Zora Health / Employer guide / Dubai
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 Dubai HR leaders should know
- Dubai requires employers to provide health insurance, but the Dubai Health Authority’s list of excluded (non-basic) services, effective 1 January 2025, leaves out IVF and infertility treatment, so employees on basic plans usually pay for treatment themselves.
- Free treatment under Dubai’s Al Amal Initiative is for eligible UAE nationals and certain related groups at Dubai Health’s Fertility Center, provided no insurance or other funding covers the treatment. Expatriate staff and elective egg freezing fall outside it.
- Federal Law No. 7 of 2019, amended by Federal Decree-Law No. 17 of 2023, lets unmarried non-Muslim couples apply for assisted reproduction using their own eggs and sperm. Donor eggs and sperm remain prohibited.
- There is no statutory fertility leave in Dubai. Mainland private-sector employees get 60 days of maternity leave and 5 working days of parental leave; DIFC employers follow a separate Employment Law with its own leave and anti-discrimination rules.
- A fixed annual allowance, set against Dubai prices such as AED 14,000 for an IVF package on the Dubai Fertility Centre’s 2022 price list, keeps the budget predictable while covering the treatment that insurance excludes.
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 Dubai or UAE survey on how many employees hide fertility treatment from their employer. The closest evidence is multi-country: Ferring’s 2025 survey of more than 3,600 people in Australia, France, Japan, Poland and the UK, and Carrot’s 2023 survey of 5,000 people in Canada, India, Mexico, the UK and the US.
- Resignations. Employees who cannot fit treatment around work, or afford it, may leave for an employer that offers support.
- Lower performance. Clinic visits, medication side effects and failed cycles affect concentration for weeks at a time.
- Insurance gaps. Basic plans that follow the DHA list of excluded services leave out IVF and infertility treatment, so employees often face the full bill without warning.
- Unequal access. Eligible Emirati couples can use the free Al Amal Initiative, while expatriate colleagues on the same team usually pay privately.
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. Treatment often starts when employees have built experience that is hard to replace. 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 Ferring’s 2025 survey, 73% of employees with fertility challenges said they would be attracted to a role that offers fertility support (Ferring, 2025). In Carrot’s 2023 survey, 65% said they would change jobs for fertility benefits (Carrot, 2023). Female labour force participation in the UAE was an estimated 53.0% in 2025 (ILO modelled estimate via World Bank).
Make fertility support financially predictable
A fertility benefit does not need to mean unlimited medical coverage. Employers can set annual or lifetime allowances, decide which treatments qualify and add education and care navigation. WTW projects gross medical costs across the Middle East and Africa region to rise 11.3% in 2026, with no separate UAE figure published in its release (WTW, 2025), so a capped allowance is easier to plan than adding IVF to every insurance tier.
Zora helps employers structure benefits around local treatment costs, the Essential Benefits Plan exclusions and the Al Amal support Emirati staff may already receive, so HR can run the programme within an agreed budget.
Want to see what this would look like for your Dubai workforce?
What IVF costs, and what the state pays
Dubai law requires employers to provide health insurance for their employees, and the Essential Benefits Plan is the mandatory minimum for staff earning less than AED 4,000 a month (Kayrouz & Associates, March 2026). The Essential Benefits Plan excludes IVF, and so do basic plans built on the DHA exclusion list. Dubai Health’s Fertility Center in Al Jaddaf has treated married couples since 1991 (Dubai Health). Private centres need DHA licensing (Business Dubai, 2026). We found no published count of licensed IVF centres in Dubai.
| Treatment | Dubai Fertility Centre (DHA 2022 price list) | Private clinics (indicative) |
|---|---|---|
| IVF cycle | AED 14,000 (IVF package); AED 18,000 (ICSI package) | AED 23,100 to 65,100 for a full cycle |
| IUI | AED 2,500 (AED 3,650 as a package) | Varies by clinic |
| Egg freezing | AED 9,000 egg collection plus AED 3,500 freezing with first-year storage | From AED 15,500 per cycle (UAE clinic guide) |
| Storage after year 1 | AED 2,000 a year (embryos, eggs or sperm) | From about AED 1,950 a year |
| Medication | Excluded from packages and billed separately | Usually excluded |
Sources: DHA, Dubai Fertility Center service guide, 2022; Zavis, indicative Dubai IVF cycle range (undated aggregator estimate built from typical treatment steps, not a published price list or quote); ART Fertility Clinics, egg freezing cost guide, revised November 2026 (clinic pricing). Public prices date from 2022, before the centre moved under Dubai Health, and may have changed; we found no newer published price list. Khaleej Times put the average UAE IVF cycle at around AED 38,000 in July 2023.
| Item | Public support (or own savings) | What the employee still carries |
|---|---|---|
| Emirati couple, married more than 1 year, with no insurance or other public or private funding for fertility treatment | Free treatment under the Al Amal Initiative: up to 3 attempts a year for Dubai Family Book holders, 2 for other eligible categories | Time off, travel and anything outside the programme |
| Expatriate on the Essential Benefits Plan or a basic DHA plan | None. IVF and infertility treatment are excluded | The full cost of each cycle and medication |
| Expatriate on a higher-tier or international plan | Depends on the plan; some premium plans include an IVF benefit with a limit, such as Daman Premier’s lifetime limit of AED 365,000 | Costs above the limit, co-payments and excluded items |
| Elective egg freezing | Own savings (not a subsidy) | Collection, freezing, medication and annual storage |
Sources: Dubai Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2017 on the Al Amal Initiative; Dubai Health, Al Amal Initiative, updated March 2026; DHA list of excluded (non-basic) healthcare services, effective 1 January 2025; InsuranceMarket.ae, updated July 2026. The attempt limits come from the 2017 resolution; Dubai Health’s March 2026 page confirms the free treatment and eligible groups but does not restate the limits.
Age is one of the strongest predictors of IVF success, alongside individual medical and treatment factors. We found no published IVF success rates by age for Dubai; the nearest official figure comes from a different emirate, Abu Dhabi, where the Department of Health reported an IVF success rate of over 51% in 2024, without stating whether this measured pregnancy or live birth, or giving an age breakdown (Abu Dhabi Media Office, 2025).
Many patients need more than one cycle, and success rates fall as women get older, 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 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 Dubai:
- Are local-plan employees covered, or only staff on international health plans?
- Do you require an infertility diagnosis before support starts?
- Which DHA-licensed fertility centres in Dubai, and which in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, are in your network, and what do they charge per IVF cycle?
- How does your programme sit alongside the Essential Benefits Plan exclusions and the Al Amal Initiative for Emirati employees, without paying twice?
- How do you apply Federal Law No. 7 of 2019 and its 2023 amendment to eligibility, including unmarried and single employees?
- Where is employee health data stored, and how do you meet the UAE health data localisation rules and, for DIFC employers, the DIFC Data Protection Law?
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’s Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data, which treats health data as sensitive, together with the DIFC Data Protection Law (DIFC Law No. 5 of 2020) and Federal Law No. 2 of 2019 on the use of ICT in health fields where they apply.
Clinics and doctors in Dubai
Zora’s directory lists 10 clinics and 58 doctors in Dubai. Of these clinics, 5 list IVF and 3 list egg freezing.
Employees can browse clinics in Dubai, see IVF clinics and find a doctor in Dubai 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 Dubai
Who can use assisted reproduction
Federal Law No. 7 of 2019 on medically assisted reproduction applies across the UAE and, since its 2023 amendment, expressly covers fertility centres in free zones. Federal Decree-Law No. 17 of 2023 lets unmarried non-Muslim couples apply to the health authority for treatment, with a declaration on the child’s parentage; Muslim couples must still be married (The National, 2023). Eggs and sperm must come from the couple, and donor gametes remain prohibited. The amendment removed the federal ban on surrogacy and left it to each emirate to regulate (BSA via Mondaq, 2023; Mondaq, 2023).
Egg and embryo freezing
Embryos may be stored for 5 years, renewable on written request from the couple (The National, 2023). The Dubai Fertility Centre’s 2022 service guide lists egg, sperm and embryo freezing. A Dubai Health Authority policy issued in December 2023 lets divorced and widowed women freeze eggs only for medical reasons and excludes never-married women, so confirm eligibility with your legal team before including elective egg freezing in a policy.
Maternity, parental and DIFC leave
Under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, mainland private-sector employees get 60 days of maternity leave (45 at full pay, 15 at half pay) and either parent gets 5 working days of paid parental leave within 6 months of the birth (Gulf News). In the DIFC, employees with 12 months’ continuous service get up to 65 working days of maternity leave (33 at full pay, 32 at half pay) and fathers with 12 months’ service get 5 working days of paid paternity leave (DIFC Employment Law, consolidated July 2025, Articles 37 to 39). There is no statutory fertility leave in either system.
What the law protects
The federal law bars dismissal or notice because of pregnancy (Gulf News), prohibits discrimination on grounds including sex, and recognises part-time, flexible and remote work models (Lockton). The DIFC Employment Law protects sex, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, and age, among other characteristics (DIFC Employment Law, Article 59; CMS, 2019).
Data protection in Dubai and its free zones
The federal Personal Data Protection Law treats health data as sensitive, but excludes health data covered by its own legislation and free zones with their own data laws (Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021). Federal Law No. 2 of 2019 on ICT in health fields generally requires health data to be stored in the UAE (Taylor Wessing, 2021). DIFC Law No. 5 of 2020 classes health data as special category data (DLA Piper), and Dubai Healthcare City has its own health data regulation (Lex Mundi).
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 Dubai?
No. Neither the federal Labour Law nor the DIFC Employment Law requires fertility leave. Employees usually use annual or sick leave for appointments and procedures unless the employer’s policy gives dedicated time off.
Does mandatory health insurance in Dubai cover IVF?
Usually not. The DHA list of excluded (non-basic) services, effective 1 January 2025, covers IVF, embryo transfer and treatment to correct infertility, and the Essential Benefits Plan excludes them. Some higher-tier and international plans add an IVF benefit with a limit, so check each policy.
Can Emirati employees get free fertility treatment in Dubai?
Eligible married Emirati couples can receive free treatment under the Al Amal Initiative at Dubai Health’s Fertility Center, subject to Family Book, marriage and funding conditions, including having no insurance that covers fertility treatment. Expatriate employees are not covered by Al Amal.
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 Dubai 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 Dubai team. No obligation.
Not ready to talk yet? Explore how Zora works
Sources
- World Bank, Fertility rate, total (births per woman), United Arab Emirates, 2024
- World Bank (ILO modelled estimate), Labour force participation rate, female, United Arab Emirates, 2025
- The National, UAE Minister of Family outlines vision for boosting fertility rates, July 2025
- Dubai Health Authority, Excluded (non-basic) healthcare services, effective 1 January 2025 (copy published by American University in Dubai)
- Orient EMED, DHA Essential Benefit Plan, summary of benefits and exclusions
- Kayrouz & Associates, Must UAE employers provide health insurance to all employees in 2026?, March 2026
- InsuranceMarket.ae, Does health insurance cover infertility treatment in the UAE, updated July 2026
- Government of Dubai, Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2017 concerning the rules for benefiting from Al Amal Initiative
- Dubai Health, Al Amal Initiative, updated March 2026
- Dubai Health, Fertility Center
- Dubai Health Authority, Dubai Fertility Center service guide and fees, 2022
- Zavis, Full IVF cycle cost in Dubai: indicative range (undated aggregator estimate)
- ART Fertility Clinics, Egg freezing cost in the UAE, revised November 2026
- Khaleej Times, UAE’s leading IVF benefits, July 2023
- Abu Dhabi Media Office, Abu Dhabi’s IVF services ranked among the most successful worldwide in 2024, February 2025
- Business Dubai, IVF and fertility clinic setup in Dubai, 2026
- Mondaq (BSA), Further liberalisation of UAE fertility law, November 2023
- Mondaq, UAE’s new IVF regulations: a comprehensive overview, 2023
- The National, Change in law allows unmarried non-Muslim couples to undergo IVF in UAE, October 2023
- Gulf News, 60 day maternity leave and other leaves new mums are entitled to, updated July 2023
- Lockton, United Arab Emirates introduces a new labour law
- DIFC, Employment Law (DIFC Law No. 2 of 2019), consolidated version 5, July 2025
- CMS, The new DIFC Employment Law: key changes, 2019
- Addleshaw Goddard, The new DIFC Employment Law, 2019
- UAE Legislation, Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data
- DLA Piper, Data protection laws of the world: UAE, DIFC
- Taylor Wessing, Health data in the UAE, August 2021
- Lex Mundi, Global data privacy guide: United Arab Emirates
- WTW, Global Medical Trends Survey (Middle East and Africa regional figure), November 2025
- The National, Change in law allows unmarried non-Muslim couples to undergo IVF in UAE, October 2023
- 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.