You’ll encounter many providers during the surrogacy process, some local in your country and some abroad, but there are two main professional providers:
The fertility clinic, which is responsible for conducting the medical procedures like retrieving the eggs, creating the embryos, genetic testing, etc. and the other provider is the surrogacy agency. The US surrogacy agency’s responsibility is to find a suitable surrogate for you, to make sure it’s a successful match and to put you in touch with each other, to make sure that she’s approved by the clinic you’re working with, and to manage the entire process in the surrogate’s state of residence (insurance, finances and trust, monitoring the pregnancy, the relationship with the surrogate, liaising with various lawyers, and more).
That’s why in the vast majority of cases, you need both of these providers for a proper and professional surrogacy process.
Note that there are also “brokers”, a company which assist you, the parents, by referring you to various agencies and clinics, but it doesn’t replace the clinic or agency, and it’s a third party that brokers between you and the real providers. An intermediator, if you will.
