Zora Health / Employer guide / China
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 China HR leaders should know
- All 31 provincial-level regions on the mainland now include assisted reproduction in basic medical insurance, a step completed on 1 January 2025. In 2025, insurance paid for more than 3 million assisted reproduction treatments for over 1.6 million people, according to the National Healthcare Security Administration. Reimbursement rates, covered items and cycle limits are set locally and differ by province.
- Insurance pays for part of a cycle. Beijing reimburses up to 70% of 16 listed items, and patients still pay for drugs, add-ons and treatment outside the list. A standard IVF cycle cost RMB 30,000 to 50,000 before insurance, according to Caixin in 2025.
- National rules issued in 2003 limit assisted reproduction, including egg freezing, to married couples with a medical need. A Beijing appeal court upheld a hospital’s refusal to freeze a single woman’s eggs in 2024. These rules were unchanged as of November 2026. Surrogacy is prohibited.
- There is no statutory fertility treatment leave. The national maternity leave is 98 days, and provinces add more: Beijing and Shanghai give 158 days in total, Guangdong 178. Health data counts as sensitive personal information under the Personal Information Protection Law.
- A fixed annual allowance keeps the budget predictable. It can pay for what insurance leaves behind, such as drugs, genetic testing, extra cycles and time off, without changing your group medical plan.
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 mainland China survey on how many employees hide fertility treatment from their employer. The closest data comes from other countries. In a 2025 Ferring survey of more than 3,600 employees and employers in Australia, France, Japan, Poland and the UK, 67% of people with fertility challenges said their workplace offered no support. In a 2023 Carrot survey of 5,000 people in Canada, India, Mexico, the UK and the US, 79% said they felt uncomfortable discussing fertility at work.
- Resignations. In the Ferring survey, 39% of employees in treatment left or considered leaving their job.
- Lower performance. In the Carrot survey, 55% said fertility challenges had hurt their work performance.
- Repeat cycles and travel. China performs about 1.3 million assisted reproduction cycles a year, according to a January 2025 report by Caixin. Each cycle needs several clinic visits at short notice, and many patients need more than one cycle. Caixin also reported, citing research, that infertility in China rose from 12% in 2007 to 18% in 2020.
- Unequal access. Insurance rates differ by province, and unmarried employees cannot use assisted reproduction or freeze eggs for non-medical reasons on the mainland. Some travel abroad to do so, according to NBC News.
What employers gain
Keep the people you spent the most to develop
Replacing an employee costs one-half to two times their annual salary, according to Gallup. In 2020, the average age of first-time mothers in China was 29.7, according to China Daily via The Star, so treatment often overlaps with the years when employees take on more senior work. 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 Carrot survey, 65% of respondents said they would change jobs for fertility benefits. Women made up a large part of the workforce: female labour force participation in China was 60.5% in 2023, against 72.1% for men, according to World Bank modelled ILO estimates.
Make fertility support financially predictable
A fertility benefit can sit on top of public insurance with a fixed annual or lifetime allowance and a clear list of eligible costs. Aon projected medical plan costs in China to rise 7.8% in 2026, after 8.0% in 2025, so a capped allowance is easier to plan than open-ended cover.
Zora helps employers structure benefits around local treatment costs, the law and workforce needs, so HR can run the programme within an agreed budget.
Want to see what this would look like for your China workforce?
What IVF costs, and what the state pays
Since July 2023, when Beijing added 16 assisted reproduction items to its insurance list, every province has followed. Heilongjiang was the last, in December 2024, according to the National Healthcare Security Administration, as reported by Yicai. Coverage has applied in all 31 provincial-level regions since 1 January 2025. Each province sets its own list, rate and cycle limit, and employees pay the rest. The regulator said insurance can cut a couple’s treatment costs by 50% to 67%, and in August 2026 it said it would gradually unify the national payment scope for assisted reproduction through a national catalogue of covered medical services, according to Science and Technology Daily.
| Item | Typical cost | Insurance position |
|---|---|---|
| Standard IVF cycle | RMB 30,000 to 50,000 | Listed procedures partly reimbursed in all provinces |
| IVF with genetic testing (PGT) or complex treatment | Up to about RMB 100,000 | Covered in some provinces, including Beijing |
| Out of pocket per IVF cycle after insurance (Beijing) | RMB 4,000 to 10,000 | Remainder of a RMB 20,000 to 30,000 Beijing cycle after reimbursement |
| Egg freezing for non-medical reasons | Not available on the mainland | Not permitted, so not covered |
| Time off for appointments | Employee leave or unpaid time | No statutory fertility leave |
Sources: standard IVF price range from Caixin, January 2025. Upper range of RMB 100,000 from a Shanghai fertility specialist quoted by China Daily, June 2023. Beijing out-of-pocket range from Yicai, January 2025, based on patient information in Beijing. Other provinces have not published comparable figures. Costs vary by city, hospital and treatment protocol.
| Item | Public support (or own savings) | What the employee still carries |
|---|---|---|
| Beijing insurance (from July 2023) | Up to 70% of 16 listed items, now at 16 designated hospitals | Unlisted drugs, add-ons, embryo storage and any co-payment |
| Guangxi insurance (policy issued November 2023) | 70% for employee insurance, 50% for resident insurance, for 2 treatments; the actual average in the first months was 58.94% | The remaining 30% or 50%, and any further cycles |
| Jiangxi insurance (from June 2024) | 60% to 95%, depending on hospital level | The balance, which is higher at top-tier hospitals |
| National childcare subsidy (from 2025) | RMB 3,600 a year per child under 3 with Chinese nationality, after birth; tax-exempt; amount unchanged for 2026 | All treatment costs; the subsidy is not a fertility treatment payment |
Sources: Beijing rate from China Daily via The Star, August 2025 and hospital count from China Daily, November 2025. Guangxi, and Beijing’s inclusion of genetic testing, from People’s Daily, May 2024. Jiangxi (80% to 95% at secondary hospitals, 60% to 80% at top-tier hospitals) from China Daily via The Star. Childcare subsidy from the State Council, July 2025 and China Briefing; 2026 budget from Xinhua via the Henan government, June 2026. Beijing’s insurance bureau said in November 2025 that it plans to add embryo freezing and storage to reimbursement, without giving a date.
Age is one of the strongest predictors of IVF success, alongside individual medical and treatment factors. In 2016 data from 133 centres reporting to the Chinese Society of Reproductive Medicine, the delivery rate per fresh embryo transfer in conventional IVF (excluding ICSI and frozen transfers) was 49.4% for women under 35, 26.2% at 38 to 40 and 6.7% at 43 to 44.
These are the most recent national figures by age that we could find in a published, peer-reviewed source. They are older figures, and they count deliveries per transfer, so the chance per started cycle is lower. Per egg collection, the IVF delivery rate fell from 28.0% under 35 to 2.7% at 43 to 44. Older employees may need more cycles, and insurance limits on the number of reimbursed cycles apply in some provinces, 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 Across Asia
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 China on the Zora app include Shanghai JIAI Genetics & IVF Institute, ART Center of Subei People’s Hospital and Tongji IVF Center.
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 China:
- Are local-plan employees covered, or only staff on international health plans?
- Do you require an infertility diagnosis before support starts?
- How does your allowance work alongside each province’s insurance reimbursement, and can employees claim the co-payment and unlisted items?
- Which licensed hospitals in our main cities (for example Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu) can you guide employees to, and do you cover travel to another city?
- How do you handle eligibility given that mainland rules limit assisted reproduction to married couples, and what support do you offer unmarried employees?
- How do you obtain separate consent for health data under the Personal Information Protection Law, and is any data transferred outside mainland China?
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: RMB 939,583 to RMB 2,658,333 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 China’s Personal Information Protection Law, which treats medical and health information as sensitive personal information requiring separate consent.
Clinics and doctors in China
Zora’s directory lists 10 clinics and 5 doctors in China. Locations include Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Of these clinics, 7 list IVF and 3 list egg freezing.
Employees can browse clinics in China, see IVF clinics and find a doctor in China 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 China
Who can use assisted reproduction
National health rules allow licensed assisted reproduction only for married couples with a medical need, who must show a marriage certificate and ID, according to Sixth Tone. The 2001 Administrative Measures for Assisted Human Reproductive Technology prohibit medical staff from performing any form of surrogacy. Jilin province has had a 2002 regulation allowing unmarried women to have a child through assisted reproduction, but it conflicts with national rules, and Sixth Tone found no recorded cases of women using it to freeze eggs as of 2020.
Single women cannot freeze eggs for non-medical reasons
Egg freezing is limited to married couples with infertility and to narrow medical cases such as cancer treatment. In 2018, Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital refused to freeze an unmarried woman’s eggs. She sued in 2019, lost in July 2022, and in August 2024 the Beijing Third Intermediate People’s Court upheld the ruling. The National Health Commission declined to widen access in 2021, according to NBC News. Sperm banking has no marriage requirement. As of November 2026 the rules had not changed: the commission said in 2021 that it had begun drafting a regulation on assisted reproduction, but no draft has been published, and 2025 proposals by local deputies to pilot egg freezing for unmarried women in Shanghai’s Pudong district have not been adopted, according to a May 2026 analysis by the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law’s equality rights project.
Maternity leave is 98 days, with provincial additions
The State Council’s Decree No. 619 sets 98 days of maternity leave, plus 15 days for a difficult birth and 15 days for each additional baby. Provinces add more: Beijing and Shanghai give 158 days in total and Guangdong 178, according to China Briefing and Morgan Lewis. Childcare leave is also set locally: Beijing and Shanghai give parents 5 days of paid childcare leave a year until the child turns 3. There is no statutory fertility treatment leave.
Discrimination and health data
Since 1 January 2023, the amended Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests bars employers from asking applicants about marital or childbearing status, requiring pregnancy tests, or cutting pay or dismissing women because of marriage, pregnancy or maternity leave. The Personal Information Protection Law classes medical and health information as sensitive personal information, which needs separate consent (Articles 28 and 29) and an impact assessment, according to China Briefing.
Wider insurance and new subsidies
From 1 January 2025, a national childcare subsidy pays RMB 3,600 a year for each child under 3 with Chinese nationality, according to China Briefing. The central government allocated RMB 99.9 billion for the subsidy in 2026, with no change to the amount. In December 2025, the National Healthcare Security Administration said regions would refine assisted reproduction reimbursement in 2026 and aim for full reimbursement of policy-covered childbirth costs, excluding premium wards and unlisted drugs. By September 2026, 28 provinces had no personal payment for in-policy hospital childbirth, according to National Healthcare Security Administration figures reported by CCTV via Guangming Online. In 2025, insurance covered more than 3 million assisted reproduction treatments, according to Xinhua via China Daily, and in the first half of 2026 it was used 1.71 million times. In August 2026 the regulator said it would gradually unify which assisted reproduction items are covered nationwide.
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 China?
No. There is no statutory fertility treatment leave. Employees usually use annual leave, sick leave or unpaid time for appointments. Maternity leave is 98 days nationally, with longer totals set by each province.
Does public medical insurance in China cover IVF?
Yes, in part. Since 1 January 2025, all 31 provincial-level regions include assisted reproduction in basic medical insurance. Each province decides which procedures are covered, the reimbursement rate and how many cycles qualify. Drugs and add-ons outside the list are paid by the patient.
Can single employees freeze their eggs in China?
Not for non-medical reasons, as of November 2026. National rules limit egg freezing to married couples with infertility and to narrow medical cases such as cancer treatment. A Beijing court upheld a hospital’s refusal in a 2024 appeal. Some women travel abroad for the procedure.
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 China 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 China team. No obligation.
Not ready to talk yet? Explore how Zora works
Sources
- Caixin, China’s population decline accelerates as births hit modern-era low in 2025 (National Bureau of Statistics data), January 2026
- Caixin, Special report: China’s assisted reproductive technology leads the world, so why do infertile families still face challenges, January 2025
- Yicai Global, IVF comes under state health insurance across China for first time, January 2025
- China Daily, Over 1 million Chinese benefited from fertility treatment coverage last year, July 2025
- National Health Commission, The number of assisted reproductive institutions reaches 645 in China, June 2026
- China Daily, Beijing to reimburse fertility treatments, June 2023
- China Daily, Beijing medical insurance bureau briefing on assisted reproduction and prenatal costs, November 2025
- China Daily via The Star, New policy in China fuels rise in fertility treatments, August 2025
- People’s Daily, Several regions include assisted reproduction in medical insurance, May 2024
- China Daily, China plans to expand cover for childbirth-related bills, December 2025
- Sixth Tone, It’s time for China to legalize egg freezing, February 2020
- Caixin, Unmarried woman who sued hospital for refusing to freeze her eggs loses appeal, August 2024
- NBC News, Barred from freezing their eggs at home, single Chinese women are traveling elsewhere, 2023
- Sixth Tone, The practical case for legalizing surrogacy, March 2017
- China Briefing, Maternity leave in China: a complete guide, 2024
- Morgan Lewis, Beijing and Shanghai implement leave changes to family planning regulations, November 2021
- China Briefing, China passes new women’s protection law: key takeaways for employers, 2022
- Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China (English text), 2021
- China Briefing, How to legally handle sensitive personal information in China
- State Council, China to grant childcare subsidies of 3,600 yuan per year for children under three, July 2025
- China Briefing, China launches first-ever national childcare subsidy, 2025
- Aon, APAC employee medical plan costs to stabilise in 2026, October 2025
- World Bank Gender Data Portal, China country profile (modelled ILO estimates, 2023)
- Hu L et al., Assisted reproductive technology in China: results from the CSRM data reporting system 2013 to 2016, Frontiers in Endocrinology, 2020
- Xinhua via China Daily, China’s basic medical insurance covers 1.33 billion people, March 2026
- Science and Technology Daily, Insured assisted reproduction used over 1.7 million times in first half of 2026 (National Healthcare Security Administration data), August 2026
- Dong Xiaoying, University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law equality rights project, analysis of single women’s egg freezing rules (via China Digital Times), May 2026
- Xinhua via Henan Provincial Government, Government allocates 99.9 billion yuan for child-rearing subsidies, June 2026
- CCTV via Guangming Online, National Healthcare Security Administration maternity insurance figures, September 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.