Gunjan & Kedar's Gestational Surrogacy Journey

Hi, Dimple and Amit Shah here, we have become close friends of Gunjan and Kedar in the past few years.  As we spent time and connected with them, we also learned about Gunjan’s recent health issues and their struggles to start a family.  They are such an amazing couple and we see firsthand their love and affection and how they light up when they play with our daughter, who will be two years old in February.  Given the opportunity and their loving and caring nature, we know they would make amazing parents someday. Unfortunately, Gunjan has been advised against carrying a child due to her heart issues as it poses great risks to her and the baby.  At the beginning of this year, they started the process of Gestational Surrogacy, which is very expensive and not covered by insurance, as some of you might know.  Donations would go along way to help them in their journey. Here is the story in their own words. Thanks, Dimple and AmitHi, this is Gunjan, my husband Kedar and I have been married for eleven years now.  I have been in the education field for almost twenty years now, working with children in the age group of three and five. I’m passionate about my profession and truly felt that I was in a way raising these children while teaching in a professional setting.  The bonds that I have created with some of them and their parents will undoubtedly last a lifetime. My husband and I were always hoping to have children of our own someday. Even at social settings, I have always gravitated towards our friend’s children and caught myself spending time with them.Gunjan and I (Kedar) were trying to conceive for some time, when it wasn’t working out, we decided to seek help with our fertility issues. However, when we planned to do that, life took us in a different direction.  Gunjan came down with what appeared to be case of bronchitis at the end of 2016 and wasn’t getting better. When she took a fall at New Year Eve, due to fluid retention in her legs and body, we rushed her to the hospital, not able to figure out what was going on.  She spent 18 days in the hospital and we were shocked to find out when doctors diagnosed her with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) with LVNC. Over the last 2.5years, she has made great strides towards her recovery and getting her strength back, going through months of physical therapy and daily exercise.  Happy to share that her heart function has returned to the normal range and her cardiologists feel like she is a miracle patient, because patients don’t always experience that level of recovery.With those prospects, we got back to the plan of starting a family by meeting with a fertility specialist.  After consulting with a high-risk doctor and per her cardiologists, we suffered a major setback, as she was advised against carrying a child due to higher mortality and complications as a result of her heart condition.  We decided then to explore the path of Gestational Surrogacy after going through some tests and consulting with the Director of Fertility Medicine, Dr. Fienberg. Based on the test results and the consultation, she said that we would be great candidates for it.  At this stage, we have gone through the IVF Cycle and Egg Retrieval process. We are going to move forward with an approved Agency to help us with finding a surrogate and facilitate the whole process.  We are looking at a total cost between $100,000 to $120,000 with the Agency we picked (Agency’s costs, Surrogate’s costs, IVF Cycles, Embryo Implantation, Supplemental Insurance, Legal fees and everything else in-between), which is on the low end!  Other quoted us $40,000 to $50,000 higher than them, which is a huge financial burden. Employer insurance doesn’t generally cover this, in our case, the insurance only covered the initial diagnostic tests for infertility. Nearly all of this has to come out of pocket, loans or help from family and friends.  Thank you for taking the time to read about our journey. We truly appreciate and thank everyone who has shown support throughout this process so far, especially Amit and Dimple. With faith and blessings, we will continue to move forward and hope to share good outcome out of this journey.We appreciate any support possible to help start a family of our own. Best,Gunjan and Kedar