Fertility Governance®
Structure, continuity and informed decision-making across complex fertility and surrogacy journeys.
A Framework for Complex Fertility & Surrogacy Journeys.
Fertility and surrogacy journeys increasingly involve multiple professionals, decisions and stages that are deeply interconnected.
A reproductive endocrinologist may oversee medical treatment. An embryologist may be responsible for embryo development. Attorneys advise on reproductive law and parental rights. Psychologists, genetic specialists, insurance professionals, surrogates and other specialists may each play an important role.
Each is responsible for their respective area of expertise.
But no individual specialist necessarily oversees how every decision affects the journey as a whole.
Fertility Governance® is IMA ART's framework for bringing structure, continuity and informed decision-making across the entire fertility and surrogacy journey.
Rather than allowing important decisions to develop independently, Fertility Governance considers how they relate to one another—and how decisions made today may affect what becomes possible tomorrow.
What Is Fertility Governance?
Fertility Governance is a framework developed by IMA ART to provide broader continuity across complex family-building journeys.
It does not replace medical, legal, psychological or other professional advice. Instead, it creates a structure around the specialists, decisions and stages involved.
The objective is straightforward: ensure that the appropriate professionals are involved, responsibilities are understood, important dependencies are recognized and significant decisions are considered within the context of the journey as a whole.
For private clients navigating IVF, embryo creation, fertility preservation, donor conception or gestational surrogacy, this broader perspective can become increasingly important as the journey grows more complex.
Why Fertility Journeys Need Governance.
Excellent individual professionals are essential. But expertise alone does not necessarily create continuity.
A decision about where embryos are created may later affect their storage or transportation. Embryo strategy may influence a future surrogacy journey. Surrogate location can introduce questions involving reproductive law, insurance and parental rights. International families may need advice spanning multiple jurisdictions.
These decisions do not exist in isolation.
Fertility Governance provides a framework for understanding the relationships between them and maintaining continuity as the journey progresses.
One Journey. Multiple Specialists.
Depending upon the circumstances, a fertility or surrogacy journey may involve:
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Fertility clinics and reproductive endocrinologists
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Embryologists and genetic specialists
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Egg or sperm donors
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Gestational surrogates
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Reproductive attorneys
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Clinical Psychologists
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Insurance advisers
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Escrow providers
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Cryogenic storage and transportation specialists
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International legal or immigration counsel
IMA ART works across these different participants while each professional retains responsibility for their respective area of expertise.
Our role is to remain focused on the journey as a whole.
How IMA ART Applies Fertility Governance.
Fertility Governance is not a standardized protocol imposed upon every client. Each journey begins from a different position and presents different considerations.
Depending upon the engagement, the framework can encompass:
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Selection and coordination of fertility clinics and specialists
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Management of IVF timelines, appointments and communication
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Embryo creation, genetic testing and cryogenic transportation coordination
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Surrogate selection, matching, screening and ongoing coordination
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Reproductive law and protection of parental rights
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Psychological support and communication across the journey
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Risk identification, contingency planning and fertility crisis management
Coordination Across Specialists.
IMA ART maintains continuity across the professionals involved, helping ensure that relevant information, responsibilities and next steps are understood as the journey progresses.
Decision-Making in Context.
Important decisions are considered not only for their immediate purpose, but also for how they may affect later stages of fertility treatment, embryo planning, surrogacy or family creation.
Risk Identification & Contingency Planning.
Complex journeys do not always proceed exactly as anticipated. Fertility Governance encourages potential dependencies, vulnerabilities and alternative pathways to be considered before they become urgent.
Privacy & Discretion.
Fertility and surrogacy involve highly personal medical, legal and family information. IMA ART approaches communication, documentation and coordination with discretion throughout the engagement.
Continuity Throughout the Journey.
Different specialists may enter and leave the process at different stages. IMA ART remains the point of continuity across the broader journey, helping clients maintain perspective as circumstances evolve.
From Institutional Governance to Family Creation.
Fertility Governance was created by Michelle Tang, CEO & Co-Founder of IMA ART Fertility, drawing upon close to 20 years of professional experience in compliance, risk and governance with institutions including PwC, UBS, Natixis, AIA and IMA ART.
In institutional environments, governance provides structure around complex decisions, establishes responsibilities and helps ensure that important considerations are not examined in isolation.
Michelle recognized that complex fertility and surrogacy journeys can present a similar structural challenge: multiple highly qualified professionals may each be responsible for one part of an extraordinarily important undertaking, while the family itself is left to connect the pieces.
Fertility Governance adapts the discipline of governance to family creation—not by turning an intimate journey into an institutional process, but by bringing greater structure and continuity to the complexity surrounding it.
Fertility Governance & Principal-Led Stewardship.
At IMA ART, governance is not separated from personal involvement.
IMA ART deliberately limits the number of engagements it accepts, allowing its principals to remain personally involved throughout the fertility and surrogacy journeys it represents.
Michelle Tang and Ron Sonnenberg work directly with clients, remain accessible throughout the engagement and maintain continuity across the professionals and organizations involved.
This combination of structured governance and principal-led stewardship is central to the IMA ART model.
For the client, there is someone consistently looking beyond the next appointment, transaction or milestone—and considering how the pieces fit together.
Fertility Governance for Private Clients
The more complex the family-building journey, the more valuable continuity can become.
This is particularly relevant for families whose journeys involve multiple fertility clinics, existing frozen eggs or embryos, donor conception, gestational surrogacy, international considerations, multiple jurisdictions or a significant number of independent specialists.
IMA ART provides private fertility and surrogacy advisory from Beverly Hills, working with clients throughout the United States and internationally.
Fertility Governance provides the framework through which those moving parts can be considered as one continuous journey.
