LGBT and heterosexual couples and individuals interested in starting a family through surrogacy and adoption can get their questions answered in a one-stop shop style conference hosted by A Family of My Own ( AFOMO ) starting Saturday, Aug. 13, in Glenview.
The full-day resource-gathering conference, being held at the Wyndham Glenview Suites, offers educational sessions and workshops as well as a business expo providing attendees the opportunity for face-to-face time with local and national experts in the areas of fertility, third party surrogacy and adoption.
"My business partner and I have been doing these kinds of conferences for several years in Florida, regarding fertility and adoption," said Preya Shivdat, founder of AFOMO. "Both of us have a background, professionally and our own personal journeys, with infertility and we felt that there was such a need. … We decided we wanted to branch out, and in Chicago there seemed to be a really diverse group of people with the need to learn more about family building."
The conference will provide specific sessions geared towards the unique needs of the LGBT community as well as sessions that are more general in nature.
"We've always had it [ a third party surrogacy track ] . "Third-party" means information about egg donors and surrogacy, and it is such a broad subject that we are also including a separate workshop for our LGBT community, because there are different questions and different issues that surround that type of family building. We call it Modern Family Building. That session will include an attorney, an agency representative, usually a doctor or a nurse and sometimes a psychologist. Those are all issues that are very separate for each community that we present to."
Shivdat explained that one of the reasons they recently created the dedicated Modern Family Building session is because surrogacy professionals are seeing an increase in male same-sex couples seeking information on egg donors and surrogates. She credits this rise in interest to the media attention given to celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris, Ricky Martin and Elton John, all of whom utilized a surrogate and an egg donor.
The conference will also include a session devoted to Illinois civil unions and adoption laws. Shivdat said, "With the recent civil union laws it seems like there is a need for more education regarding the laws and how it will affect adoption. There are so many things to think about and understand your rights when it comes to a same-sex couple adopting."
Additional sessions will cover questions about insurance, how to finance treatments, what goes on in the laboratory and freezing eggs for future use.
The business expo, running concurrent to the educational sessions and workshops, will provide a variety of fertility experts, donor agency representatives, attorneys and others.
Conference attendees might be most excited to learn that a $50 raffle ticket will buy them a 1 in 350 chance at an in vitro fertilization cycle, valued at $10,000-$15,000. Sher Institute for Reproductive Medicine and aParent IVF made this opportunity possible.
"I really just want to get the word out to the community that it's not just infertility. It's fertility and adoption. It's about family building and we want to help educate because it's such a complex issue. Our purpose is to help educate and empower people to make the right choices when it comes to the best way to build their families, and that is for everybody."
The conference runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will be held in the lobby of the Wyndham Glenview Suites, 1400 N. Milwaukee Ave., Glenview, Ill. The admission is $30 per person. For additional information on the conference or the IVF cycle raffle visit, www.afamilyofmyown.com .
