Conceptual Options

I was referred to Conceptual options back in October by a friend. I had looked into being a surrogate a few times before but didn’t know anyone who has been a surrogate so I was nervous about doing it. I went into the office and I was scared but the ladies I met where amazing they made me feel comfortable. They helped me relax and they answered all my questions. I have been messaging Amanda a lot asking her questions and she has always pointed me in the right direction or gotten the information I needed for me. My friend Stephanie just got done being a surrogate and she said the experience was amazing. So far I have met some amazing people that work at this company and I have met some amazing surrogates. I can’t wait to continue my journey with this company.

I absolutely love this agency! All the staff members are very kind and patient. This is my second time being a surrogate through this agency. Communication is always on point the ladies always do their best to meet my needs on anything I need I just truly adore them! Choose conceptual options they’re #1 you won’t be disappointed. I love you Dr. Raifee, Jessica, and Jenny!

Honestly, can’t say enough good things about everyone here. From the first moment you walk in the door, your surrounded by such a happy and welcoming environment. Jenny is amazing, answers every question, and I know I’ve asked a ton. Dr. Raffie is wonderful and takes the time to truly listen to you and makes you look forward to very support group.
They have walked me through everything to a T and I am truly looking forward to the rest of this incredible journey!

Absolutely love this agency! I have been a surrogate with them since 2011 and I am so glad that I chose them to work with. I have been matched with the perfect couples who I am still close with and was able to help make their dreams come true with the help of conceptual options. If you are looking for an agency look no further. They take such great care of their surrogates and they make us feel appreciated at all times. I love that they have appreciation days for us and Christmas parties and family picnics. Thank you conceptual options for all that you do for intended parents and surrogates. I love the staff and all that they do in helping us. Renata is one of my favorites and she is so genuine and caring. You are one of the best companies around! Thank you!!!

When I began pursuing surrogacy, I was referred to Conceptual Options by a friend. She had experience through several agencies, and this is the one she recommended to me first. At the present time, I am a current surrogate and have had only positive experiences thus far. I really enjoy all of the support from the staff. They are friendly, receptive, and always available. If I ever do another journey, there is no question: Conceptual Options is my ONLY option! Hahaha Too cheesy? ;)

Conceptual Options is a great agency — everyone on their staff is friendly and knowledgeable. I was a surrogate in 2013 and went through Conceptual Options and came back to do it again in 2015. They make the process easy and streamlined and take care of all their clients. I would not use another agency.

I have been with conceptual options since March and I love how caring this company is. I highly recommend this company to anyone.

I was fortunate enough to have two amazing journeys with Conceptual Options, The staff was amazing and answered any questions I had, at all times! The process was smooth and easy and they made me feel as if I were part of a family! I couldn’t imagine being with another agency!

I’m on my third surrogacy journey through conceptual options. I love the staff and although it’s a very complicated process, they make it easy for you. I enjoy the monthly support group meetings, it’s nice to talk with other surrogates every now and then. I couldn’t ever imagine working with another agency.

Today I walked into the office of Conceptual Options and immediately I was welcomed with an amount of awesomeness you wouldn’t believe… Maybe I should start at the beginning. I AM 100% new to the surrogacy world. I bounced back and forth with this idea for a longtime and when my decision was finally made they were my first choice. I live in Los Angeles and I saw that there were a bunch of agencies here… None gave me the abundance of information that CO did. Melissa is fantastic at beginning the foundation of support and the intake appt I had with Jessica and Tina was beyond amazing! They welcomed me like family. Dr Rafiee gave me all the tools I needed and answered all the questions I came in with great patience and she knows her stuff!
Thank you is an understatement! I hope to start my GS journey soon!
Thank you again ladies.

I have been with Conceptual Options for a few months now and all the women that have been working with me like Melissa, Dr Raffie, and Sabrina have been phenomenal!!! From the beginning they have been very welcoming to me and they make sure they keep in communication with me either by email, text or call and I am a first time surrogate and they made feel so comfortable that I feel like I gained a family! Before I chose Conceptual Options I was already with another well known surrogacy agency in Carlsbad CA and their communication wasnt so great, I felt like they just didnt care! I would ask jennifer c and jennifer g. the status of my profile and their response was, it could take about a year to get matched and I never felt like they even tried to match me! Also they would match people that would recently sign up so I just decided to put them on the side for good! But anyone who is looking for someone that cares, go with Conceptual Options because they are on top of their game and they get things done without wasting time, am very excited to be a part of a wonderful team and I know I have my 3 cheerleaders to cheer me on!

Extremely professional and compassionate group! I had many questions about becoming a surrogate, something I’ve thought about doing for a while now. I met with Tina, who was very patient and answered all me questions. Everyone there has been extremely nice and have always guided me in the right direction. Would recommend to anyone! Great job guys!

I have been working with the staff at conceptual options for a couple months now and I have to say their facility is one of the best I’ve experienced. I’m an intended mom that needed a surrogate. I had the opportunity to interview other agencies and there is definitely a reason we choose this agency over the others we interviewed. The first time we visited their office we instantly felt like part of their family. They gave us a full tour of their office… they had this large classroom that they explained is where they hold events for their surrogates for support and informational purposes. They have a large staff including a psychologist on staff which made me feel much more comfortable. They feel much more «hands on» than other agencies. I have had nothing but good things to say about their level of compassion for our situation and they understand the hard road that we had to take to get to this point. They are also the only agency we interviewed that was able to find us a surrogate right away. We are so grateful for the help they have given us so far and all the useful information that they have provided us for free. We are so happy we have found them.

Hello
I am currently a surrogate working with this agency and I have been with them for 2 years now. I have not had any bad experiences. The communication is great and everyone answers my questions and keeps me well informed. Contracts are great and at the beginning it takes a couple months to start the process but it’s well worth it after everything is completed.

I was looking to become a surrogate and I found Conceptual Options. From the start their staff is very unprofessional and rude at times. I ended up matching with a family one year after I had signed a contract with Conceptual Options. Once a match contract was signed with this family Conceptual Options had their case worker contact me and ask me to tell my lawyer what needed to be in the legally binding contract so that the intended parents would be willing to sign it faster. She kept telling me even though I was the surrogate they needed to make things easy for the intended parents and therefore the contract needed to be in their best interest. Once I was pregnant and things progressed I would receive daily emails from the intended father and if I did not respond within 24 hours I was again contacted by this agency telling me I needed to respond to each email or I was in breach of contract. When I got to around 20 weeks of pregnancy with twins I developed signs of preeclampsia. I started going to the doctors more often and had three week long hospital stays. I had been very honest signing my contract at the beginning of this and told the agency that I had four children and daycare/​childcare was very expensive. They promised that even though it was not in the contract not to worry because everything would be taken care of. after an emergency C-​section two weeks earlier then a planned C-​section 2 healthy babies were born. I ended up being on magnesium for 24 hours and needing a blood transfusion. As I was in the operating room giving birth to these two beautiful babies the nurse came over and told me the intended parents were upset that I was having the babies two weeks earlier than planned. The parents spoke little English and I had asked the agency to please provide a liaison or have their caseworker show up while I was at the hospital to help with these types of things and incidences. The nurses told me the parents asked that the children be able to stay in the nursery so they could go back to their hotel to sleep. The nurses told them this would not be accommodated. The father ended up leaving his wife and their travel nanny with them at the hospital. The next morning having my blood transfusion the intended father came into my room and began to tell me I must’ve done something wrong in the pregnancy for the babies to have to be born two weeks early. He said their three-​year-​old son they had brought with them to the US was not ready to have siblings so early. They had plans for the two weeks that they were there without the newborns. As I contacted the agency to let them know all I got back was a text message from Jenny saying due to the language barrier I was taking it wrong. All I ever got from this agency was that the intended parents were always right and nothing for myself could be accommodated. After coming home two days after a C-​section and blood transfusion I just needed to rest and be with my children. I was sent home on bed rest due to severe edema and high blood pressure. I had to be on daily blood pressure medication since at its worse my blood pressure was ²⁰⁰⁄₁₁₀. I could not drive pick up my children or be on my feet for more than five minutes without losing feeling in my feet. I had previously been told by my agency that childcare was up in amount while going through this. After I had paid out-​of-​pocket $ 3200 to have someone pick up my children in the morning for school bring them home and help with meals throughout the day until my husband came home the agency then said the intended father no longer wanted to pay the extra amount to help with daycare. Yet after submitting receipts no one had the decency to even let me know. I ended up eating the money paid out. The intended father contacted me every day after birth saying he would like to go out to dinner once the hospital released me. Due to my condition and and everything I was going through emotionally I declined his offer. When he finally got back to Italy he emailed me saying that I had cost him a lot of money because his children were not healthy. He said all they do is cry all night and want to eat. I cannot believe that he was blaming me for having normal newborns. I then wrote back to him that unfortunately children especially newborns cry at night and do need to eat. I told him I would pray for him and I would appreciate it if he would never contact me again. When people ask me about surrogacy now I tell them it’s not worth it. I tell them if they can have children they should do it and enjoy their children and love them more than anything. I could’ve died during this experience and it would have been for people who just saw me as an employee and an agency who felt the exact same way. All I could ever think of is everything I did right in this pregnancy and everything I put my body through yet they only saw it as my job. They’re very unprofessional people that have no right being in this career field.

Conceptual Options provides a 5 star service. From the moment I walked through the door the receptionist was pleasant and helpful and gave me her undivided attention. I was nervous coming to a new place and embarking on a new adventure but the staff made me feel welcome and relaxed. I was given a tour of the office and I was surprised to see how big it actually is, everyone stopped what they were doing to meet me and introduce themselves. I felt great energy throughout the entire visit and am super glad I decided to be work with them!!! When dealing with a delicate matter such as fertility issues it is important to be surrounded by people who actually care and are understanding of what is going on. I felt like everything was going to be ok and that I am going to be well taken care of here.

First, I would like to say that my husband and I used Conceptual Options’ services, and we have a lovely, healthy baby daughter, for which we are extremely grateful.
When you visit Conceptual Options, you hear the testimonials and the wonderful gifts that come with parenthood. I would like to share the other part of our experience, to provide another perspective.
Our relationship with Conceptual Options began splendidly. We loved our initial case manager, Melinda Johnson. She was responsive, concerned, and an excellent advocate for surrogacy. I was concerned when I suddenly received an email from another person, claiming he would be my case manager going forward. There was no mention of Melinda. But, as everything seemed to be progressing as planned, I asked no questions; I assumed she might have found another job elsewhere.
Our daughter was due in July 2012, and when, by the end of February, I had not heard anything from our lawyer about filing the paperwork to secure our parental rights, I started to wonder what was going on. Very soon after, I received an email from another law agency telling me they had been retained to secure my parental rights. I was confused, thinking I already had a lawyer. Was this second lawyer being subcontracted? I emailed the original lawyer, and the email bounced. I called the office, and the number was not in service. I googled the lawyer’s name, and found she had been charged with selling children conceived through surrogacy. She was at that point serving prison time, which explained why I had not been contacted by her.
When I signed with Conceptual Options, this lawyer was recommended to me as best in the industry, but the decision whether to sign with her was up to me; there was no coercion. I signed the retainer with the second law firm. They informed me there was some concern my petition for parental rights might not go through in time, because the court in Sacramento, where my child would be born, can sometimes take longer than other places to process the paperwork. I became worried that, were something to go amiss during the birth, I would not have any rights toward the child to make any decisions. Further, all original paperwork that myself, my husband, and the surrogate had filed with the original lawyer had been lost. We needed to create new documents from scratch, which meant from the court’s perspective, we had no written agreement with our surrogate at the time of embryo transfer. Fortunately, the new law firm, which I highly recommend (Reproductive Law Center, Inc) found a way to work with all of us, including the clinic that did the embryo transfer, to create statements of work that we all agreed to and signed, and the court, to their credit, accepted this in lieu of an actual signed contract.
My problems with Conceptual Options are three:
1) Communication with the two case managers we had after Michelle was poorly managed.
2) The president of Conceptual Options is the husband of the lawyer that we initially signed with. Surely the company had knowledge and could have let us know of the situation sooner so that we would not be left wondering if we would have parental rights at the time of our childs’ birth.
3) Accounting is not detailed. When I asked for a ledger, I received single line items that did not indicate how much had been charged, how much insurance had paid, and therefore what my charges were. I had to just trust that their accounting was accurate.
I hope this is helpful to anyone considering surrogacy. Our family is happy and healthy, but I think it is important to also note the challenges involved so that anyone entering into this option understands as much as possible about the experience.

I with my lady, everyone seemed friendly. Office was big, they had a PS3 for the dads very cool. Receptionist was a bit over the top but fun! They take care of you with snacks and food that is for sure.

Came in for my initial evaluation and was surprised to see how professional the staff was and how big their office is. Dr. Hernandez was great at explaining the entire surrogacy process without being overly pushy. Not sure if going forward but I will go with this agency if I do.

I am a two time egg donor, and I was not very satisfied with the service I received from Conceptual Options. While they were prompt and accomodating, there was very little contact from the woman who was overseeing me at Conceptual Options and she was often times difficult to get a hold of. I started my injections three weeks ago, and had my retrieval four days ago, and still have yet to receive a dime from the agency. I also have been unable to get a hold of the woman in charge of writing me my check. The last agency I worked with sent me my check the day after my retrieval and was constantly in contact with me before and after the retrieval to make sure I was doing ok.
I would not recommend Conceptual Options.