Zora Health / Employer guide / Portugal
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 Portuguese HR leaders should know
- The SNS pays for up to 3 IVF or ICSI cycles for women under 40, and IUI under 42. Public IVF waits were more than a year between 2021 and 2024, the health regulator found.
- Since January 2025, the state has paid 90% of prescribed infertility medicines, up from 69%. Private IVF packages at two clinics we checked cost €2,995 to €9,600.
- Law 32/2006 has covered all women since 2016. People born from donation can learn the donor’s identity at 18, and surrogacy was still not working in practice in May 2026.
- Workers get 3 paid absences per assisted reproduction cycle for appointments (Labour Code Article 46-A). Fathers must take 28 days of leave after a birth.
- Aon projects a 10.0% gross medical cost trend for 2026. A fixed allowance caps the employer’s cost in advance.
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 survey of Portuguese employees in fertility treatment. In Carrot Fertility’s 2023 survey of 5,000 people in Canada, India, Mexico, the UK and the US, 79% said they were uneasy discussing fertility at work. In Portugal, the equality commission CITE received more than 2,000 notices in 2024 from employers planning to dismiss, or not renew the contracts of, pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding workers, parents on leave and carers (Lusa, via Observador, October 2025).
- Resignations. 39% of employees with fertility challenges left or considered leaving their job during treatment, in Ferring’s 2025 survey of more than 3,600 employees and employers in Australia, France, Japan, Poland and the UK.
- Lower performance. 55% said fertility challenges had hurt their work performance (Carrot, 2023).
- Long public waits and a hard age cut-off. In 2024, the president of the national PMA council (CNPMA) said women who turn 40 on the SNS waiting list are excluded at once (ERS, 2025; Lusa, July 2024).
- Unequal access by region. In 2024, mainland Portugal had 9 public and 17 private PMA centres, none in the Alentejo or the Oeste e Vale do Tejo; the Algarve and the Azores have no public centre. SNS patients needing donor eggs or sperm waited about three and a half years (ERS, 2025; DECO PROteste, February 2026; Lusa, July 2024).
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 remove some of the reasons people leave during treatment.
Stand out in a tight labour market
73% of employees facing fertility challenges said a role offering fertility support would appeal to them (Ferring, 2025), and 65% said they would change jobs for fertility benefits (Carrot, 2023). In July 2024, Merck made its fertility benefits programme, which includes egg freezing, available to employees in Portugal and their partners regardless of marital status or sexual orientation (SAPO 24, March 2025).
Make fertility support financially predictable
An annual or lifetime allowance sets the employer’s maximum cost in advance. Aon projects Portugal’s gross medical cost trend at 10.0% for 2026, as in 2025, and a net trend of 7.9% (Aon, 2026 Global Medical Trend Rates Report).
Zora helps employers set an allowance around local costs, SNS limits and insurance gaps, so HR can run the programme within an agreed budget.
Want to see what this would look like for your Portuguese workforce?
What IVF costs, and what the state pays
The World Health Organization estimates that about 1 in 6 people worldwide are affected by infertility; we found no national prevalence study for Portugal. In 2023, Portuguese centres ran about 5% more IVF, ICSI and related cycles than in 2022, 31.4% of them in the SNS, and 3,765 children were born after treatment, 4.4% of all births (CNPMA activity report, February 2026).
| Treatment | Setting | Reported cost |
|---|---|---|
| IVF, one cycle | Private, Ferticentro | €5,300 with 1 embryo transfer, medication excluded |
| IVF, three stimulations | Private, Ferticentro | €9,600, medication excluded |
| IVF, one cycle | Private, Ovom Care (Cascais) | €2,995 to €6,995 by package; the €2,995 package is only for women under 35 |
| Egg freezing | Private | €3,100 including 5 years’ storage, medication excluded (Ferticentro); €2,000 to €2,900 plus €250 storage (Ovom Care) |
| Infertility medication | Pharmacy, with prescription | Some products cost more than €400 (Portuguese Fertility Association, via Diário de Notícias) |
Sources: Ferticentro price list, consulted November 2026; Ovom Care price list, consulted November 2026. Ask clinics for current quotes.
| Item | Public support (or own savings) | What the employee still carries |
|---|---|---|
| IVF and ICSI | SNS pays for up to 3 cycles for women under 40 when the technique is done. Couples with more than one child in common are excluded, with some exceptions. | A wait of more than a year, and the full private cost from 40 |
| Ovulation induction and IUI | SNS pays for women under 42, with IUI capped at 3 cycles | Waiting time; private cost from 42 |
| Medication | Since 1 January 2025, the state pays 90% of the price of prescribed infertility medicines, up from 69% since 2009 (Portaria 300/2024/1) | The remaining 10% |
| Egg freezing | Free in the SNS for medical reasons such as cancer. Multicare, Médis and AdvanceCare exclude it. | Full cost of elective freezing and storage |
| Tax relief | IRS deduction of 15% of health spending, capped at €1,000 a year for all health costs combined | At least 85% of private costs |
Sources: ERS, October 2025, citing ACSS Circular Normativa 7/2023; Diário de Notícias, 25 November 2024; dnoticias.pt, February 2025; SAPO 24, March 2025; IRS Code, Article 78-C.
Age is one of the strongest predictors of IVF success. Employees who age out of SNS funding pay privately as success rates fall. In Portugal in 2023, a fresh ICSI cycle with the woman’s own eggs led to a birth in 12.3% of cycles started at 35 to 37 and 4.4% at 40 to 42 (CNPMA, 2023 data).
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 Portugal:
- Are local-plan employees covered, or only staff on international health plans?
- Do you require an infertility diagnosis before support starts?
- Which clinics do you work with in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, and how do you support employees in the Algarve, the Alentejo and the Azores, where there is no public PMA centre?
- How does the allowance work alongside SNS funding, for example for employees on the public waiting list, those over 40 and the 10% medication co-payment?
- Can single women and female couples use the benefit on the same terms as other employees, as Law 32/2006 allows, and does it cover donor gametes and elective egg freezing?
- How do you handle employee health data under the GDPR and Law 58/2019, 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: €112,750 to €319,000 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 Portugal’s application of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Law 58/2019, under which health data is special category data.
Clinics and doctors in Portugal
Zora’s clinic and doctor directory does not list providers in Portugal 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 Portugal can still use Zora’s education and the Zora app. Ask us how your team in Portugal would use Zora before you launch. See Zora’s employer guides for every country.
Rules and eligibility in Portugal
Who can use assisted reproduction
Since Law 17/2016, opposite-sex couples, female couples and all women regardless of marital status or sexual orientation can use assisted reproduction from 18, with or without an infertility diagnosis (Articles 4 and 6, consolidated text). In 2018, the Constitutional Court struck down donor anonymity (Ruling 225/2018). Under Law 48/2019, people born from donation can learn the donor’s identity at 18, and donations made before 7 May 2018 stay confidential unless the donor agrees (Law 48/2019). Since Law 72/2021, treatment after a partner’s death is allowed with that partner’s written consent, starting 6 months to 3 years after the death.
Egg freezing
Elective egg freezing is legal. Eggs and sperm can be stored for 5 years, renewable for further 5-year periods in justified cases (Article 16-A). In 2022, 631 of 864 egg freezing procedures had no medical indication (SAPO 24, March 2025). Since a March 2022 ACSS and DGS circular, the SNS preserves fertility for women with serious illness up to 40 and allows them to use the material for treatment up to 50 (Diário de Notícias, March 2022).
Surrogacy
The law allows unpaid surrogacy only in exceptional cases, such as the absence of a uterus or an illness that prevents pregnancy, with prior CNPMA authorisation. The Constitutional Court struck down earlier versions in 2018 and 2019 (Ruling 465/2019). In January 2024, the President returned the draft implementing regulation to the government without signing it (Lusa, January 2024). In May 2026, the Portuguese Fertility Association said surrogacy still had no consistent practical use for lack of a fully operational regulatory framework (Lusa, via RTP, May 2026).
Fertility appointments and parental leave
Under Article 46-A, the 3 absences per cycle count as time worked; the employer may ask for proof (Article 46-A; CGTP parenthood guide, 2024). Initial parental leave, paid by Social Security, is 120 days at 100% of reference pay or 150 days at 80% (100% if shared); the mother must take 42 days after birth. From 1 May 2023, the Agenda do Trabalho Digno raised the father’s compulsory leave to 28 days, plus 7 optional days, and gave both parents 3 days off without loss of pay after a pregnancy loss (Garrigues, 2023). On 16 October 2026, Parliament unanimously approved, in its final vote, a law paying initial parental leave of 150 days at 100%, or 180 days at 100% if shared, for leave starting from 1 January 2027; it does not apply to leave already under way, and in early November 2026 it was still awaiting promulgation by the President and publication in the Diário da República (Jornal de Negócios, October 2026; ECO, October 2026; Sábado, October 2026; HR Portugal, November 2026).
Equal treatment and health data
Article 24 of the Labour Code bars discrimination on grounds including sex, marital status, family situation and chronic illness (Labour Code, PGDL). Dismissing a pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding worker needs CITE’s prior opinion. Parents of children up to 8 have a right to telework where the job allows, except in microenterprises (PLMJ, 2021). Under Law 58/2019, health data at work must be processed by professionals bound by confidentiality (PLMJ, 2019).
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 Portugal?
There is no separate fertility leave, but Article 46-A of the Labour Code gives a worker 3 absences for appointments in each assisted reproduction cycle, counted as time worked. Other treatment days usually come out of annual leave or sick leave. Both parents can take 3 days off without loss of pay after a pregnancy loss.
Does the SNS pay for IVF?
Yes, within limits. The SNS pays for up to 3 IVF or ICSI cycles for women under 40 when the technique is done, and for IUI under 42. Couples with more than one child in common are generally excluded. Since January 2025, the state has paid 90% of prescribed infertility medicines. Waits for IVF were more than a year between 2021 and 2024, the health regulator found.
Can employees freeze their eggs in Portugal?
Yes. Elective egg freezing is legal, and eggs can be stored for 5 years, renewable for further 5-year periods. The SNS pays only for medical reasons such as cancer, and the main private insurers exclude it, so employees pay privately, about €2,000 to €3,100 plus medication at the clinics we checked.
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 Portuguese 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 Portuguese team. No obligation.
Not ready to talk yet? Explore how Zora works
Sources
- World Bank, Fertility rate, total (births per woman), Portugal, 2024
- World Bank (ILO modelled estimate), Labour force participation rate, female, Portugal, 2025
- Entidade Reguladora da Saúde, Study on access to medically assisted procreation, October 2025
- Entidade Reguladora da Saúde, Executive summary, access to medically assisted procreation, 2025
- Law 32/2006 on medically assisted procreation, consolidated text, PGDL Lisboa
- Law 48/2019 amending the regime on donor confidentiality, 8 July 2019
- Constitutional Court, Ruling 225/2018
- Constitutional Court, Ruling 465/2019, 18 September 2019
- dnoticias.pt (Lusa), President returns PMA regulation to the government, 13 January 2024
- Diário de Notícias, Infertility medicines co-paid at 90% from January, 25 November 2024
- Diário de Notícias, SNS widens PMA access for women with serious illness, 25 March 2022
- Notícias ao Minuto (Lusa), Parties call for wider access to assisted reproduction in the SNS, 25 September 2024
- dnoticias.pt (Lusa), SNS waiting list for fertility treatment with donor gametes is three and a half years, 2 July 2024
- RTP (Lusa), CNPMA data: 4.4% of births in 2022 after assisted reproduction, 24 September 2025
- DECO PROteste, Tratamentos para infertilidade, 26 February 2026 (opinion)
- Ferticentro, Pricing, consulted November 2026
- SAPO 24, Congelamento de óvulos, 8 March 2025
- Portal das Finanças, IRS Code, Article 78-C, deduction of health expenses
- Aon, 2026 Global Medical Trend Rates Report
- CGTP-IN, Guia da Parentalidade, June 2024
- Garrigues, Agenda do Trabalho Digno: main changes in force from 1 May 2023
- Labour Code, Article 46-A, absence for assisted reproduction appointments (Sabias Que)
- Labour Code, Article 24, equal access to employment and work, PGDL Lisboa
- PLMJ, Changes to the telework regime (Law 83/2021), December 2021
- PLMJ, 12 key points of Law 58/2019 implementing the GDPR, August 2019
- Observador (Lusa), Fertility association condemns dismissals of pregnant workers, 10 October 2025
- CNPMA, Relatório da atividade em PMA 2023, February 2026
- RTP (Lusa), Fertility association warns of omission of surrogacy in bill, 25 May 2026
- dnoticias.pt, Co-payment of PMA medicines reaches 90% in Madeira, citing Portaria 300/2024/1 of 25 November, 12 February 2025
- Ovom Care, Pricing (Portugal clinic, Cascais), consulted November 2026
- Sábado, PSD and PS approve extension of parental leave in working group, 13 October 2026
- Jornal de Negócios, Alargamento das licenças aprovado por unanimidade, 16 October 2026
- ECO, Já está aprovado alargamento da licença parental e jornada contínua para pais com filhos até aos 12 anos, 16 October 2026
- HR Portugal, Direito ao Essencial. Licença parental e jornada contínua: o que vai mudar?, 3 November 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.