As a GP with a Diploma in Occupational Medicine, I write the letters that ask employers to make room for fertility treatment. As someone who has been through IVF while working, I know what it is like to take a 7.30am scan, then sit in a 9am meeting pretending the day is normal. This article is the reference version of what I tell patients: what the law says, what it does not, and what to ask for. The full legal guide, with the employer side and the templates, lives on OccuFertility: IVF time off work in the UK: rights and adjustments. This is the patient's version.
It covers England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland's employment law is similar but separate, so check with the Labour Relations Agency there.
Are you an employer or in HR? This page is the employee's version. For the employer side, OccuFertility has a guide to what a fertility leave policy should include, a workplace fertility check to score your current support, and a page for employers.
Is there a legal right to time off work for IVF?
No. As of 2026, UK law gives no specific statutory right to time off, paid or unpaid, for fertility treatment. IVF appointments are not treated like antenatal appointments, which do carry a right to paid time off.
That is the hard fact. The softer truth is that many employers do make arrangements, and Acas guidance encourages them to treat fertility appointments like any other medical appointment. Whether that happens depends on your contract, your employer's policy, and the conversation you have.
What you can ask for
- Time off for appointments, using whatever your workplace normally allows for medical appointments, annual leave, flexi-time, or unpaid leave. Ask which applies before your cycle starts.
- Flexible working. Since April 2024 every employee can request flexible working from the first day of a job, and can make two requests in any twelve months. The request can be temporary: for example, later start times during a stimulation cycle. Your employer must deal with it reasonably and respond within two months.
- Sick leave if the treatment makes you unwell. Side effects of stimulation drugs, recovery after egg collection, and the emotional impact of a failed cycle are all legitimate reasons for sickness absence. Normal sick pay rules apply, and a GP can issue a sick note (fit note).
- Adjustments through occupational health. If your employer has an occupational health service, a referral can turn a vague conversation with your manager into a written plan. Occupational health works on referral, so ask your manager or HR to make one.
- Your employer's fertility policy, if one exists. A growing number of organisations have them. Ask HR directly; policies are sometimes written but not advertised.
When are you legally protected?
Three protections matter, and they start at different points.
- Sex discrimination. Treating a woman unfavourably because she is undergoing IVF can amount to sex discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, at any stage of treatment.
- Pregnancy protection from embryo transfer. Once an embryo has been transferred, you are legally treated as pregnant. That brings the protection against pregnancy discrimination, including for absences related to the pregnancy. If the test is negative, the protection continues for two weeks after you find out.
- Protection for your partner. A partner attending appointments has no specific right to time off either, but unfavourable treatment linked to their partner's treatment may be open to challenge as discrimination by association, and many employers extend policy cover to partners. OccuFertility has a guide to partner support during IVF at work.
Do you have to tell your employer?
No. There is no duty to disclose fertility treatment. Plenty of people keep it private, and that is a valid choice.
But adjustments only become possible once someone knows something. The decision is not all or nothing. You can tell one person, tell them a little, or tell them the medical minimum: "I am having medical treatment over the next six weeks that involves early morning appointments I cannot move." That sentence is true, complete, and does not require the word IVF. I wrote a fuller framework for that decision in fertility treatment and work: what I wish I'd known.
What an IVF cycle actually needs from your week
Employers plan better with specifics, so here is a typical fresh cycle:
- Stimulation, 10 to 14 days: three to five monitoring scans, usually early morning, often at short notice.
- Egg collection: a full day off (sedation, no driving for 24 hours) and ideally the next day.
- Embryo transfer: a morning, sometimes a half day.
- The two-week wait: no appointments, but the hardest fortnight emotionally. Big presentations and performance reviews are best moved if they can be.
- A negative result: some people go straight back to work; some need days. Both are normal.
Frozen cycles are lighter: fewer scans and no collection day.
Sample wording for the conversation
If you want a script:
"I am going through fertility treatment over the next two months. It involves several early-morning appointments that the clinic sets at short notice, one full day for a procedure, and a half day about a week later. I would like to agree now how we handle that time, whether through flexible hours, leave, or a temporary change to my start time. I am happy for occupational health to be involved if that helps you plan."
If your manager wants something in writing from a clinician, that is what a GP letter or an occupational health report is for. Ask for it. Many people never do, because the route is not widely known.
If it goes wrong
If you are disciplined for absence linked to treatment, refused adjustments that were given to colleagues for other medical reasons, or treated worse after embryo transfer, get advice early. Acas runs a free helpline, and Working Families has a legal advice service. Keep a simple written log of dates, requests and responses from the start. It is rarely needed, and invaluable when it is.
Free tools I built for exactly this
The gap between treatment and work is why I built OccuFertility: a clinician-written toolkit, free for employees going through fertility treatment during the pilot, with letters for your GP, briefs for your manager, and templates for occupational health. Employers and HR teams can use the workplace fertility check to score their support against UK good practice. The legal detail in this article is kept current there: your legal rights during IVF at work.
I also cover this in audio. Chapter 12 of The UK Fertility Navigation Framework, Fertility at Work: Your Rights, is entirely about IVF and work: appointments, sick leave and occupational health. It sits alongside eleven chapters on the medicine, the UK system and the money.
Sources: Acas: IVF treatment and work; House of Commons Library: fertility treatment and workplace rights; GOV.UK: flexible working; Equality Act 2010.