Why would you go to Spain for fertility treatments?

We may be slightly biased here at Ovally, but the short answer is:

1. A much more relaxing experience
2. Significantly lower cost without sacrificing quality of care
3. Spain is a global leader in fertility (who knew?!)

1. A much more relaxing experience:

Fertility treatments are often physically, logistically, financially, and emotionally challenging. Even if you’re able to clear the financial hurdles and start treatment, you’re likely rushing to early morning appointments before work and hiding physical side effects, not to mention emotional ups and downs. What if there were a better way? A situation where you could relax and focus on your body, doing whatever, whenever you felt like it. You could explore Madrid and other famous Spanish cities, sites, and beaches on your own schedule, booking doctor’s appointments at your favored time of day instead of in between meetings.

2. Significantly lower cost without sacrificing quality of care:

It sounds almost too good to be true – but undergoing treatment in Spain tends to be a fraction of the cost in the US. Understandably, you might worry that the lower cost meant sacrificing quality of care and outcomes. However, the lower cost in Spain has to do with Spanish regulations that keep the pricing of both treatment and drugs down. Even taking into account the cost of flights, fertility treatment in Spain is an appealing financial proposition.

3. Spain is a global leader in fertility: 

When our founder told her friends that she was planning on freezing her eggs in Spain, many were surprised. They’d associated Spain with delicious tapas, Moorish architecture, and siestas in the sun, but not world-class fertility clinics. It turns out that Spain has more fertility clinics than any other European country – about 300 total. To give you a sense of scale, the US has 6.5x the population of Spain but is home to only about 460 fertility clinics. Some articles have reported that about 40% of all European fertility treatments take place in Spain.

Spain’s rise to a global leader in fertility has had much to do with its inclusive healthcare laws that have allowed patients to seek fertility treatment in Spain that they couldn’t access in their home countries. In 2006, Spain passed a law allowing single women, women up to 50, unmarried couples, and same-sex couples in addition to married heterosexual couples to take advantage of IVF and other reproductive technologies. In addition, Spanish law gives egg and sperm donors full anonymity, making egg donations more attractive to many donors as well as recipients. As a result, Spain has had consistently full egg donor banks while other countries have experienced shortages and long wait times.

With the patients and the increasing expertise came Spain’s breakthrough research advancements: A Spanish clinic pioneered the “embryoscope” that takes monitoring photos of a developing fertilized egg every 10min without having to remove the embryo once a day, as is the case with typical incubators (this may improve outcomes by 10%). Scientists at another clinic in Spain also introduced the flash-freezing technique for eggs that allows significantly more eggs to survive freezing compared to a slower freezing process.

However, not every Spanish fertility clinic has impressive outcomes and accreditations, extensive experience, a smooth setup for international patients, and a great location for travel. That’s why we’ve put our partner clinics through a stringent selection and vetting process.

 

 

 

 

 

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