(August 9, 2018, 11:48 pm)jfingers Does anyone here actually have any experience with the psych screening process for surrogacy? I admit to knowing nothing about it, and my naive mind says that someone who simply prefers to be pregnant would be a good candidate. What else would they consider? Her husband's objections? Sure, but he seemed to enjoy her pregnancies as much as she did. Maybe they should have ten kids together. Would the end of the pregnancies trigger a catastrophic depression? Well, maybe, but that's pretty extreme and it hasn't happened in two pregnancies. Is her health unsuitable? Technically, that's a medical issue, not a psychological one, but it could be a disqualifier.
It's been almost a year and the article is unavailable now, so I can't reread to be sure, but last-year-me clearly thought that there was something going on with her mental health. The psych screening process for surrogacy is no joke: the intended parents get interviewed by a psychologist, then the surrogate couple gets interviewed, then both couples get interviewed together at least once or twice, and then the surrogate undergoes her own evaluation separately. It's very thorough, and the whole point of the process is to identify any potential risk factors. In addition to her apparent rough complications the second time around (which may be a medical disqualifier on its own) those complications also triggered some level of depression beyond what could be considered postpartum depression. It's very possible that she felt betrayed by her body because something she wanted to enjoy so much took a very tough physical and emotional toll on her. If any of that comes up during the screening process (and it almost certainly would, even if she tried to hide it) the couple or the agency would probably pass on her because why take the risk? If there are other surrogates available without that kind of history then they're going to be more attractive.
Quote:A woman has to have some kind of psychological quirk to be a surrogate; that is, to want to get pregnant just for money. Why not simply because she likes to be pregnant? Why is this by itself a disqualifier?
It's not. Almost every surrogate, to a number, loves being pregnant. Many of them might have the fetish; several of my wife's surrogate friends do, and in their private Facebook group they all posted nude pictures of themselves pregnant and called each other sexy, hot, "would love to rub that bare bump", etc. But that is not a disqualifier. As I suggested in one of my replies, it's possible that this lady's pregnancy fetish was a symptom of a deeper emotional/psychological problem.