Zora Health / Employer guide / New Zealand
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 New Zealand HR leaders should know
- New Zealand’s total fertility rate fell to 1.55 births per woman in 2025, the lowest December-year rate on record (Stats NZ).
- Public IVF requires a clinical priority score of 65 out of 100 plus age, BMI, smoking, residency and existing-children rules, and Auckland’s Fertility PLUS service reported a 9 to 10 month wait for a funded cycle in May 2026.
- Private IVF at Fertility Associates costs NZ$15,815 to 19,135 per full cycle including medication (July 2026 fees), and elective egg freezing is self-funded at about NZ$14,050 for a first cycle.
- There is no statutory fertility leave. Paid parental leave runs up to 26 weeks at a maximum of NZ$811.05 a week from 1 July 2026, and any employee can request flexible work for any reason.
- A fixed annual allowance, set against these private prices, keeps the employer’s budget predictable while covering what public funding leaves out.
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. We found no New Zealand survey on how many employees keep fertility treatment from their employer. In a 2023 Carrot Fertility survey of 5,000 people in Canada, India, Mexico, the UK and the US, 79% said they felt uncomfortable discussing fertility openly at work.
- Resignations. 39% of employees in Ferring‘s 2025 survey of more than 3,600 people in Australia, France, Japan, Poland and the UK had left or were considering leaving their job during fertility treatment.
- No clear time off. 60% in the same survey were not clearly entitled to time off for fertility appointments.
- Waiting lists. Te Toka Tumai Auckland’s Fertility PLUS service reported a 9 to 10 month wait for a funded IVF cycle once eligibility is confirmed (Healthpoint, updated May 2026).
- Uneven access. Funded treatment requires a woman’s BMI of 32 or under, non-smoking status and limits on existing children, and rules differ by region (Fertility Associates).
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. Combined Australia and New Zealand live birth rates per egg collection fall from 28.7% at ages 30 to 34 to 19.0% at 35 to 39 (ANZARD 2024), often the years when employees move into senior roles. 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
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 January 2025, fleet leasing firm Custom Fleet announced five days of paid reproductive health leave a year, covering fertility treatment among other reasons; the announcement appears on its New Zealand website but does not say which countries the policy covers (Custom Fleet).
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 provide guidance and education so employees understand their options before they spend.
Zora helps employers structure benefits around local treatment costs, the law and workforce needs, so HR can run the programme within an agreed budget.
Want to see what this would look like for your New Zealand workforce?
What IVF costs, and what the state pays
Health New Zealand funds fertility treatment for people who meet its Clinical Priority Assessment Criteria (CPAC), which score the chance of pregnancy with and without treatment (1News, 2023). A specialist scores each patient out of 100, and 65 points are needed to qualify (Fertility Associates). Public funding covers up to two packages of treatment, and patients must meet the criteria again before a second package (Repromed). Everyone else pays privately.
| Item | Typical private price (NZ$) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| IVF or ICSI, full cycle including medication | 15,815 to 19,135 | Four medication tiers; excludes donor fees and add-ons such as PGT-A |
| Frozen embryo transfer | 3,225 | Base fee per transfer |
| IUI, per cycle | 2,595 plus up to 500 medication | Fertility Associates fee sheet |
| Elective egg freezing, first cycle | 14,050 | Includes medication and 6 months of storage; second cycle 11,235 if started within 6 months |
| Egg storage, 12 months | 490 | 5-year prepaid storage 1,625 |
Sources: Fertility Associates, fertility treatment fees, 15 July 2026; Fertility Associates, egg freezing pricing, from 1 November 2025. Prices include GST and change over time; other clinics set their own fees.
| Item | Public support (or own savings) | What the employee still carries |
|---|---|---|
| IVF for people who meet CPAC | Up to two funded treatment packages, with criteria reassessed for the second. Woman under 40 at referral, BMI 32 or under, non-smoker, resident or 2-year work visa, limits on existing children | The wait, time off and any further cycles |
| IVF for people below the CPAC threshold or outside the criteria | None; own savings (not a subsidy) | The full private price, about NZ$15,815 to 19,135 per cycle |
| Elective egg freezing | None; own savings (not a subsidy) | About NZ$14,050 per cycle plus yearly storage |
| Tax relief | We found no tax relief for fertility treatment | Not applicable |
Sources: Fertility Associates, public funding and eligibility; Repromed, public funding; Fertility PLUS, Te Toka Tumai Auckland, via Healthpoint, updated May 2026; Repromed, public funding FAQs; NZ Herald on egg freezing costs. Criteria vary by region; check the patient’s local service.
Age is one of the strongest predictors of IVF success, alongside individual medical and treatment factors. ANZARD does not publish New Zealand-only results by age; across Australia and New Zealand in 2024, the live birth rate per egg collection (fresh cycles, own eggs, excluding freeze-all cycles) was 28.7% at ages 30 to 34, 19.0% at 35 to 39 and 6.3% at 40 to 44 (ANZARD 2024).
Funded referral closes at 40 and the Auckland wait for a funded cycle was 9 to 10 months in May 2026, so employees in their late 30s often choose between waiting and paying privately, 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 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 clinics in New Zealand on the Zora app include Fertility Associates Wellington, Fertility Associates Remuera, Auckland and Fertility Associates Hamilton.
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 New Zealand:
- Are local-plan employees covered, or only staff on international health plans?
- Do you require an infertility diagnosis before support starts?
- Which New Zealand clinics can employees use, and is there access outside Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch?
- How does the benefit work alongside publicly funded treatment, for example while an employee waits for a funded cycle or after funded cycles are used?
- Can the allowance be used for elective egg freezing and storage beyond the first year, within the HART Act 10-year limit?
- How is employee health information handled under the Privacy Act 2020 and the Health Information Privacy Code 2020, 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: NZ$338,250 to NZ$957,000 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 New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020, with health information also covered by the Health Information Privacy Code 2020.
Clinics and doctors in New Zealand
Zora’s directory lists 14 clinics and 37 doctors in New Zealand. Locations include Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton. Of these clinics, 6 list IVF and 4 list egg freezing.
Employees can browse clinics in New Zealand, see IVF clinics and find a doctor in New Zealand 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 New Zealand
Who can use assisted reproduction
The Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2004 governs assisted reproduction; donors since 22 August 2005 are identifiable to donor-conceived people at 18 (Fertility Associates). Surrogacy is allowed on a voluntary basis only, and a reform bill was before Parliament in July 2026 (The Spinoff, July 2026). In the Auckland and Northland region, single women and lesbian couples can be referred for funded treatment if they have a clear biological cause of infertility or are not pregnant after at least 12 cycles of donor insemination; criteria differ by region (Repromed). Section 21 of the Human Rights Act 1993 lists marital status and sexual orientation as prohibited grounds of discrimination.
Egg freezing and storage
Using frozen eggs has been an established procedure since 2009 (ACART); elective freezing is self-funded (NZ Herald). Section 10 of the HART Act limits storage of eggs, sperm and embryos to 10 years unless ECART approves an extension applied for before the period ends. In 2026 the Government agreed to a policy review of section 10; the Associate Minister of Health proposed that it consider a 20-year initial storage period for material taken from people under 16, and the Government said removing the need for ECART approval of extensions should be considered (Government response, Cabinet paper).
Parental leave, but no fertility leave
Eligible parents can receive paid parental leave payments for up to 26 weeks, at a maximum of NZ$811.05 a week before tax from 1 July 2026 (Inland Revenue, HRD). Partners may be eligible for up to 2 weeks of unpaid partner’s leave (Employment New Zealand). There is no statutory fertility or IVF leave.
Flexible work and discrimination
Employees can request flexible working at any time and for any reason. Employers must reply in writing within one month and can decline only on eight business grounds (Employment New Zealand). The Human Rights Act 1993 prohibits discrimination on grounds including sex (including pregnancy and childbirth), marital status and family status (Human Rights Act 1993, section 21).
Employment and privacy law updates
Since 21 February 2026, under the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026, employees earning NZ$200,000 or more a year generally cannot raise a personal grievance for unjustified dismissal unless the employment agreement includes a written term opting back in. A 12-month transition protects employees already in their role before that date who are dismissed before 21 February 2027 (legislation.govt.nz, Employment New Zealand). From 1 May 2026, new privacy principle IPP 3A covers information collected from third parties (Privacy Commissioner), and Amendment No 2 to the Health Information Privacy Code took effect the same day (Privacy Commissioner).
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 New Zealand?
No. New Zealand has no statutory fertility or IVF leave. Paid parental leave payments of up to 26 weeks apply after a birth, and employees can request flexible working for any reason, but time off for treatment depends on employer policy, sick leave or annual leave.
Does the public health system pay for IVF in New Zealand?
Health New Zealand funds treatment for people who score at least 65 out of 100 on the Clinical Priority Assessment Criteria and meet rules on age, BMI, smoking, residency and existing children. Funding covers up to two treatment packages, with the criteria checked again before the second. Others pay privately, about NZ$15,815 to 19,135 per full IVF cycle at Fertility Associates in July 2026.
Is elective egg freezing funded or allowed in New Zealand?
Elective egg freezing is legal and self-funded. Public funding covers fertility preservation only for medical reasons, such as before cancer treatment. A first private cycle at Fertility Associates costs about NZ$14,050, and storage is limited to 10 years under the HART Act unless ECART approves an extension.
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 New Zealand 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 New Zealand team. No obligation.
Not ready to talk yet? Explore how Zora works
Sources
- Stats NZ, Births and deaths: Year ended December 2025
- UNSW NPESU, Assisted reproductive technology in Australia and New Zealand 2024 (ANZARD), August 2026
- Fertility Associates, Public funding and eligibility
- Fertility Associates, Fertility treatment fees, July 2026
- Fertility Associates, Egg freezing pricing, November 2025
- Fertility Associates, The HART Act
- Repromed, Public funding
- Repromed, Public funding for fertility treatment: FAQs (updated October 2025)
- Repromed, Public funding eligibility
- Healthpoint, Fertility PLUS, Te Toka Tumai Auckland (updated 25 May 2026)
- 1News, Calls to change BMI requirements for publicly funded IVF treatment, August 2023
- NZ Herald, The steep costs of egg freezing in New Zealand
- ACART, Advice to the Minister of Health on use of frozen eggs in fertility treatment, March 2009
- Ministry of Health, Government response to Petitions Committee report on the petition of Ann Chapman, 2026
- Ministry of Health, Cabinet paper: Government response on HART Act storage petition, 2026
- The Spinoff, Are New Zealand’s outdated surrogacy laws finally set to change?, July 2026
- Inland Revenue, Paid parental leave rate from 1 July 2026
- HRD New Zealand, New Zealand hikes paid parental leave payments to $811.05 per week, 2026
- Employment New Zealand, Types of parental leave
- Employment New Zealand, Responding to a flexible working request
- Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026, legislation.govt.nz
- Employment New Zealand, Dismissal rules for high-income earners
- Human Rights Act 1993, legislation.govt.nz
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Information privacy principles
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Health Information Privacy Code 2020
- Custom Fleet, Reproductive health leave policy, January 2025
- 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.