Zora Health / Employer guide / Abu Dhabi
Support employees through fertility treatment, and keep the talent you have invested in.
Fertility treatment rarely fits around a work calendar, and most employees go through it quietly, often while doing some of their best work. Zora Health helps you build practical fertility support, from policies and manager guidance to confidential care navigation and access to 128+ partner clinics in 16 countries, around your workforce and budget. Companies including Hilton, LinkedIn, Sanofi, HSBC, Mastercard, Carousell and Singapore Management University work with us.
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Five things Abu Dhabi HR leaders should know
- Married Emirati couples on Thiqa, the Abu Dhabi government programme for UAE nationals, are covered for IVF: up to 6 egg retrievals and 3 embryo transfers a year, with a preferred age range of 18 to 47 for women, under Daman’s guideline version 3.6 (November 2025).
- Since October 2025, Thiqa also covers social egg freezing for single women aged 30 to 45 with normal ovarian reserve: up to 2 cycles and 5 years of storage, after a psychological assessment.
- Most expatriates have no IVF cover. Daman’s current rule (revised June 2025) pays for assisted reproduction only on plans that include an infertility benefit, and its earlier rule named Thiqa, a few government plans and Premier as those plans. Employees without that benefit pay privately, at about AED 38,000 per cycle on average across the UAE (Khaleej Times, 2023).
- Federal law gives private-sector staff 60 days’ maternity leave and 5 working days’ parental leave, with no fertility leave. ADGM employers follow separate ADGM employment and data protection rules.
- A fixed annual allowance, roughly the cost of one private IVF cycle, keeps the budget predictable and gives expatriate staff support that their insurance does not.
Why fertility is a business problem for employers
Fertility treatment does not fit around a work calendar. A clinic sets the date of a scan the day before. Egg collection happens when the body is ready, usually about 36 hours after a final trigger injection. Then comes a two-week wait, and for many couples, another cycle. Your team feels it: missed meetings, unexplained absences, a strong performer who suddenly goes quiet.
We found no published survey of how Abu Dhabi or UAE employees handle fertility treatment at work. The closest data is international. In a 2025 Ferring survey of more than 3,600 employees and employers in Australia, France, Japan, Poland and the UK, 39% of people who had been through treatment had left or considered leaving their job, and 67% said their workplace offered no support.
- Resignations. 39% of employees in treatment in the Ferring survey had left or considered leaving their job.
- Lower performance. In Carrot’s 2023 survey of 5,000 people in Canada, India, Mexico, the UK and the US, 55% said fertility challenges had hurt their work performance.
- A two-tier system. Emirati colleagues on Thiqa can have IVF and egg freezing paid for, while most expatriates in the same team pay in full.
- Unequal access. Federal law reserves IVF for married couples, plus unmarried non-Muslim couples with health authority approval since Federal Decree-Law 17 of 2023. Donor eggs and sperm are illegal, so employees who need donor treatment must go abroad.
What employers gain
Keep the people you spent the most to develop
Relocation, visas and onboarding make each overseas hire expensive. Replacing an employee costs one-half to two times their annual salary, according to Gallup. A written policy, paid time off and a funded allowance can help address barriers that contribute to employee attrition.
Stand out in a tight labour market
In the Ferring survey, 73% of people who had faced fertility challenges said they would be attracted to an employer offering fertility support. In the Carrot survey, 65% said they would change jobs for fertility benefits. 53% of women aged 15 and over in the UAE were in the labour force in 2025, according to the World Bank’s modelled ILO estimate.
Make fertility support financially predictable
IVF cover in Abu Dhabi is mostly limited to Thiqa and plans that carry an infertility benefit, and adding it to a group policy is hard to cap. A fixed annual or lifetime allowance gives you a known maximum cost per employee.
Zora helps employers structure benefits around local treatment costs, Thiqa eligibility and the cover employees already hold, so HR can run the programme within an agreed budget.
Want to see what this would look like for your Abu Dhabi workforce?
What IVF costs, and what the state pays
Abu Dhabi has no price list for private fertility treatment, and published figures vary by clinic and by what a package includes. Medication, genetic testing and storage are often extra, so confirm figures with clinics before setting an allowance.
| Treatment | Typical private cost | Source |
|---|---|---|
| IVF, one cycle (UAE average) | About AED 38,000 | Khaleej Times, July 2023 |
| IVF, full cycle in Abu Dhabi (indicative) | AED 20,600 to 58,050 | Zavis directory, undated |
| Egg freezing, one cycle | AED 15,000 to 25,500 | The National, September 2026 |
| Egg storage after year one | AED 1,500 to 2,625 a year | The National, September 2026 |
| IVF using frozen eggs | AED 17,000 to 35,000 | The National, September 2026 |
| Embryo genetic testing | AED 4,000 to 6,000 per embryo | The National, September 2026 |
The AED 38,000 average is a UAE-wide figure given by a Khaleej Times reporter in July 2023, with no named source, and is not an official tariff. The Zavis range adds up indicative prices for consultations, scans, blood tests and one cycle, excludes medication unless the clinic includes it, and carries no date. Egg freezing prices are clinic quotes from Art Fertility Clinics (AED 15,500, including medication and a year of storage), First IVF Fertility Centre Abu Dhabi (AED 25,500 list price) and Bourn Hall (AED 15,000 to 20,000 or more) reported by The National. Many couples need more than one cycle.
| Item | Public support (or own savings) | What the employee still carries |
|---|---|---|
| IVF for married Emirati couples on Thiqa | Covered under the Thiqa ART guideline: preferred age 18 to 47 for women, up to 6 egg retrievals and 3 embryo transfers a year, up to 2 embryos per transfer | Storage beyond 5 years or age 47; donor treatment, which is not covered; time off |
| Social egg freezing on Thiqa | Covered since October 2025 under the DoH policy: single (never married, divorced or widowed) women 30 to 45, AMH above 1.1 ng/ml, psychological assessment, up to 2 cycles, 5 years of storage | Treatment for women outside the age or AMH criteria; storage beyond 5 years |
| IVF for expatriates on Basic and similar plans | Usually none. Daman’s assisted reproduction rule (version 3.0, June 2025) covers ART only on plans with an infertility benefit | The full cost, unless the policy schedule lists fertility cover |
| Egg freezing for expatriates | Own savings only (not a subsidy) | The full cost of each cycle and yearly storage |
Thiqa covers UAE nationals and others the government treats as eligible. Thiqa limits are from Daman’s guideline version 3.6 (November 2025) and the DoH social egg freezing policy (October 2025). Daman’s 2025 ART rule does not name plans; its 2013 rule (revised 2016) listed ART cover on Thiqa, Aounak, Reaaya, Premier, Thiqa top-up and customised plans only. We could not confirm the current Basic and other standard policy wordings, so check each group policy’s schedule of benefits. There is no personal income tax in the UAE, so tax relief does not apply.
Age is one of the strongest predictors of IVF success, alongside individual medical and treatment factors. Abu Dhabi does not publish success rates by age. The DoH reported an IVF success rate of over 51% for 2024 without saying whether this measures pregnancy or live birth, alongside 695 IVF births; Gulf News later reported 6,180 IVF procedures that year. The closest reliable age data comes from the UK regulator: the HFEA reports a preliminary 2022 birth rate of 35% per fresh embryo transferred for patients aged 18 to 34, falling to 10% at 40 to 42 and 5% at 43 to 44.
For employees in their late 30s, that can mean several cycles, which is why the size of an allowance, and when employees can use it, matter as much as whether you offer one.
Give Employees Access to Fertility Specialists
Help employees navigate fertility care with access to doctors and clinics, treatment information, and clear guidance on IVF, egg freezing and other fertility options. Employees can explore their options privately, without needing to go through HR.
Fertility clinics in Abu Dhabi on the Zora app include Corniche Fertility Center and ART Fertility Clinics Al Ain.
Fertility support that fits your workforce and budget
You do not need to overhaul your existing health insurance to support employees through fertility treatment. Start with awareness and manager education, add confidential one-to-one support, or introduce a funded allowance across your offices. There is no minimum company size.
Where included in the employer programme, eligible employees can use talks and care navigation without paying Zora a separate fee. Care navigation allowances are set in each proposal. Treatment and other third-party costs are paid separately, either by employees or through the fertility allowance their employer provides.
Companies starting the conversation
Essentials
Expert-led talks for employees and managers, fertility and menopause policy templates, manager guides and full access to the Zora app. Up to 2 talks a year.
Employees supported one to one
Navigation
Everything in Essentials, plus confidential one-to-one care navigation and access to our partner clinic network.
Large teams across Asia
Complete
Everything in Navigation, plus quarterly anonymised reporting, a dedicated account manager and scheduled review meetings with HR.
Optional add-ons can be added to any programme, subject to availability: hormone and fertility diagnostics and telehealth with specialists. Pricing is tailored to your headcount, your countries and the services you choose. Most companies start with a single talk.
Request a proposal See how Zora works for employers
Comparing fertility benefit providers? Use our RFP question bank
Most RFP templates were written for the US. Ours has 40 questions written for Asia, with why each one matters, what a good answer looks like and a scoring sheet for three providers. Six of the questions for Abu Dhabi:
- Are local-plan employees covered, or only staff on international health plans?
- Do you require an infertility diagnosis before support starts?
- How does the benefit work for Emirati employees already covered by Thiqa, so we do not pay twice?
- Which licensed fertility centres in Abu Dhabi city and Al Ain can employees use, and do you check DoH licensing?
- How do you handle eligibility under federal law, including marital status, unmarried non-Muslim couples and treatment abroad?
- Where is employee health data stored, and how do you meet the UAE PDPL, federal health data rules and the ADGM Data Protection Regulations?
Your download link appears here as soon as you submit. Zora Health may contact you about employee benefits; see our privacy policy.
Plan your fertility benefit budget
Fertility benefit budget planner
Model the annual claims budget for a fertility allowance. Change any number.
This is a claims budget, not a Zora quotation. Zora’s programme fees, implementation and optional services are separate.
Illustration only. Utilisation is an editable assumption, not observed Zora data. The calculation assumes each user claims their full annual allowance, and excludes programme fees and setup costs. For a tailored model, request an employer proposal.
Estimate the potential workforce impact of fertility challenges
A rough planning scenario. It applies a global infertility estimate to your headcount, so it is not a prediction for your workforce, a measured loss or a forecast of savings from any programme.
Range: AED 1,127,500 to AED 3,190,000 a year, depending on replacement cost.
Assumptions: infertility affects about 1 in 6 adults (World Health Organization, 2023), applied to employees aged 25 to 44. Replacing an employee costs one-half to two times their annual salary (Gallup, 2019); the headline uses the low end. Absence is valued at salary divided by 250 working days. Exit rate and days lost are your own assumptions.
This is a hypothetical cost scenario, not a prediction of actual employee departures, an estimate of Zora’s financial impact or a guaranteed saving from fertility benefits.
Already have corporate health insurance? Here is where Zora fits
Your medical plan may cover some consultations and tests, but fertility treatment is often limited or excluded, so check your policy wording. Employees still need to understand their options, the public funding they qualify for and which clinic suits them.
Zora works alongside your existing insurance and benefits. We help employees get reliable information, navigate their care options and reach suitable specialists, and we give HR manager guidance, policy templates and, on the Complete programme, anonymised reporting. You strengthen fertility support without replacing your medical plan.
How Zora works
For your employees
Employees join the Zora app with a company code, or single sign-on for larger teams. They can learn about fertility and egg freezing, understand what your benefit covers, book a confidential care navigation call and find partner clinics and specialists.
For HR
- Kick-off, week 1. Agree goals, countries and which employees are eligible.
- Policy and benefit design, weeks 2 to 4. Draft or update your fertility policy using our templates.
- Launch, typically weeks 4 to 6. A launch talk for employees and managers, plus a communications pack for HR to send.
- Live support. Employees book care navigation calls and use the Zora app.
- Reporting, every 3 months, on the Complete programme. Anonymised usage, common themes and our recommendations, reviewed with your account manager.
Privacy
Employee privacy is central to our programmes. On the Complete programme, routine employer reports contain aggregated engagement and utilisation information, with safeguards to prevent identification of individual employees. On every programme, personal health information is not included in standard HR reporting, and employees can get help without telling their manager. Where eligibility checks or claims administration need individual-level data, access is limited to authorised parties for defined purposes, as agreed in writing before launch. Employee data is handled in line with Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act and the UAE Personal Data Protection Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021) or, for ADGM employers, the ADGM Data Protection Regulations 2021.
Clinics and doctors in Abu Dhabi
Zora’s directory lists 10 clinics and 38 doctors in Abu Dhabi. Of these clinics, 9 list IVF and 3 list egg freezing.
Employees can browse clinics in Abu Dhabi, see IVF clinics and find a doctor in Abu Dhabi on the Zora app. The directory is for information only and is not an endorsement. See Zora’s employer guides for every country.
Rules and eligibility in Abu Dhabi
Who can use assisted reproduction
Federal law governs IVF across the UAE. Married couples can have treatment. Federal Decree-Law 17 of 2023, published in October 2023, lets unmarried non-Muslim couples apply to the health authority if they use their own eggs and sperm and agree to register the child under both names, and allows embryos to be frozen for 5 years, renewable on written request. Donor eggs and donor sperm remain illegal, and each emirate may now set its own surrogacy rules, according to The National and BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem.
Single women can freeze eggs
Egg freezing has been legal for unmarried women in the UAE since 2021. Eggs can be stored for up to 5 years, or up to 10 with further approval, according to The National. Thiqa’s own limits are narrower: social egg freezing for single women aged 30 to 45, with storage covered for 5 years.
Leave for private-sector employees
Under the federal labour law, women get 60 days of maternity leave, 45 at full pay and 15 at half pay, plus up to 45 unpaid days for illness linked to pregnancy or birth. Either parent gets 5 working days of paid parental leave within 6 months of the birth. There is no fertility or IVF leave. Emirati women working in Abu Dhabi’s private sector have been eligible to apply for 90 days of maternity leave since August 2024, so check eligibility for national staff (The National, 2026). Employers registered in ADGM follow the ADGM Employment Regulations instead, and should check leave terms there.
Pregnancy protection, and health data rules
The federal labour law bars dismissal or notice because of pregnancy or maternity leave, and bans discrimination on grounds including sex, religion, nationality and disability. Marital status is not listed. Health data is sensitive personal data under the federal PDPL, and federal health law generally keeps health information inside the UAE. In ADGM, the Data Protection Regulations 2021 treat health data as a special category.
Thiqa adds social egg freezing
The Department of Health extended Thiqa to cover elective egg freezing for single women aged 30 to 45 in October 2025. In 2025 it also launched an incentive programme for fertility clinics that meet outcome and safety benchmarks, Gulf News reported. Neither change affects expatriates on private plans.
Why employers choose Zora
Companies including Hilton, LinkedIn, Sanofi, HSBC, Mastercard, Carousell and Singapore Management University work with Zora Health. We work alongside your existing insurance, helping employees use the cover they already have and find suitable specialists based on their needs.
Trying to conceive with a heavy workload took a toll on my husband and me. It helped us understand our options.
Questions HR teams ask us
Is fertility leave mandatory in Abu Dhabi?
No. The federal labour law gives private-sector employees 60 days of maternity leave and 5 working days of parental leave, but no fertility or IVF leave. Employees use annual or sick leave unless the employer offers more. ADGM employers should check the ADGM Employment Regulations.
Does Thiqa or our group insurance cover IVF?
Thiqa covers IVF for married UAE national couples, with up to 6 egg retrievals and 3 embryo transfers a year and a preferred age range of 18 to 47 for women. Daman pays for IVF only on plans that include an infertility benefit, and most expatriate plans do not, so employees pay privately unless their schedule of benefits lists fertility cover.
Can unmarried employees freeze their eggs in Abu Dhabi?
Yes. Egg freezing has been legal for unmarried women in the UAE since 2021. Using the eggs later in IVF is subject to federal rules on marriage, so agree eligibility for any benefit with your legal team before launch.
Does Zora replace our health insurance?
No. Zora works alongside your insurance. We help employees understand their options, find suitable specialists and use the cover they already have.
How much does a fertility benefit cost an employer?
It depends on the allowance, eligibility and expected uptake. Use the budget planner on this page for a first estimate, then ask us for a tailored proposal based on your headcount and countries.
How quickly can we launch?
Typically 4 to 6 weeks from contract to launch, depending on scope and countries. Most companies start with a single talk.
Related guides for Abu Dhabi employers
Build a fertility benefit for your team
Whether you are introducing fertility benefits for the first time or improving an existing programme, tell us your headcount, countries and priorities. We will come back within two working days with suitable services, an indicative budget and a practical rollout plan for your Abu Dhabi team. No obligation.
Not ready to talk yet? Explore how Zora works
Sources
- Daman, Thiqa Coverage for Assisted Reproductive Treatment and Services, adjudication guideline v3.6, 26 November 2025
- Department of Health Abu Dhabi, Policy on Thiqa Coverage for Social Egg Freezing Services, October 2025
- Department of Health Abu Dhabi, Policy on Thiqa Coverage for Assisted Reproductive Treatment and Services, February 2022
- Department of Health Abu Dhabi, DoH reports 695 childbirths via IVF in 2024, February 2025
- Gulf News, report on Abu Dhabi’s Exceptional Quality Reward for fertility services, August 2025
- Daman, Assisted Reproductive Techniques adjudication rule, version 2.1, 2013, revised 2016 (superseded)
- Khaleej Times, report on UAE IVF benefits and Emirati families, 11 July 2023
- Zavis, Full IVF cycle cost in Abu Dhabi: indicative range
- The National, What is it really like to freeze your eggs in the UAE, September 2026
- The National, Change in law allows unmarried non-Muslim couples to undergo IVF in UAE, October 2023
- UAE Legislation, Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021 Regulating Labour Relations
- World Bank, Fertility rate, total (births per woman), United Arab Emirates
- World Bank, Labor force participation rate, female (modelled ILO estimate), United Arab Emirates
- DLA Piper, Data protection laws of the world: UAE (General)
- DLA Piper, Data protection laws of the world: UAE (ADGM)
- Daman, Assisted Reproductive Technologies adjudication guideline, version 3.0, revised June 2025
- Mondaq (BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem), Further liberalisation of UAE fertility law: Federal Decree-Law 17 of 2023, November 2023
- Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, Key facts and statistics (2022 preliminary data)
- The National, FNC proposes remote work and 98-day maternity leave for Emirati mothers, January 2026
- Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Fertility Matters at Work and This Can Happen, workplace fertility survey, November 2025
- Carrot Fertility, Global Fertility at Work report, 2023
- Gallup, This fixable problem costs US businesses $1 trillion, 2019
- World Health Organization, 1 in 6 people globally affected by infertility, April 2023
Information on this page is correct as of 5 November 2026. Laws, public funding, insurance rules and treatment costs change often, so check current rules with the relevant authority, insurer or a qualified adviser before making decisions. This page is general information, not legal, financial, tax or medical advice.