Zora Health / Employer guide / France
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 French HR leaders should know
- France’s fertility rate fell to 1.56 children per woman in 2025, from 1.61 in 2024, and deaths outnumbered births for the first time since the Second World War (INSEE).
- Assurance Maladie covers assisted reproduction at 100% on prescription for up to 6 inseminations and 4 IVF attempts, with egg retrieval up to the woman’s 43rd birthday, including for single women and female couples since 2021.
- In 2025 the average wait was 17.7 months for donor sperm, 22 months for donor eggs and 11.7 months for non-medical egg freezing (Agence de la biomédecine).
- Employees in assisted reproduction have a right to paid absence for the medical procedures (Code du travail L1225-16), and since July 2025 anyone with a parental project through assisted reproduction or adoption is protected from discrimination.
- A fixed annual allowance for extra fees, treatment beyond the age or attempt limits and travel keeps the budget predictable; the law bars employers from paying egg storage costs.
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 France, 1 in 24 children born in 2023 was conceived through assisted reproduction (Agence de la biomédecine). Employees do not have to disclose treatment. In Ferring‘s November 2025 survey, French respondents were the most likely of five countries to say their workplace offered no support for employees in fertility treatment.
- Resignations. In the same survey of more than 3,600 people in Australia, France, Japan, Poland and the UK, 39% of those with fertility challenges were leaving or considering leaving their job during treatment.
- Lower performance. 36% felt pressure from their employer to be at work during treatment, and 17% took sick leave because they lacked flexibility.
- Uneven access. Waits vary from 8 to 28 months, Corsica has no centre, and more than half of egg freezing requests come from women in the Paris region (LCP, September 2026).
What employers gain
Keep the people you spent the most to develop
Replacing an employee costs one-half to two times their annual salary (Gallup). In France, 32.8% of women starting assisted reproduction in 2023 were aged 30 to 34 and 21.2% were 35 to 37 (Agence de la biomédecine), often the years when employees move into senior roles.
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, a survey of 5,000 people in Canada, India, Mexico, the UK and the US). 72.3% of French women aged 15 to 64 were in the labour force in 2025 (INSEE). In April 2023, Carrefour announced special leave for its staff in France, including 1 day off the day after an embryo transfer (Demotivateur, April 2023).
Make fertility support financially predictable
Employers can set annual or lifetime allowances, choose which treatments qualify and guide employees before they spend. Zora structures benefits around local costs, the law and an agreed budget.
Want to see what this would look like for your French workforce?
What IVF costs, and what the state pays
Assurance Maladie covers assisted reproduction at 100% on medical prescription, for a maximum of 6 inseminations (one per cycle) and 4 IVF attempts. Egg retrieval is possible up to the woman’s 43rd birthday, and the woman carrying the child can be treated until her 45th birthday (Santé.fr). An IVF attempt counts once it reaches embryo transfer, and the count restarts after a birth. Extra fees above the official tariff, from sector 2 practitioners and private clinics, are not covered (April, January 2026).
| Item | Typical cost (€) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| IVF, one complete cycle, average cost to the Sécurité sociale | About 4,100 | Stimulation 1,300, monitoring 500, laboratory 600, hospital 1,700; excludes sick leave and cancelled cycles |
| Extra fees from sector 2 practitioners or private clinics | Varies | Not covered by Assurance Maladie; ask for a quote in advance |
| Non-medical egg freezing, yearly storage | About 40 per retrieval | Retrieval and freezing are covered; the woman pays storage |
Sources: April, January 2026; CNGOF, 2026; Agence de la biomédecine. We found no published French price list for IVF outside state cover.
| Item | Public support (or own savings) | What the employee still carries |
|---|---|---|
| IVF and insemination | 100% cover within the limits above, for couples, female couples and single women | Extra fees above the tariff, time off and the wait |
| Treatment with donor sperm or eggs | Same cover | An average wait of 17.7 months for donor sperm and 22 months for donor eggs in 2025 |
| Treatment outside the age or attempt limits | None | The full price set by the clinic, in France or abroad |
| Non-medical egg freezing, ages 29 to 36 | Retrieval and freezing covered at public or private non-profit centres | About €40 a year per retrieval for storage, which employers may not pay, and an 11.7-month average wait |
| Tax relief | We found no tax relief for fertility treatment | Not applicable |
Sources: Santé.fr; Agence de la biomédecine, April 2026; Public Health Code, article L2141-12.
Age is one of the strongest predictors of success. For insemination with the partner’s sperm in 2023, the delivery rate per insemination was 13.6% under 30, 11.4% at 35 to 37, 8.5% at 38 to 39 and 4.0% at 40 to 42. For IVF without ICSI with the couple’s own gametes, 18.7% of egg retrievals led to a delivery (Agence de la biomédecine, 2023 data).
An employee in her late 30s waiting 17.7 months for donor sperm loses part of her covered window, so when an allowance can be used matters as much as its size.
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 France:
- Are local-plan employees covered, or only staff on international health plans?
- Do you require an infertility diagnosis before support starts?
- Which French public and private non-profit centres can employees use, and how do you help with waits in the Paris region and areas with few centres?
- How does the allowance work alongside Assurance Maladie and our complementary health insurance, for example extra fees, treatment after the 43rd birthday or after 4 IVF attempts?
- How does the programme comply with article L2141-12 of the Public Health Code, which bars employers from paying egg storage costs?
- How is employee health data handled under the GDPR as special category data, and what 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: €187,917 to €531,667 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 France’s application of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), under which health data is special category data.
Clinics and doctors in France
Zora’s clinic and doctor directory does not list providers in France 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 France can still use Zora’s education and the Zora app. Ask us how your team in France would use Zora before you launch. See Zora’s employer guides for every country.
Rules and eligibility in France
Who can use assisted reproduction
The law opened assisted reproduction to female couples and single women (LCP). People conceived with donor gametes have a right of access to their origins, and since 31 March 2025 gametes from donors who have not agreed to share their identity can no longer be used (Agence de la biomédecine). Surrogacy remains prohibited under articles 16-7 and 16-9 of the Civil Code (Government answer, 2016).
Egg freezing without a medical reason
Women can have eggs retrieved without a medical reason from their 29th birthday until their 37th birthday (Agence de la biomédecine) and can use them until their 45th birthday (CNGOF). Only public or private non-profit centres are authorised, unless a département has none, and storage costs may not be paid or compensated, directly or indirectly, by the employer (Public Health Code, L2141-12). In December 2025 the government said opening this to for-profit centres will be examined in the 2028 bioethics law review (Assemblée nationale).
Paid absence for treatment, maternity and paternity leave
An employee in assisted reproduction can be absent for the necessary medical procedures, and an employed spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner can attend up to 3 of them per protocol, with no loss of pay and the time counted as work for paid leave and seniority (Code du travail numérique). Maternity leave is 16 weeks for a first or second child and 26 weeks from the third (Service-Public.fr). Paternity leave is 25 calendar days for one child, plus 3 working days of birth leave, and is open to the non-birth mother in a female couple (Service-Public.fr).
Discrimination protection
Since 2 July 2025, every employee with a parental project through assisted reproduction or adoption is protected from discrimination, regardless of sex. It cannot affect hiring, pay, training, promotion, transfer or dismissal, employees need not disclose it, and in a dispute the burden of proof falls on the employer (CMS Francis Lefebvre, July 2025).
New supplementary birth leave
Under decrees of 30 May 2026, from 1 July 2026 each parent can take 1 or 2 months of supplementary birth leave after maternity, paternity or adoption leave, for children born or adopted from 1 January 2026. In the private sector it pays 70% of salary for the first month and 60% for the second, with salary capped at the 2026 social security ceiling of €4,005 a month. Notice is 1 month, or 15 days if it directly follows paternity or adoption leave (Service-Public.fr, June 2026, Voltaire Avocats, June 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 France?
There is no separate fertility leave. Under article L1225-16 of the Code du travail, employees in assisted reproduction have a right to paid absence for the necessary medical procedures, and their partner can attend up to 3 of them per protocol. Any further time off depends on company policy or collective agreements.
Does Assurance Maladie pay for IVF in France?
Yes. Assurance Maladie covers assisted reproduction at 100% on prescription, for up to 6 inseminations and 4 IVF attempts, with egg retrieval possible up to the woman’s 43rd birthday. Fees above the official tariff at private clinics are not covered, and treatment beyond the limits is self-funded.
Who can freeze their eggs in France?
Since the 2021 bioethics law, women can freeze eggs without a medical reason from their 29th birthday until their 37th birthday, at public or private non-profit centres. The procedure is covered, but storage of about €40 a year per retrieval is paid by the woman and may not be paid by her employer. The average wait was 11.7 months in 2025.
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 French 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 French team. No obligation.
Not ready to talk yet? Explore how Zora works
Sources
- INSEE, Bilan démographique 2025, Insee Première no 2087, January 2026
- INSEE, Une photographie du marché du travail en 2025, Insee Première no 2096, March 2026
- Agence de la biomédecine, Rapport médical et scientifique, assistance médicale à la procréation 2023, September 2025
- Agence de la biomédecine, 2025 assisted reproduction activity figures, press release, April 2026
- Agence de la biomédecine, What is gamete self-preservation?
- Agence de la biomédecine, Right of access to origins: clarifications and FAQ
- Santé.fr, « L’AMP est très coûteuse », July 2025
- April, FIV : coût et remboursement, updated January 2026
- CNGOF, Conservation des ovocytes sans raison médicale, 2026
- Assemblée nationale, oral question no 465 and government answer, December 2025
- Public Health Code, article L2141-12 (English translation)
- LCP, PMA pour toutes : cinq ans après l’entrée en vigueur de la loi, September 2026
- Assemblée nationale, written question no 63582 and government answer on surrogacy, August 2016
- Code du travail numérique, article L1225-16
- CMS Francis Lefebvre, Les personnes engagées dans un projet parental sont protégées des discriminations au travail, July 2025
- Service-Public.fr, Congé de maternité d’une salariée du secteur privé
- Service-Public.fr, Congé de paternité et d’accueil de l’enfant
- Service-Public.fr, Entrée en vigueur du congé supplémentaire de naissance, June 2026
- Voltaire Avocats, Congé supplémentaire de naissance : les décrets d’application sont publiés, June 2026
- Demotivateur, Carrefour met en place des congés spéciaux en cas d’endométriose, de fausse couche ou de PMA, April 2023
- CNIL, Donnée sensible
- 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.