asking for high price for compensation and also for doctors and embryologist who are  working with this has higher price. Also in Russia there is legislation as i know  that working with HIV patients is no problem, but working with hepatitis B and C is problematic even in Israel there is only one clinic which is serving such patients.  But serving the patients with hepatitis B and C is no problem, if they are using their own eggs, own gametes but we usually  transfer their own gametes in the same person, in the patient. . "Ok, about Georgian legislation in terms of, it's a couple, do they have to be married, do they have to prove it?  Do they work with LGBT, or how does this work?"  No, for now there is no legislation that we don’t demand proof of marriage, we don’t have  to  ask the patient if they are in official marriage, maybe there are in the civil marriage, yes this is in church yes, awe but... "Or  in America maybe they are living together as in civil marriage." Yes. We don't need to ask them. "Can it be male/male, or female/female?" in Georgia female and female and male and male marriages is impossible.  "So then this means that patients that I refer to your medical program, your medical services here have to be a male and female couple." Male and female, by Law. "and they will not accept same-sex couples?" No no. It is prohibited. "It is against Georgian legislation."  Due to Georgian legislation working with the same-sex couples must not be the same sex, so no female/female, and no male/male (couples), only male and female (couples). "and is your medical program accepting the sperm or egg donations from America to be shipped here without the first trip?"  Yes. Yes.   Cryopreservation, frozen embryos "And in such case then it would only require a trip for them to come the baby is born or about the time the baby is born?"  there is they can do a power of attorney "Power of Attorney?" power of attorney, yes, for example, rely only reliable Person one of the patient makes  power of attorney on any reliable  person and he/she  signs on behalf of them on the agreement in notary because if on the day of the embryo transfer we don’t have agreement notary confirmed  they will have problem  of expatriation of the baby. After delivery of the baby they must arrive here, because  in the House of Justice they must get birth certificate ,and then the passport. It will take about month or month and a half, getting both (birth) certificate and passport, and then visa.  "Ok, to clarify, if I provide you or rather the patient provides, you the power of attorney. They can send the sperm and or eggs by delivery (express postal mail)." Yes, they can send mostly any biological sample.  Mostly what they are sending is embryos because in some countries and in some states even in the United States there is a prohibition of  surrogation or surrogate mothers, so maybe they are making embryos there but they can't transfer to surrogate mother so they can send those embryos and we can do transfer procedures here. But according to the United States legislation as I know one of the parents must be genetically bonded to the baby, either the mother or the father. "Okay in this case where they signed the power of attorney and they will send the sperm or donor eggs to Georgia so when the baby is to be born or when the babies is born at the time how long does this generally take you said about a month?" About one month, maximum two months. "One to two months. And do they need to stay in Georgia during that time?"  They don't need. they must arrive here, but take care of the baby - mainly we  take  nurses, yes, or they can stay here if they had the possibility to stay and take care of the baby by themselves as well, but according  busy life it's very complicated, and they are busy, couples are very busy and it's impossible for most couples to stay in another country for two months, yes? So we take nurses which look after the babies, but after the delivery of the baby they must be here.  sometimes they are arriving and they want to attend even the delivery process when we're calling them and if we are having planned a Caesarean section some patients are demanding that they want only Caesarean section for surrogate mother. Some are not having any problem with surrogate mother with delivering physiologically so it's up to the patient. They can "Make the choice of natural birth versus Caesarean, C-section" - yes.  So if it is C-section we can plan it and inform patient a week before for example if after one week we are having C-section but if it is natural delivery we can't predict it for sure, so sometimes they are arriving here and it's no problem.  So this will take maximum two months maybe less because after delivery baby is delivered on the name of the surrogate mother after producing the whole documents from the delivery hospital to the House of Justice then the baby will be on the name of the real parents. "So in theory, they could arrive at around the time of the expected or actual birth of the child" - or after delivery. "and if they are busy or have some situation they can return to their home country or the United States in this case for example, and then come back in another month or two."  Yes. Yes." - Interview conducted by Rev. Dr. Michael R Vanderpool, US Press Association, Eurasia Surrogacy & Egg Donation International  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLzSUk6enng