It’s Tuesday afternoon. A message lands in your inbox: one of your team members needs Thursday morning off. One day’s notice, no reason given. It’s the third short-notice request this month. Her manager is starting to ask questions, and you’re not sure what to say.
It could be anything. It could also be IVF, and if it is, she probably won’t tell you.
According to the World Health Organization, around 17.5% of adults, roughly 1 in 6 people, experience infertility at some point in their lives. In any workplace of a meaningful size, someone on your team is probably affected right now, whether or not you know it.
HR doesn’t need to become a fertility expert to handle this well. What helps is knowing five things and having a simple plan. Both are below.
Most of what we create at Family By Choice is for people going through treatment. But again and again, the people I speak with point to one thing that made their journey easier or much harder: how their workplace responded. HR teams rarely get any guidance on this, so this article is for them. – Sanja
1. IVF is a process, not a day off
Most people imagine IVF as a single procedure. In practice, one full cycle usually takes around three to six weeks, according to Acas, and some people need more than one cycle.
Within each cycle there are daily hormone injections, frequent monitoring scans and blood tests, an egg collection under sedation, and an embryo transfer. Then comes the two-week wait for a result, which many patients find the most stressful stretch. If you’d like a clearer picture of what an IVF cycle involves, our course walks through it step by step.
For HR, the key point is timing. Appointments follow the body, not the company calendar. Monitoring scans are often booked only a day or two ahead, depending on how the ovaries respond, and the date of egg collection usually isn’t confirmed until shortly before. Short notice is built into the treatment itself.
Here’s what that looks like in practice. Most people inject hormones for around 10 to 14 days, and during that time they go in for morning scans and blood tests every one to three days, so the clinic can track how the follicles are growing. Each result decides the next appointment. When the follicles are ready, the patient takes a final “trigger” injection, and egg collection follows about 34 to 36 hours later, according to NHS patient guidance. So the date of the most important appointment is often known only a day and a half in advance.
And because success rates per cycle are lower than most people assume, more than one round is common. (Here’s how IVF success rates really work.) So, should HR plan for a process that can run over months, not a one-off absence? Yes.
2. Most employees won’t tell you, and that’s their right
In a 2023 survey by the CIPD, almost half of employees (47%) going through fertility challenges hadn’t told their manager or HR.
The reasons are easy to understand. Fertility is deeply private. It touches on bodies, relationships, hopes and grief. Some people worry it will quietly affect how they’re seen for promotions. Others simply don’t want to answer “Any news?” every Monday morning. And because IVF so often doesn’t work the first time, many prefer not to share something that may end in loss.
So HR’s job is to make support visible before anyone needs to ask for it. When a policy is easy to find and says plainly that no explanation is needed, people can use it and keep their privacy.
The same CIPD research found that 56% of organisations offering some kind of fertility support hadn’t told employees it existed. A policy nobody knows about can’t help anyone.
It matters for wellbeing too. A UK study by Payne, Seenan and van den Akker (2019) found that workplace policy on fertility treatment, and support from employers and colleagues, were linked to lower psychological distress. Yet fewer than a quarter of participants said their workplace had such a policy.
3. The rules differ by country, so know yours
There is no single global rule for time off for IVF. What your employee is entitled to depends on where they work, and sometimes on their contract. Before you write or update a fertility treatment workplace policy, start with the official source for your country.
| Country | What to know | Sources |
| United Kingdom | No legal right to paid time off for IVF appointments. Acas says employers should treat IVF appointments and related sickness like any other medical appointment or sickness. From embryo transfer, the employee has the same rights as a pregnant worker; if the transfer fails, that protection lasts 2 weeks after she finds out. From April 2027, the Employment Rights Act 2025 is due to add unpaid bereavement leave that also covers IVF embryo transfer loss. | Acas: IVF treatment; CIPD guide |
| United States | The EEOC’s 2024 regulation under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act lists fertility treatment among examples of “related medical conditions”, so employers with 15+ staff may need to offer reasonable accommodations such as time off for appointments. The EEOC’s chair has signalled the agency may narrow this, so check the current rule. | EEOC final regulation; HR Dive |
| Ireland | No statutory right to time off for fertility treatment, so employees usually rely on annual, sick or unpaid leave. A Labour Party bill proposing up to 10 days’ leave for fertility treatment has not been passed (as of 2026). Dismissal linked to IVF can be challenged at the Workplace Relations Commission: in 2025, a worker let go during IVF treatment was awarded €10,000. | Dublin People (2026); RTÉ (2025); Citizens Information |
| Canada | No federal leave specifically for IVF. Federally regulated private-sector employees can earn up to 10 days of paid medical leave a year under the Canada Labour Code; provincially regulated workplaces follow their own province’s rules. Human rights law can also require accommodation. In Ontario, for example, that can mean flexible hours or time off for treatment. | Government of Canada: Medical leave with pay; Lerners LLP: Ontario |
| Australia | The National Employment Standards include no specific leave for IVF. Employees usually use personal/carer’s, annual or unpaid leave. Personal leave is meant for illness or injury, so it doesn’t clearly cover every treatment appointment. | Fair Work Ombudsman; UNSW Law Journal (2018) |
| Denmark | The Equal Treatment Act protects employees from dismissal because of fertility treatment once actual treatment has started. In April 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that dismissing someone because of planned treatment can also be unlawful sex discrimination; the employer paid six months’ salary in compensation. | Ministry of Employment guidance (Danish); Bech-Bruun |
| Sweden, Norway, Finland | We couldn’t confirm a specific rule for IVF. Check with the national equality ombudsman or labour authority before relying on general leave rules. | National authorities |
The law only sets a minimum. Many employers choose to offer more, and a short written policy is the easiest way to do it.
4. The line manager is the moment that matters
You can write the best policy in the world, but the employee will experience it through one conversation: the one with their line manager.
When the CIPD asked employees what helped most, understanding from managers was one of the top three answers, alongside paid time off for appointments and paid compassionate leave. A kind, practical manager makes a hard time easier. A careless comment can stay with someone for years.
Most managers want to get it right. They just don’t know what to say. A few simple phrases help:
| Helpful to say | Better to avoid |
|---|---|
| “Take the time you need, we’ll sort the cover.” | “How many more of these appointments will there be?” |
| “You don’t have to tell me any details.” | “So what exactly is going on?” |
| “Would it help to adjust your hours or work from home that day?” | “Can’t you book it outside work hours?” |
| “I’m here if you want to talk, and I’ll keep it between us.” | “Any news yet?” |
| “I’m sorry. Take whatever time you need.” | “At least you can try again.” |
Many cycles don’t end in a pregnancy, and a failed cycle can bring real grief. Managers should be ready for that and know the employee may need time and quiet support afterwards. Our guide on when a cycle doesn’t work explains what people face at that point.
It can go wrong quickly. In a case decided in Ireland in 2025, an employer was initially supportive when a manager said she was starting IVF, but she lost her job after taking two weeks off for her first embryo transfer. The Workplace Relations Commission awarded her €10,000 for unfair dismissal.
There is a business case too. In the same CIPD research, almost one in five employees (19%) said they had considered leaving their job because of how their fertility challenges were handled at work.
5. It isn’t only women, and it isn’t only IVF
When people picture IVF at work, they usually picture a woman. But the WHO describes infertility as a disease of the male or female reproductive system, so the employee affected may just as well be a man.
A partner may attend scans and egg collection, give injections at home, and carry the same stress and grief. They may also have their own tests and treatment for male fertility issues. Yet partners are often left out of policies entirely.
The picture is wider still. Your employees may be building a family in many ways:
- LGBTQ+ employees may use donor eggs or sperm, reciprocal IVF or surrogacy. Explore LGBTQ+ paths to parenthood.
- Single parents by choice often go through treatment without a partner to share appointments.
- Donors need time off for their own medical procedures.
- Intended parents through surrogacy need flexibility around the pregnancy and birth, sometimes in another country.
A good policy is written so that all of these people can see themselves in it. We go deeper into this in supporting partners and men through fertility treatment and inclusive family-building policies.
A simple support plan you can start this month
You don’t need a big budget or a new team to support employees through IVF. Five steps cover most of what matters:
- Write a clear policy. Say what time off is available, that no medical details are required, and that it covers partners, donors and every family-building path.
- Make appointments flexible. Allow short-notice time off, shifted hours or remote work on treatment days, without asking for explanations.
- Train your line managers. Even a 30-minute session on what IVF involves and what (not) to say makes a real difference.
- Name a confidential contact. One trusted person in HR whom employees can approach quietly, without going through their manager first.
- Give access to trusted education. Employees and their partners make better decisions, and feel less alone, when they understand the process.
That last step is where we can help. At Family By Choice, we offer clear, compassionate online courses on IVF and every path to parenthood, created with fertility specialists. Your employees can use them privately, at their own pace.
We also have guides written for HR teams and line managers, on supporting employees through any fertility challenge: IVF, failed cycles, donor conception, surrogacy and more. They cover what to say, what to put in a policy, and how to protect privacy along the way.
Want to support your team better? Book a free consultation with us.
We’ll show you how Family By Choice works for HR teams, managers and employees,and why it can make a hard time easier for your people.
No obligation, just a conversation.
You won’t get every conversation perfect, and that’s okay. What people remember is that their workplace made a hard season a little easier.
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