We signed with Tammuz in June 2024. We started in Argentina, and were caught in the collapse of Tammuz/Celagem's programme there. It took them nearly a year to move our embryos to Colombia, and we've been in the waiting list to be matched for a surrogate for over a year and a half.

Yesterday we got the following email from Tammuz:

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Dear Families,

 

We would like to share an important update regarding the continuation of your journey with CELAGEM clinic in Colombia.

 

A few days ago, the clinic informed us of its decision to discontinue the process of recruiting new surrogates, as it had done for many years.

 

In the letter sent to us, the clinic explained that its decision stems from growing legal uncertainty in Colombia, legislative developments, and increased scrutiny of the field by the authorities and the courts. The clinic emphasized that this is a policy decision related to its management of legal risks, and that its letter does not state that surrogacy has been broadly prohibited in Colombia or that previous activities were unlawful.

 

Following the letter, we are currently reviewing, together with our legal team, the implications of the proposed legislative changes and the potential future impact they may have on the continuation of surrogacy programs and processes in Colombia. These developments include bills currently before Congress, petitions pending before the Supreme Court, regulatory initiatives in the Bogotá District, and lower-court rulings relating to the severance of legal parentage ties.

 

At the same time, and as part of our full commitment to the continuation of each and every one of your journeys, we are now working on various solutions, including establishing of a dedicated infrastructure for recruiting surrogates.

 

In the interest of full transparency, it is important to note that building such an infrastructure takes time, and delays cannot be avoided for journeys in which a surrogate has not yet been matched.

 

What does this update mean for you?

 

• Medical procedures at the clinic will continue as usual, including egg retrievals, fertilizations, and embryo creation.
• Intended parents who are already at the pregnancy stage — your journeys will, of course, proceed as usual, and we will continue to fully support you through the birth.
• Intended parents who have already been matched with a surrogate - the medical process will continue as usual at the clinic, with full support and coordination with all relevant parties through pregnancy and birth.
• Intended parents who are currently waiting to be matched with a surrogate - CELAGEM’s decision is expected to create significant delays at the matching stage. We understand the difficulty and frustration that many of you are experiencing at this time, and we are dedicating significant resources to identifying appropriate solutions.

 

For those of you who wish to transition to a different program, we will review the implications together and provide as much support as possible. Given the circumstances, Tammuz will, on an exceptional basis, subsidize part of the transition costs.

 

In every case, we remain fully committed to continuing your journey through to its successful completion.

 

Surrogacy can be a long and emotionally demanding journey, and pursuing it abroad involves navigating different medical and legal systems. We know these challenges well, and that experience places a responsibility on us to act, to explain clearly, and to find solutions.

 

It is precisely at moments like these that Tammuz’s international experience, professional team, and global partnerships have practical significance. There is a team working with the clinics, coordinating the process, reviewing alternatives, and supporting you in making the decisions ahead.

 

We are making all of these resources and our accumulated experience available to you.

 

We understand that this new information raises questions and concerns. Therefore, over the course of the next weeks, we will begin scheduling meetings to explore the most appropriate path forward for their individual situation.

 

We will continue to update you regarding any material developments and remain by your side throughout the journey.

 

Warmly,

 

Tammuz team

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To say we are frustrated would be an understatement. Our experience with Tammuz has been a long series of delays, missed timelines and incomplete explanations.

We would really like to hear from other Tammuz clients, especially anyone who is/was currently waiting for a surrogate match in Colombia.

Throwaway account because I want to protect my identity.

The purpose of this post is simply to share my experience with Tammuz and Celagem so that people researching surrogacy agencies have more information before making what is, for most intended parents, an enormous financial and personal decision.

I am not claiming that every Tammuz client has had the same experience, and I am not suggesting that everyone should automatically avoid Tammuz. I am describing what happened in my case, because I wish I had had a clearer picture of how Tammuz handled problems before I signed.

My experience with Tammuz has become so consistently unprofessional that I think prospective intended parents deserve to hear what the process can actually look like when things go wrong.

This is not a post about one bad interaction, but about the entirety of our experience with them since signing.

Tammuz Argentina: concerns about intended parents being stuck were dismissed

Before Tammuz moved its surrogacy programme from Argentina to Colombia, I personally raised concerns with my Tammuz case manager that intended parents were reportedly getting stuck in Argentina.

The response was particularly striking. I was told, in substance, not to rely on internet forums, and that Tammuz/Celagem had not heard of the problems I was describing.

That was difficult to reconcile with what was happening in the intended-parent community. Other Tammuz intended parents had already been raising concerns with their own case managers for weeks.

These were therefore not simply anonymous rumours appearing on Reddit that nobody at Tammuz had heard about. Clients were actively warning Tammuz about the situation through its own channels.

I obviously cannot know exactly what information was circulating internally at Tammuz and Celagem at that point. But as a client, I find it very difficult to understand how the organisation could apparently be unaware of an issue that multiple clients were already raising directly with their case managers.

The subsequent move from Tammuz Argentina to Tammuz Colombia makes the earlier response even more troubling.

The programme move was eventually announced to clients collectively, with very little case-specific information. When I sought clarification, I was told there was little additional information available.

Then, around ten days later, I was asked whether I had "had a chance to consider my options".

But how are intended parents supposed to consider their options when the agency has not provided the information necessary to assess them?

That episode set the tone for much of what followed:

Clients finding information independently, raising it with Tammuz, and then waiting for the agency to catch up or acknowledge that there is an issue.

Delays in transferring our embryos

The transfer of our embryos from Argentina was significantly delayed.

We were originally given a timeframe that passed without the transfer taking place. A revised timeframe was subsequently given, which also passed, with no clear explanation.

There have apparently been problems on the clinic side contributing to the delay. Again, I understand that international surrogacy involves medical, regulatory and logistical complications, and I am not expecting Tammuz to control every part of the process.

What I find difficult is the lack of proactive communication.

In one instance, I learned about a significant issue affecting the transfer through another intended parent's case manager rather than through my own.

The problem isn't simply that something went wrong.

The problem is having to find out that something went wrong from other clients.

When you are paying an agency to manage an international surrogacy journey, I don't think it is unreasonable to expect the agency to tell you when a major part of that journey is being delayed, explain why, and provide a realistic assessment of what happens next.

Tammuz surrogate matching timelines

The surrogate matching timeline is another example of the problem.

When we signed, we were given a relatively short estimated timeframe for being matched. That estimate was subsequently extended substantially. The revised estimate was then extended again.

Eventually, after we had reached the latest timeframe we had been given, I asked our case manager whether we should expect a match soon.

Instead, we were told to expect another several months of waiting, potentially longer.

There was no meaningful explanation for why the original expectation had changed so substantially.

At the same time, other intended parents appear to have been given different timelines for broadly comparable cases.

Again, delays happen. Unexplained and repeatedly extended expectations are a different matter.

If the reality is that matching can take considerably longer than originally indicated, then prospective parents should be told that from the beginning.

When you are planning an international surrogacy journey, timelines affect finances, travel, legal arrangements, medical planning and your entire family planning process.

An agency does not need to predict the future perfectly.

But it does need to communicate honestly when its previous estimate is no longer realistic.

Tammuz and Celagem: changes that clients had to discover themselves

Another particularly concerning example involves Tammuz and Celagem.

The end of an exclusivity arrangement was not proactively communicated to us. I learned about it through a Reddit discussion. To date, our case manager has not yet informed us officially.

Think about that for a moment:

A client learns about a material change affecting their own surrogacy programme from Reddit before their case manager tells them.

Tammuz has since acknowledged the change publicly, but that does not change the fact that I had to discover it independently rather than being informed by the organisation managing my case.

Other intended parents have also apparently been offered options to transfer away from the affected pathway, including a paid transfer option.

We were not proactively offered the same option, nor given a clear explanation of why.

I am not saying every client is necessarily entitled to exactly the same solution. But if alternative pathways exist, I expect my surrogacy agency to explain them to me and tell me whether they are relevant to my case.

Instead, we have repeatedly found ourselves comparing notes with other intended parents online just to establish what is actually happening.

That should not be necessary.

My biggest concern with Tammuz: communication

And that is perhaps the biggest problem with Tammuz International in my experience.

I am not expecting miracles.

I am expecting professional case management.

If there is a delay, tell me.

If a regulatory problem has occurred, tell me.

If a clinic relationship has changed, tell me.

If the previous timeline is no longer realistic, tell me.

If there are alternative options available to intended parents, explain them and tell me whether they apply to my case.

Instead, the communication too often follows the same formula: acknowledge the concern, refer vaguely to "the clinic" or "the authorities", provide no concrete information about what is actually outstanding, and avoid committing to a date that can later be checked.

That is not active case management. It feels like information being relayed after the fact.

What happens when a surrogacy programme enters a crisis?

This matters because international surrogacy is not a normal consumer purchase.

People are making enormous financial, emotional and personal commitments.

When a surrogacy programme encounters a crisis, the value of the agency is supposed to be that it provides clarity, coordination and advocacy.

My experience has increasingly been the opposite:

I have had to chase information, compare information with other intended parents, discover developments independently and repeatedly ask questions that should have been answered proactively.

What I wish I had known before signing with Tammuz

The lesson I would take from all of this is not that a surrogacy agency needs to guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong.

No agency can do that.

The real test is what happens when something does go wrong.

Does the agency tell you immediately?

Does it explain what happened?

Does it tell you what is being done about it?

Does it give you realistic timelines?

Does it explain your alternatives?

Does it advocate for you, or simply relay information from the clinic?

And do you have to discover important developments yourself before anyone tells you?

Those are the questions I would encourage anyone researching Tammuz or any other surrogacy agency to ask.

I would also strongly recommend speaking to multiple recent intended parents whose cases have actually encountered problems, rather than relying primarily on testimonials from successful cases.

My experience has left me with very little confidence that Tammuz's communication and case management are sufficiently transparent or proactive when circumstances become complicated.

I sincerely hope our experience is an outlier.

But I am posting this because prospective intended parents deserve to have this information available when they are doing their due diligence.

If you are considering Tammuz for surrogacy, don't just ask how many families they have helped successfully. Ask those families what happened when things went wrong.