IVF and fertility
The one number that matters, and how often it is inflated.
Fertility is the area of medicine where quoted success rates are least comparable between clinics. An independent read on your own odds is worth more here than almost anywhere.
Two things decide whether treatment in India makes sense for you. Whether you are eligible under Indian law, which has specific rules for international patients. And what your realistic chance of a live birth is, for your age and your diagnosis, at the specific clinic being proposed.
We answer both before anyone talks about a price, and we are paid the same whichever way the answer goes.
Eligibility first
Indian law sets who can be treated, before any clinic does.
This is the part most international patients discover late, and it is the reason we check it before anything else.
Generally available to international patients
- IVF, ICSI and IUI, subject to documentation, age limits and marital status rules under the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act 2021
- A medical visa, and marriage documentation, are normally required
- Diagnostic workup and second opinions on an existing treatment plan
- Fertility preservation, subject to the same regulatory framework
Not available, and we will say so immediately
- Surrogacy. Commercial surrogacy is prohibited, and surrogacy is not open to foreign nationals. There is no arrangement, no workaround and no clinic that can lawfully offer you one. Anyone who says otherwise is a reason to walk away.
- Unrestricted donor gamete use. Donor gamete rules are tightly controlled and were further restricted by amendment in 2024. What is permitted depends on documented medical need.
- Anything that depends on your marital status or circumstances falling outside what the Act recognises
The number that matters
Success rates are quoted in ways that are not comparable.
This is not an accusation against Indian clinics. It is true of fertility clinics everywhere, and it is why an independent reading is worth buying.
Per cycle, or per transfer, or per patient?
The same clinic can quote three very different numbers depending on what it divides by. A rate per embryo transfer looks far better than a rate per cycle started, because cycles that never reach transfer disappear from the denominator.
Pregnancy, or live birth?
A positive pregnancy test is not a baby. The number that matters to you is live birth rate, and it is always the lower of the two.
For everyone, or for someone like you?
Age is the single largest driver of outcome in fertility treatment. A clinic average across all patients tells you very little about your own chances, and a rate banded by age and diagnosis tells you a great deal.
With your own eggs, or donor eggs?
Blending the two inflates a headline figure substantially. Ask for them separately, every time.
Ask any clinic for live birth rate, per cycle started, banded by age, with your own eggs, for the most recent complete year. A clinic that has the number will give it to you. That request alone tells you a great deal.
An honest note on fit
Fertility does not fit our usual model, and we would rather say so.
Most of what we coordinate is a single operation with a defined recovery. Fertility is not that. It is often several cycles over many months, with monitoring between them, and it can involve returning more than once.
So the ninety days of care coordination that sits at the centre of everything else we do maps onto fertility awkwardly. We will be straight with you about that rather than pretend the same package fits.
What does transfer completely is the independent second opinion. Whether the plan you have been offered is the right one, whether your odds have been described honestly, and whether another cycle is reasonable, are questions you can act on wherever you choose to be treated.
Where we are most useful
- You have been offered another cycle and want to know if the odds justify it
- Your quoted success rate does not match your age and diagnosis
- You are weighing India against treatment at home, and want the real total cost
- You need to know whether you are eligible at all before spending anything
Questions
What people ask about fertility treatment abroad.
Can you arrange surrogacy?
No. Surrogacy is not available to foreign nationals in India and commercial surrogacy is prohibited outright. We will not arrange it, will not introduce anyone who claims they can, and would treat such an offer as a reason to end the conversation.
Am I eligible for IVF in India?
Often yes, subject to documentation, age limits and the marital status rules in the ART Act. It depends on your specific circumstances, and it is the first thing we establish rather than the last. If the answer is no, you find out before you have spent anything on travel.
Will treatment be cheaper than at home?
Usually, and the saving is real for multiple cycles. But count the whole thing: flights for each visit, accommodation across a monitoring cycle, time away from work, and the possibility of needing to return. We model that before you commit, and sometimes the honest answer is that it does not add up for you.
How many trips will this take?
It depends on the protocol and on how your body responds, and any clinic giving you a confident number before starting is guessing. This is one of the main reasons fertility is harder to coordinate remotely than a single operation, and we will not understate it.
Who looks after me between cycles?
Your own doctor at home, and that needs agreeing before you start rather than after. Fertility treatment involves monitoring and medication that continue between visits, so the handover matters as much here as it does after surgery.
Start with your eligibility and your real odds.
Twenty minutes, free. If you are not eligible, or the odds do not justify it, that is what you will hear first.