Every year, many people from the UK travel to Cyprus, Greece, Czechia, Spain or Turkey for IVF. The reason is almost always cost: the HFEA puts the average UK cycle at about £5,000, often before medication, and the prices advertised abroad look far lower.
But the advertised price is rarely the whole bill. Medication, flights, a week or two in a hotel, time off work and scans before you travel can add thousands. Below we add it all up, country by country, and compare it with Fair IVF at Avenues: £2,949, in the UK.
What the advertised price often leaves out
- Medication. Stimulation drugs are often quoted separately abroad and can add hundreds to a few thousand pounds.
- ICSI, blastocyst culture and embryo freezing. Often listed as extras.
- Travel and accommodation. Usually two people, for 7 to 12 nights around egg collection and transfer.
- Time off work. For both partners, and at short notice, because collection dates move with your response to the drugs.
- Scans before you go. Monitoring scans in the UK while you stimulate, paid separately.
- Follow-up. If something goes wrong after you fly home, your care is in another country.
- Fewer appointment options. Clinics abroad are often closed at the weekend, or take long holiday breaks over the summer.
The full cost, country by country
We took the cheapest own-egg IVF price each country’s clinics publish, added the extras they list as compulsory (such as anaesthesia and screening tests), then added the lowest likely medication and travel. Even then, every destination comes to more than Fair IVF.
- Medication is usually extra abroad. Clinics’ own estimates run from about £250 to £1,250, and UK comparison sites say £1,000 to £2,500. We used £800.
- Travel for two, for 7 to 12 nights: flights from London (£200 to £600 return for two), a hotel and food come to about £900 to £2,500. We used £900. Collection dates move with your cycle, so flights are often booked late.
- Time off: around 5 to 9 working days for you and 2 to 4 for your partner. In the UK, treatment usually means 2 to 3 days off, plus short scan appointments.
- Embryo freezing is extra at most clinics abroad (about £270 to £940).
- Prices are per cycle and change often. Always ask a clinic for the full written cost.
This comparison is for a straightforward first IVF cycle with your own eggs: the treatment Fair IVF and these headline prices abroad are designed for. It isn’t a guide for more complex cases, such as low egg reserve, age over 37 or several unsuccessful cycles. There, costs are higher both in the UK and abroad, and the right plan depends on a consultant’s assessment. For those cases, Avenues offers IVF with ICSI at £9,979 and Impact IVF, a 3-cycle package for low ovarian reserve or older patients, at £18,949, with no age, BMI or AMH limits.
What Fair IVF includes for £2,949
Fair IVF is a fixed price for one cycle, for eligible patients from across the UK. It includes:
- Consultant-led care, nurse consultation and a dedicated patient coordinator
- Stimulation, trigger and luteal medication (up to the pregnancy test)
- Monitoring scans and bloods, egg collection and anaesthetic
- ICSI, with AI sperm selection, normally an added cost
- Blastocyst culture, time-lapse incubation and AI-guided embryo assessment
- One fresh embryo transfer, pregnancy test and early scan
- The HFEA fee
No flights, no hotel, and your scans and follow-up are with the same team.
Who qualifies: female partner under 35 (or up to 37 with the Fair IVF Extension, +£1,649), AMH over 10 pmol/L, BMI up to 35, no severe uterine abnormalities, fewer than two consecutive miscarriages, and male partner sperm count over 1 million/mL. With a BMI over 35, Fair IVF+ (the Higher BMI package) has the same criteria with no upper BMI limit, at £4,749 including ICSI and medication; above BMI 38 it adds a health screen and an obstetric review. The treating consultant makes the final decision. If Fair IVF isn’t right, Avenues has no age, BMI or AMH limits on its standard packages, such as IVF with ICSI at £9,979.
The rules differ by country
Who can be treated, and how, depends on the law where the clinic is. The UK regulator, the HFEA, has no powers over clinics abroad and can’t help if something goes wrong (HFEA).
| Country | Who can be treated | Donors |
|---|---|---|
| Turkey | Married couples only | Donor eggs, sperm and embryos banned (Legal 500) |
| Northern Cyprus | Set by each clinic; outside EU rules | Some clinics transfer two or more embryos (ClinicCheck) |
| Cyprus (Republic) | Women up to 50 | Anonymous (Mondaq) |
| Czech Republic | Heterosexual couples only; women under 49 | Anonymous (Expats.cz) |
| Greece | Up to 54 (approval needed over 50); single women and unmarried couples need a notarial deed | Mainly anonymous (Invitra) |
| Spain | Any woman over 18, whatever her relationship | Anonymous (Instituto Bernabeu) |
| Portugal | Single women and female couples included | Not anonymous since 2018 (ISPUP) |
| Poland | Couples only; single women and female couples excluded | Spare embryos can’t be destroyed (PET) |
| Denmark | Couples, female couples and single women; private treatment up to 46 | Anonymous or open-ID |
| UK | Set by the clinic; Fair IVF criteria above | Donors identifiable to the child at 18 |
In the UK, a single embryo is transferred in most cycles, and 3.2% of IVF births were multiple births in 2024 (HFEA). The HFEA calls twins and triplets the single biggest risk to the health of mothers and babies.
Questions to ask any clinic, at home or abroad
- What exactly is included, and what is extra? Ask for the full bill in writing.
- Is medication included, and if not, what does it usually cost?
- How many embryos do you usually transfer? Transferring more than one raises the risk of twins, which carries more risk for parent and babies.
- Who looks after me if something goes wrong after I fly home?
- Which regulator licenses you, and where can I see your published results?
The bottom line
Going abroad can still make sense, for example for treatment that isn’t available in the UK. But for a first cycle of IVF with your own eggs, for patients who meet the Fair IVF criteria, it costs less than the full bill in every country we checked, and you stay close to home.
Book a free 15-minute call to check whether Fair IVF fits you.
Prices: Fair IVF from avenues.life/fairivf, checked 4 Nov 2026. Prices abroad from each clinic’s own website on the date shown; they change, so check with the clinic.
Sources for the price chart (clinic pages, seen 4 Nov 2026): InviMed Warsaw 11,200 zł ICSI package · ISCARE Prague €2,950 + anaesthesia, catheter, screening · Cyprus IVF Hospital €3,750 · Newlife IVF Greece €3,860 · Aagaard Clinic €3,448 + €513 ICSI · Bahçeci $4,800 + $670 tests · Cryos IVF Clinic €5,200 · Ferticentro €5,300 · IVI from €5,350. Exchange rates: ECB, 3 Nov 2026. Medication estimates: North Cyprus IVF Centre, euroCARE, TreatCompare. UK average: HFEA.
Questions to ask any clinic
What exactly is included, and what is extra?
Ask any clinic for the full bill in writing. Abroad, medication, ICSI, blastocyst culture and embryo freezing are often listed as extras, and travel, accommodation and time off work add more. Fair IVF at Avenues is £2,949 with ICSI and medication included.
Is medication included, and if not, what does it usually cost?
Medication is usually extra at clinics abroad. Clinics’ own estimates run from about £250 to £1,250, and UK comparison sites say £1,000 to £2,500. Fair IVF includes stimulation, trigger and luteal medication up to the pregnancy test.
How many embryos do you usually transfer?
Transferring more than one embryo raises the risk of twins, which carries more risk for parent and babies. In the UK a single embryo is transferred in most cycles, and the HFEA calls multiple births the single biggest risk to the health of mothers and babies.
Who looks after me if something goes wrong after I fly home?
If you have treatment abroad, your care is in another country, and the UK regulator, the HFEA, has no powers over clinics abroad. With treatment in the UK, your scans and follow-up are with the same team.
Which regulator licenses you, and where can I see your published results?
In the UK, fertility clinics are licensed by the HFEA. Abroad, rules on who can be treated, donors and how many embryos are transferred depend on the law in each country, so ask which body licenses the clinic and where its results are published.