Surrogacy in Armenia: Understanding Eligibility

Eligibility involves more than one question. Armenian law, the partner clinic’s medical assessment and the requirements of your home country may all affect your options. This guide explains the issues to review before committing to a program.

The legal basis

Surrogacy in Armenia is governed by the Law on Human Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights, together with regulations of the Ministry of Health. The law defines who may use assisted reproductive technologies, the requirements for surrogates and donors, and how the child is handed over after birth. Eligibility has three separate layers: the law, your doctors’ medical assessment and the partner clinic’s own admission criteria.

Married heterosexual couples

A legally married man and woman can use gestational surrogacy when doctors confirm a medical contraindication to pregnancy for the woman. Situations doctors may assess include:

• absence of the uterus (congenital or after hysterectomy),
• uterine abnormalities or severe Asherman’s syndrome,
• repeated implantation failure after several IVF cycles (assessed case by case; it does not qualify automatically),
• recurrent pregnancy loss,
• serious medical conditions that make pregnancy dangerous, such as some heart or kidney diseases.

The embryo can be created with the couple’s eggs and sperm, or with donor eggs or donor sperm (not both), as long as at least one partner is genetically related to the child. Your marriage certificate must be recognised under Armenian law.

Single women

A single woman can use surrogacy in Armenia when she has a medical indication that prevents her from carrying a pregnancy. Her eggs are combined with donor sperm. Using donor eggs and donor sperm together would leave no genetic link; such programs need permission from an interdepartmental commission and are only for Armenian citizens and ethnic Armenians, so foreign single women use their own eggs.

Single men

A single man can use surrogacy in Armenia if he is the biological father of the child. In practice this means his sperm is combined with eggs from a donor, and the embryo is transferred to a gestational surrogate. After the birth, a DNA test confirms paternity. We describe this route in detail in our article on surrogacy for single men.

Intended parents living with HIV

HIV does not automatically exclude you from treatment. Specialised protocols, such as sperm washing combined with IVF/ICSI and careful viral-load monitoring, are used to minimise the risk of transmission to the embryo and the surrogate. Each case is assessed individually by the clinic’s doctors.

Who is not eligible?

• Same-sex couples cannot start a joint surrogacy program, because Armenian law only recognises marriage between a man and a woman.
• Unmarried couples are not treated as a couple under the law. In some situations one partner can apply as a single person, but the other partner has no automatic legal status. Please discuss this with us before you plan anything.
• Programs with no genetic link to either parent (donor eggs and donor sperm together) need permission from an interdepartmental commission and are only available to Armenian citizens and ethnic Armenians, not to foreign intended parents.
• Sex selection is prohibited, except where there is a risk of a sex-linked inherited disease or the family already has three children of the same sex.

Requirements for surrogates

Under the law, a surrogate must be 20 to 38 years old, have at least one child of her own, have had no more than three previous births and no more than one previous C-section, must not have been a surrogate twice before, and cannot be the egg donor. Foreign intended parents who are not ethnic Armenians cannot work with a surrogate who is an Armenian citizen, so international programs use surrogates from Georgia and other neighboring countries.

Check your own situation with your home country

Armenian law is only half of the picture. Your home country decides how your child’s parentage and citizenship are recognised when you return. Some countries require a genetic link to a citizen parent; others need a court order after you return. We always recommend a short consultation with a family lawyer in your home country, and our team can coordinate with them.

Not sure if you qualify?

Laws change and every family is different. Send us a short message or book a confidential consultation, and a coordinator will tell you honestly which program is possible for you. You can also read our complete guide to surrogacy in Armenia.

This article is general information and not legal advice. Rules may change; we confirm the current legal position for your case before you sign any agreement.