"Screened" has no fixed industry meaning. At one program it can mean a woman filled in an online questionnaire and was added to a roster. At another it means her obstetric records were reviewed, background checks were run, a psychological evaluation was completed, her insurance policy was read by a specialist, and a fertility clinic issued medical clearance. Those are very different claims wearing the same word. Ask for a stage-by-stage definition before you treat any profile as verified.

Ask what is finished at each gate

Professional guidance supports medical screening, psychosocial evaluation and education, and independent legal counsel for the carrier. Programs sequence that work differently, and the sequence is what you are really buying. Ask which items are complete:

• before a profile is shown to you
• before a match is confirmed
• before contracts are signed
• before medication starts

A program that cannot map its own screening to those four gates has not thought carefully about the difference between marketing inventory and a real opportunity.

The components worth naming

• identity verification
• criminal and background searches, and how recently they were run
• obstetric-record review covering prior pregnancies, deliveries and complications
• fertility clinic medical clearance, which is the physician's decision and not the agency's
• psychological evaluation, and whether her spouse or partner was included
• insurance review by someone who reads policies for a living
• financial review
• support-system assessment, where a program uses one

Ask who completes each item, who pays for it, and what happens to those costs if the match ends before transfer.

What you should and should not receive

You are entitled to an understandable summary of readiness and of anything still unresolved. You are not entitled to her complete medical file. A program that hands over unrestricted private records is showing you how it will handle your information too. A program that offers only the words "fully screened" is asking you to trust a badge. The useful middle is a written summary plus dates.

Screening exists to protect her as well

Screening is not quality control for buyers. Its purpose is to protect the carrier's health, the future child and the honesty of the arrangement. That is why she should have independent legal counsel of her own choosing, why psychological support should continue past the evaluation, and why her partner and children belong in the support conversation. Screening that is framed only as reassurance for intended parents usually turns out to be thin.

Currency matters as much as completeness

A profile can be fully screened and still be stale. Screening finished eighteen months ago, an availability date nobody re-verified, an insurance plan that changed at open enrollment, a background check carried over from a previous journey — each of these can be technically true and practically useless. Ask for the date attached to every item and the program's re-verification rule.

Treat these as warning signs: "fully screened" with no stage definition, no recent availability date, clinic clearance implied rather than issued, an evaluation described but not yet scheduled, or profiles circulated without her explicit consent to distribution.

Screening timing drives much of your schedule, so it belongs in your planning early. See our surrogacy timeline for same-sex couples, or contact our team to walk through what a specific program means by screened.