Researchers surveyed 259 participants of surrogacy support groups about their experiences, 43 per cent of whom had engaged in compensated surrogacy arrangements overseas.

A large proportion of surrogates had multiple pregnancies and there was a steep rate of premature birth, which would have been avoided if the surrogacy had taken place in Australia.

Among those who had engaged in overseas surrogacy, 55 per cent reported that their surrogate had a multiple pregnancy, 45 per cent of the births were premature and 10 per cent of the pregnancies had ended in a late miscarriage or perinatal death.

The multiple birth rate in surrogacy arrangements in Australia is 5 per cent.

The findings, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, follow the exposure of an Australian couple who abandoned their disabled son with his Thai surrogate mother while they took his healthy twin sister home to Perth.

Retired fertility specialist Martyn Stafford-Bell, the lead author, said the tale of baby Gammy was one of many overseas surrogacy arrangements that ended badly.

He knew of another surrogate who was "deliberately overstimulated to a ridiculous degree" to produce 33 eggs, only four of which were suitable for transfer.

The huge dose of drugs she was administered left her with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome – a potentially fatal disease – and at 31 weeks she gave birth to triplets, who required life-saving surgery and ongoing care.

The researchers, from Surrogacy Australia, the Canberra Fertility Centre and Monash University in Melbourne, advocate a change in the law to allow Australian women to be financially compensated to become surrogates.

"Given it is illegal in Australia to compensate a women for carrying a child, compensated surrogacy overseas is the route most Australian intended parents via surrogacy take," the study says.

"Our data suggest that this exposes them, their babies and their surrogates to risks that are considered unacceptable in Australian [assisted reproductive technology] practice."

Critics of compensated surrogacy in Australia fear that it may lead to the exploitation of women who enter it for purely financial reasons.

Feminist health researcher Renata Klein is sceptical about fertility clinics pushing for commercial surrogacy to be legalised, describing the practice as heartless and exploitative.

But Dr Stafford-Bell said the money is only the third or fourth reason cited by American surrogates as to their motivations.

"The bottom line is, we could do it in this country," Dr Stafford-Bell said.

"We could come up with a fee. We've got excellent screening processes in Australia which would weed out women going into surrogacy as a money-making exercise."

Surrogacy lawyer Stephen Page, who wants commercial surrogacy arrangements to be legalised in Australia, said it was not common for his clients to experience bad health outcomes.

But he did have a client last year whose Indian surrogate was implanted with six embryos – "an extraordinary number" – before ultimately giving birth to one baby.

"He was either an incompetent doctor and implanted six embryos, putting the surrogate at risk, or he selectively reduced and didn't tell them about it," Mr Page said.