Zora Health / Employer guide / Denmark
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 Danish HR leaders should know
- 14.8% of children born in Denmark in 2025 were conceived after fertility treatment: 8,782 of 59,443 births, according to Danish Health Data Authority figures reported by DR in April 2026.
- Public clinics offer up to 6 free IVF or ICSI attempts for a first child (since 1 October 2024) and for a second child (since January 2026). The referral must arrive before the woman turns 40, and treatment must start before she turns 41.
- Treatment from 41 and elective egg freezing are self-paid: about DKK 25,000 to 30,000 per private IVF cycle before medication, and DKK 20,000 per egg freezing cycle at one Copenhagen clinic.
- There is no statutory fertility leave. In April 2025 the Supreme Court awarded DKK 150,000 to an employee dismissed after telling her employer she planned fertility treatment.
- A fixed annual allowance keeps the budget predictable and pays for what the public system leaves out: medication, treatment after 41, egg freezing and storage.
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.
The World Health Organization estimates that about 1 in 6 people worldwide are affected by infertility. In the Capital Region’s 2021 health survey, 1 in 5 people aged 25 to 44 who had tried for a child had not conceived within a year (Videnskab.dk, 2024). We found no Danish survey on how many employees keep treatment from their employer. In a 2023 Carrot Fertility survey of 5,000 people in Canada, India, Mexico, the UK and the US, 79% felt uncomfortable discussing fertility at work.
- Resignations. 39% of employees with fertility challenges in Ferring‘s 2025 survey of more than 3,600 employees and employers in Australia, France, Japan, Poland and the UK had left or considered leaving their job during treatment.
- Pressure and sick leave. In the same survey, 36% felt pressure from their employer to be at work during treatment, and 17% took sick leave because they lacked flexibility.
- Dismissal risk. In April 2025 the Supreme Court extended discrimination protection to planned treatment (Plesner, 2025).
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. 69.95% of Danish women aged 15 to 74 were in the labour force in 2025 (OECD, via FRED).
Stand out in a tight labour market
73% of employees with fertility challenges said they would be attracted to a role that offers fertility support (Ferring, 2025), and 65% said they would change jobs for fertility benefits (Carrot, 2023). In March 2024 Lone Schmidt, a public health professor at the University of Copenhagen, said: “I have not heard of Danish employers paying for social freezing” (Nordic Labour Journal).
Make fertility support financially predictable
Aon’s 2026 report, with data as of October 2025, projected a 5.0% gross rise in employer medical plan costs in Denmark for 2026, against 4.0% for 2025 (Aon, full report via ConsultorSalud). A capped allowance sets a ceiling on fertility spending.
Zora helps employers structure benefits around local costs, public funding and the law, within an agreed budget.
Want to see what this would look like for your Danish workforce?
What IVF costs, and what the state pays
The 14.8% figure for 2025 is Danish Health Data Authority data reported by DR on 29 April 2026 and by NordiskPost, with total births from Statistics Denmark. Public clinics treat for free. Since 1 October 2024 they offer up to 6 IVF or ICSI attempts for a first child, up from 3 (agreement of 13 February 2024, Danske Regioner). Free treatment for a second child started on 1 December 2024 with up to 3 attempts, funded with DKK 150 million a year (Ministry of the Interior and Health). The referral must arrive before the woman turns 40, and treatment must start before she turns 41 (sundhed.dk, Danske Regioner, November 2024). From 1 January 2027, the regions will also apply an age limit to men: they must be referred before they turn 55, public treatment ends when they turn 56, men already in a course on that date are exempt, and private treatment is not affected (Ritzau via Frederiksborg Amts Avis, September 2026). Fertility medicines are subsidised, with patient payments capped at about DKK 4,850 a year in 2026 (gravidtid.dk).
| Item | Price (DKK) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| IVF, one cycle, private clinic | 25,000 to 30,000 | Excluding medication; CFC charges 25,000 |
| IVF, package of 3 cycles | 55,000 to 60,000 | CFC, under or over 35 |
| ICSI, added to IVF | 4,500 | CFC |
| Frozen embryo transfer | 9,000 | CFC |
| Elective egg freezing, one cycle | 20,000 | CFC, including 12 months of storage; 3 cycles 56,000 |
| Egg or sperm storage, per year | 2,000 to 2,500 | CFC; gravidtid.dk |
| IVF with donor eggs | 56,000 | CFC |
Sources: Copenhagen Fertility Center (CFC) price list, undated, accessed 5 November 2026; gravidtid.dk, prices updated January 2026. Rounded; clinics set their own fees.
| Item | Public support (or own savings) | What the employee still carries |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 6 IVF or ICSI attempts, first or second child, referred before 40 | Free at public clinics | Medicines (subsidised), waiting time and time off |
| Insemination with a GP referral | Free with partner sperm at some private specialists, such as CFC | Donor sperm at private specialist clinics |
| Treatment from 41 to the 46th birthday | None (own savings) | The full private price |
| Elective egg freezing and storage | None (own savings) | The full private price, plus storage |
Sources: sundhed.dk, Region Hovedstaden guidance updated 10 January 2025; Danske Regioner, December 2025; CFC; gravidtid.dk.
Age strongly predicts IVF success. We found no published national breakdown by age. At Odense University Hospital’s public clinic in 2025, clinical pregnancy per fresh embryo transfer was 37% for women aged 34 or under, 33% at 35 to 39 and 30% at 40 to 42 (OUH, June 2026). These are clinical pregnancy rates, not live birth rates.
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 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 and multi-country teams
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
Our RFP question bank has 40 questions, with why each one matters, what a good answer looks like and a scoring sheet for three providers. Six of the questions for Denmark:
- Are local-plan employees covered, or only staff on international health plans?
- Do you require an infertility diagnosis before support starts?
- How does the allowance work alongside public treatment, for example medication costs, a 7th attempt or treatment that starts after the woman’s 41st birthday?
- Which private clinics in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg can employees use, and can the allowance pay for private treatment during a public wait?
- Can the allowance pay for elective egg freezing, storage until 46 and donor treatment, and how is it taxed as an employee benefit in Denmark?
- How is health data handled under the GDPR, the Danish Data Protection Act and the Health Information Act, and what aggregated information does the employer see?
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: DKK 2,255,000 to DKK 6,380,000 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 Denmark’s data protection rules under the GDPR and the Danish Data Protection Act (databeskyttelsesloven), which treat health data as special category data.
Clinics and doctors in Denmark
Zora’s clinic and doctor directory does not list providers in Denmark 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 Denmark can still use Zora’s education and the Zora app. Ask us how your team in Denmark would use Zora before you launch. See Zora’s employer guides for every country.
Rules and eligibility in Denmark
Who can use assisted reproduction
Since 2007, doctors may treat single women and female couples as well as heterosexual couples (Lex). A single woman with at most one child can be referred for public treatment on the same terms as a couple; private treatment runs to the woman’s 46th birthday (sundhed.dk). Since 1 January 2025, one woman in a female couple may donate eggs to her partner without a medical reason, at a private clinic and at her own cost (Act No. 1213 of 26 November 2024, bill L 52).
Egg freezing
The 5-year limit on storing eggs frozen without a medical reason was lifted, and eggs can now be stored until the woman turns 46 (Danske Regioner, September 2024).
Parental leave, but no fertility leave
For children born from 2 August 2022, the mother can take 4 weeks of leave before the birth (borger.dk). Each parent has 24 weeks after it; for employees, 11 of these are earmarked and cannot be transferred (Legal Desk, September 2025). Fathers took about 10 weeks on average in 2023 (Statistics Denmark, April 2025). There is no statutory fertility leave. The union Finansforbundet says absence for treatment counts as sickness for the partner who is the cause of infertility.
Dismissal protection during treatment
Once treatment has started, section 9 protects both partners from dismissal, and the employer must prove a dismissal was unrelated (Plesner, Finansforbundet). On 15 April 2025 the Supreme Court found that dismissing an employee soon after she said she planned treatment breached the general ban on sex discrimination in section 4. The employer could not prove otherwise and paid DKK 150,000, which Plesner says equals 6 months’ salary (Lovguiden, Plesner).
More attempts for a second child, and limits on health questions
For treatment starting from 1 January 2026, a second child can be funded for up to 6 attempts, up from 3, with DKK 35 million a year (agreement of 18 December 2025). Employers may ask for health information only where an illness will significantly affect the employee’s ability to do the job (Health Information Act, section 2), and health data falls under the GDPR and section 7 of the Data Protection Act.
Surrogacy
Commercial surrogacy is illegal in Denmark; unpaid altruistic surrogacy is allowed (EAPIL, 2024). Since 1 January 2025, Familieretshuset can decide that intended parents are the legal parents under an approved Danish altruistic agreement or a foreign surrogacy agreement, instead of relying on stepchild adoption (CPR, 2025). Parents under a Danish-approved agreement can claim parental leave benefit if they care for the child daily (borger.dk, 2026).
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 Denmark?
No. There is no statutory fertility or IVF leave. Absence for treatment is handled like sickness for the partner whose body is the cause of infertility; the other partner can agree holiday or time off in lieu with the employer. Employees in treatment are protected from dismissal under the Equal Treatment Act. Employers can add paid fertility leave in their own policy.
Does the public system pay for IVF in Denmark?
Yes. Public fertility clinics offer up to 6 free IVF or ICSI attempts for a first child, and since January 2026 up to 6 for a second child (free second-child treatment began on 1 December 2024 with up to 3 attempts). The referral must arrive before the woman turns 40 and treatment must start before she turns 41. Patients pay for fertility medicines, which are subsidised.
Can single women and female couples get IVF in Denmark, and is egg freezing allowed?
Yes. Single women and female couples have had access since 2007, and a single woman with at most one child can be referred for public treatment. Elective egg freezing is legal and paid privately, from about DKK 20,000 per cycle at one Copenhagen clinic, and since 1 October 2024 eggs can be stored until the woman turns 46.
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 Danish 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 Danish team. No obligation.
Not ready to talk yet? Explore how Zora works
Sources
- Statistics Denmark, NYT: Mænds middellevetid runder for første gang 80 år, 12 February 2026
- DR, Mere end hvert syvende barn kommer nu til verden efter fertilitetsbehandling, 29 April 2026
- NordiskPost, Denmark’s birth rate now depends more on fertility treatment (Danish Health Data Authority figures via DR), 29 April 2026
- Indenrigs- og Sundhedsministeriet and Danske Regioner, Udmøntningsaftale om flere forsøg til fertilitetsbehandling, 13 February 2024
- Danske Regioner, Nu får ufrivilligt barnløse bedre hjælp til at blive gravide, 30 September 2024
- Danske Regioner, Gratis hjælp til andet barn udvides med midlertidig dispensation til kvinder over 40 år, 4 November 2024
- Ministry of the Interior and Health, Ny aftale sikrer ufrivilligt barnløse gratis hjælp til barn nummer to, 18 June 2024
- Danske Regioner, Udmøntningsaftale om flere forsøg til fertilitetsbehandling til andet barn, 18 December 2025
- Retsinformation, Lov nr. 1213 af 26. november 2024 (partnerægdonation uden sundhedsfaglig begrundelse), in force 1 January 2025
- Folketinget, L 52 (2024 to 2025), fremsættelsestale, 3 October 2024
- sundhed.dk, Infertilitet, Region Hovedstaden forløbsbeskrivelse, updated 10 January 2025
- Copenhagen Fertility Center, Priser på behandlinger for barnløshed (undated price list, accessed 5 November 2026)
- gravidtid.dk, Hvad koster fertilitetsbehandling i Danmark i 2026?, January 2026
- Odense University Hospital, Fertilitetsklinikkens behandlingsresultater 2025, June 2026
- Lex, Assisteret befrugtning, updated 22 May 2025
- borger.dk, Planlæg orloven, så den passer til jer
- Statistics Denmark, Fædre holder længere barselsorlov, 11 April 2025
- Legal Desk, Barselsregler, 11 September 2025
- Finansforbundet, Rules on fertility treatment
- Lovguiden, Højesteret 15 April 2025: afskedigelse på grund af planlagt fertilitetsbehandling var i strid med ligebehandlingslovens § 4
- Plesner, Danish Supreme Court extends discrimination protection to planned fertility treatment, 2025
- Lovguiden, Helbredsoplysningsloven § 2
- Lovguiden, Databeskyttelsesloven § 7 (LBK nr 289 af 08/03/2024)
- Videnskab.dk, Infertilitet: hver femte mellem 25 og 44 år i Region Hovedstaden har oplevet det (Sundhedsprofilen 2021), 1 October 2024
- Nordic Labour Journal, Danish expert: Support young people to get pregnant, not to freeze their eggs, 25 March 2024
- OECD, Infra-Annual Labor Statistics: Labor Force Participation Rate Female, 15 to 74, Denmark, via FRED
- Aon, Global Medical Trend Rates Report 2026 (October 2025), full PDF as hosted by ConsultorSalud
- EAPIL, Political agreement in Denmark on international surrogacy agreements, October 2024
- CPR, Orienteringsbrev til kommunerne om surrogataftaler, September 2025
- borger.dk, Surrogataftaler fra efter den 1. januar 2025 (barsel)
- Frederiksborg Amts Avis (Ritzau), Regioner sætter aldersgrænse på 55 år for mænd i fertilitetsbehandling, 1 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.