Is Becky in real life, too old now to be an effective surrogate?
Most reputable clinics will require surrogates who carry the baby to already have children, so they are usually a little older than egg donors. A 43 year old woman would statistically have 80% of her eggs be chromosomal abnormal, which would lead to miscarriage or babies with down's syndrome or the small percentage of babies with trisomy 13 or 18 that survive but are very sick and usually die by their first birthday. It would be a highly unreputable egg donor service that would not screen the donor for age, since IVF is really unlikely to work statistically for a 43 year old woman. A 43 year old woman could be a surrogate, but as an egg donor she would be a very poor choice. The families can test the embryos and only implant the ones that are chromosomal normal, but it is unlikely that a 43 year old woman would be successful with one round of IVF (not impossible, but unlikely) and the big money only comes from being able to produce a child that's born, so the clinics have some incentive to ensure this will happen.share