Zora Health / Employer guide / Nepal
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 Nepali HR leaders should know
- Nepal has no Act on assisted reproduction. Since 17 August 2025, Ministry standards have required IUI and IVF centres to hold Ministry permission.
- A Supreme Court interim order of 19 August 2025 halts egg removal and storage until the case is decided. No ruling was reported by 5 November 2026, so egg freezing and egg donation remain on hold.
- There is no public funding for IVF. An IVF cycle costs around NPR 300,000 to 600,000 (Kathmandu Post, 2025), and the public Paropakar hospital averages about NPR 200,000 (2026).
- The Labour Act 2017 gives 98 days of maternity leave (60 on full pay) and 15 days’ paid paternity leave. There is no statutory fertility leave.
- A fixed annual or lifetime allowance keeps the budget predictable, and allowing travel costs helps staff outside the Kathmandu Valley, where most clinics are.
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.
No Nepali survey measures how many employees hide fertility treatment from their employer, so the closest data comes from abroad. In Ferring’s 2025 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 for employees in treatment, and 60% said they were not clearly entitled to time off for appointments.
- Resignations. 39% of the same group had left or were considering leaving their jobs during treatment.
- Lower performance. 36% felt pressure from their employer to be at work during treatment, and 17% took sick leave because of a lack of flexibility.
- Unequal access. 25 of Nepal’s 42 assisted reproduction clinics are in the Kathmandu Valley, according to a lawyer quoted by the Kathmandu Post in August 2025. Employees elsewhere face travel and extra time off.
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. A written policy, paid time off and a funded allowance address some of the reasons employees in treatment leave.
Stand out in a tight labour market
73% of people with fertility challenges in Ferring’s 2025 survey said they would be attracted to a role that offers fertility support. In Carrot’s 2023 report, covering 5,000 people in Canada, India, Mexico, the UK and the US, 65% said they would change jobs for an employer offering fertility benefits. In June 2025, Nepal Bank Limited signed an agreement with Slavica IVF in Kathmandu giving its staff and account holders 10% to 20% off a range of services and up to 100% off specialist consultations.
Make fertility support financially predictable
Employers can set an annual or lifetime allowance, define which treatments and providers qualify, and cap spend per employee. We found no published medical cost trend for Nepal from Aon, WTW or Mercer.
Zora helps employers structure benefits around local treatment costs, eligibility rules and expected uptake, so HR can run the programme within an agreed budget.
Want to see what this would look like for your Nepali workforce?
What IVF costs, and what the state pays
No public scheme funds IVF, IUI or egg freezing. Koshi Hospital in Biratnagar began IUI for low-income couples in August 2025.
| Treatment | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| IVF, one cycle (reported range) | NPR 300,000 to 600,000 | Reported 2025 |
| IVF, Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital (government, Kathmandu) | About NPR 200,000 | Average, September 2026; in 2023 offered to women over 35 with blocked fallopian tubes |
| IUI, Paropakar | NPR 6,000 | 2023 fee; women aged 22 to 35 |
| Elective egg freezing | Not currently available | Supreme Court interim order in force since 19 August 2025 |
Sources: private cost from the Kathmandu Post, August 2025; Paropakar IVF average from ICT Frame, September 2026; IUI fee and 2023 eligibility from the Kathmandu Post, December 2023. Prices vary by clinic, medicines and the number of cycles.
| Item | Public support (or own savings) | What the employee still carries |
|---|---|---|
| Free places at approved centres | At least 10% of services free for people from impoverished communities | Most salaried staff are unlikely to qualify |
| Health insurance and the Social Security Fund | No published evidence found that either covers IVF | All treatment costs |
| Tax relief | No fertility-specific relief found | All treatment costs |
| Time off for appointments | No statutory fertility leave | Sick leave (12 days a year) or other leave |
Free places are required by the 2025 IVF standards (The Himalayan Times). Sick leave is set by section 44 of the Labour Act 2017.
Age is one of the strongest predictors of IVF success. Nepal has no national registry of IVF outcomes, so there are no local success rates by age. For comparison only, the Australia and New Zealand registry (ANZARD) for 2024 reports live births per egg collection in fresh cycles using a woman’s own eggs (excluding freeze-all cycles) of 31.4% under age 30, 28.7% at 30 to 34, 19.0% at 35 to 39 and 6.3% at 40 to 44.
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 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 Nepal:
- Are local-plan employees covered, or only staff on international health plans?
- Do you require an infertility diagnosis before support starts?
- Which IVF centres in Kathmandu and other cities do you work with, and can you confirm each holds Ministry of Health and Population permission under the 2025 standards?
- How do you handle egg freezing and donor egg requests while the Supreme Court’s August 2025 interim order on egg extraction and storage remains in place?
- How does your programme work alongside lower-cost services at Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital and the free places approved centres must offer?
- How do you collect consent for and protect reproductive health information under Nepal’s Privacy Act 2075, including any transfer of data outside Nepal?
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: NPR 3,758,333 to NPR 10,633,333 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 Nepal’s Privacy Act 2075 (2018), which protects health information and women’s reproductive health information.
Clinics and doctors in Nepal
Zora’s clinic and doctor directory does not list providers in Nepal 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 Nepal can still use Zora’s education and the Zora app. Ask us how your team in Nepal would use Zora before you launch. See Zora’s employer guides for every country.
Rules and eligibility in Nepal
Who can use assisted reproduction
Nepal has no Act of Parliament on assisted reproduction. National operating standards approved by the Ministry of Health and Population on 17 August 2025 require Ministry permission for IUI or IVF, and donors aged 20 to 35 who are screened, anonymous, not induced or pressured and, if married, have spousal consent (The Himalayan Times). Published reports do not say which patients are eligible. The egg donation rules stalled after the Supreme Court order (Kathmandu Post, April 2026). Surrogacy was halted by a Supreme Court injunction of 25 August 2015 and a Cabinet ban of 19 September 2015. A Supreme Court ruling of 14 July 2016 banned commercial surrogacy and ordered a law on altruistic surrogacy for Nepali nationals, described by Nepali Times as married couples with proven infertility; none existed in May 2026.
Egg removal and storage on hold
On 19 August 2025 Justice Tek Prasad Dhungana, sitting alone, issued an interim order telling the government to halt the removal and storage of eggs from women and adolescent girls until the writ is decided. It followed reports that a clinic had taken eggs from teenage girls. The Health Ministry told IVF centres to stop egg and sperm donation (Health Aawaj, July 2026). The case had 12 hearings and no verdict by August 2026 (Onlinekhabar, in Nepali), and we found no ruling or lifting of the order reported by 5 November 2026. Ask clinics in writing what they can lawfully offer before funding egg freezing or donor eggs.
98 days of maternity leave, 60 on full pay
Section 45 of the Labour Act 2017 gives 14 weeks of maternity leave, 60 days on full pay, plus up to a month unpaid on a doctor’s advice. A male employee whose wife is giving birth gets 15 days’ paid leave. A September 2026 government proposal for 6 months’ maternity and 42 days’ paternity leave (Kantipur) has not been reported as law. The Social Security Act 2017 set up the Social Security Fund’s medical and maternity schemes, funded by 31% of basic salary: 20% from the employer, 11% from the employee (Social Security Fund).
Discrimination and working patterns
Section 6 of the Labour Act 2017 bars discrimination on grounds including religion, colour, sex, caste, tribe, origin, language and ideological conviction. Marital status and pregnancy are not listed, though a pregnant employee may be moved to easier work with no cut in pay. Section 7 requires equal pay for work of equal value. A full-time employee cannot be moved to part-time work without consent (section 19). We found no statutory right to request flexible working.
Reproductive health information is protected
Under the Privacy Act 2075 (2018), also called the Individual Privacy Act, a woman’s reproductive health and pregnancy information cannot be disclosed without her consent (section 6), on pain of up to 3 years in prison, a fine of up to NPR 30,000, or both. Sharing health details, or personal data a company holds, also needs consent (sections 12 and 26). The Individual Privacy Regulation 2077 (2020) applies alongside the Act (B360). Nepal has no data protection authority (DLA Piper); in October 2026 the Supreme Court ordered an independent regulator and a dedicated law on sensitive personal data (Insurance Khabar, in Nepali).
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 Nepal?
No. The Labour Act 2017 has no fertility treatment leave. Employees usually use sick leave (12 days a year), annual leave or unpaid leave. Employers can offer paid fertility leave as a policy benefit.
Does the government or health insurance pay for IVF in Nepal?
No public scheme funds IVF, IUI or egg freezing, and we found no published evidence that national health insurance or the Social Security Fund covers IVF. Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital offers IVF at a lower fee (about NPR 200,000 on average in September 2026), and approved centres must give 10% of services free to people from impoverished communities.
Can employees freeze their eggs in Nepal?
Not at present. A Supreme Court interim order of 19 August 2025 halts the removal and storage of eggs from women and girls until the court decides the case, and we found no ruling reported by 5 November 2026. Check with clinics and take local legal advice before offering an egg freezing benefit.
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 Nepali 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 Nepali team. No obligation.
Not ready to talk yet? Explore how Zora works
Sources
- The Kathmandu Post, Experts call for legal framework on assistive reproductive technologies, August 2025
- The Kathmandu Post, Demand for IVF, IUI services in Nepal rises manifold, December 2023
- Kantipur, Operation of infertility clinic at Koshi Hospital, August 2025
- The Himalayan Times (RSS), Govt unveils fresh provisions to promote uniformity in infertility treatment, August 2025
- Himal Press, Health ministry approves IVF Standards to regulate infertility treatment, August 2025
- The Kathmandu Post, Supreme Court bans removal and storage of women’s eggs, August 2025
- The Kathmandu Post, Who is Nepal’s egg donation ban actually protecting?, May 2026
- The Kathmandu Post, Ban on surrogacy affects would-be same-sex parents, August 2015
- The Himalayan Times, No law on altruistic surrogacy despite Supreme Court directive, October 2018
- Nepali Times, Supreme Court verdict on surrogacy, November 2016
- Government of Nepal, Labour Act 2017 (2074), English translation via FAOLEX
- Pioneer Law Associates, Social Security Act 2017 (2074)
- Government of Nepal, The Privacy Act 2075 (2018), English text
- B360, Data privacy in Nepal, December 2022
- DLA Piper, Data Protection Laws of the World: Nepal
- National Statistics Office (CBS), Report on the Nepal Labour Force Survey 2017/18
- Radio Nepal, Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2022 unveiled, June 2023
- ICT Frame, Nepal Bank partners Slavica IVF, June 2025
- UNSW NPESU, Assisted reproductive technology in Australia and New Zealand 2024 (ANZARD), August 2026
- The Kathmandu Post, Nepal stops unauthorised IVF consultation camp by Indian doctors, April 2026
- Health Aawaj, Police investigate egg extraction from minors in breach of Supreme Court order (in Nepali), July 2026
- Onlinekhabar, Supreme Court says do not remove eggs, but teenage girls’ eggs are still being removed (in Nepali), August 2026
- ICT Frame, Paropakar Maternity Hospital expands digital systems and IVF services, September 2026
- Social Security Fund, Formal sector social security scheme (in Nepali)
- Kantipur, Proposal for six months of maternity leave for mothers and 42 days of paternity leave for fathers, September 2026
- Insurance Khabar, Supreme Court orders strict law and independent regulator for personal data privacy (in Nepali), October 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.