Reproductive, fertility or infertility tourism is the practice of traveling to other countries for fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, gamete procurement, or a host of other services.
There are many contributing factors and motives for reproductive, fertility or infertility tourism besides quality and cost.
Fertility treatments may not be legally available in the patient’s home country or availability may be limited. As an example, fertility treatments are simply not allowed for same sex or unmarried couples in Turkey, China or Indonesia
In Germany and Italy egg donation is illegal. There are also strict limits on the number of eggs that may be fertilised and on the number of embryos that can be used for implantation. This ultimately reduces the effectiveness of fertility treatment and the probability of a live birth in both of these countries
Certain fertility treatments like preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), used to choose the baby’s sex or to avert the risk of chromosomal deficiencies remains illegal in some countries where in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) may be allowed.
Surrogate motherhood is illegal in Italy, banned for commercial purposes in Australia, Spain and China and is allowed with restrictions in the United States, France and Germany. Commercial surrogacy.is completely legal in India.
Canada has notoriously long waiting lists for fertility treatments and in the UK, patients can wait for up to a year before receiving treatment. However, waiting periods are all but non-existent in countries like Hungary, Lithuania. Brazil, Bulgaria and Israel.