Fertility Benefits for Employers in Croatia

Written by Anna Haotanto, Founder, Zora Health. Last reviewed: November 2026. General information, not legal or medical advice. This guide covers IVF and egg freezing costs, public funding, the rules and how to build a fertility benefit.

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.

About 1 in 6 people worldwide are affected by infertility (World Health Organization). In Croatia, 5,336 couples and women had medically assisted reproduction in 2023 (Ministry of Health, 2023 annual report), and Professor Velimir Šimunić puts the average age of women having IVF at 37.5 (Novi list, September 2025). We found no Croatian survey on fertility at work. In Carrot’s 2023 survey of 5,000 people in Canada, India, Mexico, the UK and the US, 79% felt uncomfortable discussing fertility at work (Carrot).

• Resignations. 39% of employees with fertility challenges had left or were considering leaving their job during treatment, in Ferring’s 2025 survey of more than 3,600 employees and employers in Australia, France, Japan, Poland and the UK (Ferring).
• Lower performance. 55% of respondents in the same Carrot survey said fertility challenges had hurt their work performance (Carrot).
• Pregnancy after IVF at work. In Jurčić v. Croatia (4 February 2021), the European Court of Human Rights found that HZZO’s refusal to register a newly hired woman as an insured employee, because she had just had IVF and was pregnant, was direct sex discrimination (Strasbourg Observers).
• Unequal access. No domestic donor programme operates, so patients who need donor eggs or sperm go abroad (Korać Graovac, 2024; Novi list, September 2025), and the parents’ association Roda says patients in Rijeka and Split have less access than those in Zagreb (Novi list, February 2026).

What employers gain

What IVF costs, and what the state pays

Patients outside the HZZO-funded limits pay the clinic. KB Merkur in Zagreb publishes its self-pay prices.

Sources: KB Merkur, MPO price list in EUR, uploaded May 2025; Poliklinika Šparac price list, revised 28 January 2026. Prices vary by clinic and protocol.

Sources: Medically Assisted Fertilisation Act, NN 86/12, articles 7, 10 and 34; KB Merkur, patient leaflet on legal conditions, dated June 2020; Novi list, September 2025 (treatment abroad with donor gametes, as reported; we did not find the HZZO rule itself); Jurić, University of Rijeka thesis, 2022 (social egg freezing is self-funded).

Age is one of the strongest predictors of IVF success, alongside individual medical and treatment factors. In 2023, deliveries per embryo transfer were 32.25% for women aged 34 or under, 26.44% at 35 to 39 and 12.16% at 40 or over, across all Croatian centres (Ministry of Health, annual MPO report for 2023).

Clinical pregnancy rates per transfer were 37.94%, 32.50% and 16.36%.

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.

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

Plan your fertility benefit budget

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

1. Kick-off, week 1. Agree goals, countries and which employees are eligible.
2. Policy and benefit design, weeks 2 to 4. Draft or update your fertility policy using our templates.
3. Launch, typically weeks 4 to 6. A launch talk for employees and managers, plus a communications pack for HR to send.
4. Live support. Employees book care navigation calls and use the Zora app.
5. 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 Croatia’s application of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Act on the Implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (NN 42/18), which treat health data as special category data.

Clinics and doctors in Croatia

Zora’s clinic and doctor directory does not list providers in Croatia yet. It lists 421 clinics and 1,185 doctors across 25 countries, mostly in Asia Pacific and the Middle East (browse clinics or browse doctors). Employees in Croatia can still use Zora’s education and the Zora app. Ask us how your team in Croatia would use Zora before you launch. See Zora’s employer guides for every country.

Rules and eligibility in Croatia

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.

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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 Croatia?

No. Croatian law has no fertility or IVF leave, so paid time off for appointments depends on the employer’s policy. The Anti-Discrimination Act covers sex, health and marital or family status, and in Jurčić v. Croatia (2021) the European Court of Human Rights found that treating a woman less favourably because she was having IVF and became pregnant was sex discrimination.

Does HZZO pay for IVF in Croatia?

Yes. Under the 2012 Medically Assisted Fertilisation Act, HZZO pays for 4 intrauterine inseminations and 6 IVF attempts, 2 of them in a natural cycle, generally until the woman turns 42. A doctor may approve treatment after 42 for particularly justified health reasons. HZZO also pays to store surplus embryos and eggs for up to 5 years.

Can single women or employees who want to freeze their eggs get treatment in Croatia?

A single adult woman can have treatment if earlier infertility treatment was unsuccessful or had no prospect of success. The Act provides for egg freezing where fertility is at risk for health reasons, such as before cancer treatment. A 2022 University of Rijeka thesis says egg freezing for social reasons is paid by the patient; we found no official guidance on it, so employees should confirm with the clinic.

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 Croatian employers

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.