Trying to conceive in Austria
Who the IVF fund pays for, who it does not, and where it usually goes wrong. The rules are narrower than most people expect - and they turn on details.
General information about the law and about funding in Austria. This is not medical or legal advice, and it says nothing about your chances. The details are time-sensitive.
What actually decides your situation
- The four diagnoses - and the one that is missing
- Tubes, endometriosis, PCOS - or male infertility
- What the fund covers
- 70% of the cost, up to 4 attempts per couple
- Age is measured at one precise moment
- Woman under 40, man under 50 - at the start of the attempt
- There is no claiming it back afterwards
- The contract centre bills the fund directly
- Who may be treated at all
- Only within a marriage, registered partnership, or cohabiting partnership
- Freezing eggs without a medical reason
- Legal from 1 April 2027 - not yet
That list is exhaustive. "Unexplained infertility" is not on it: if nothing is found in either of you, the fund pays nothing. The catch most people miss sits on the male side - idiopathic pathospermia counts, meaning two abnormal semen analyses taken at least four weeks apart. No cause, but a finding.
IVF-Fonds-Gesetz (IVF fund act) - consolidated versionThe remaining 30% is yours. Anaesthesia and add-ons often sit outside the tariff - that 30% is not the whole bill.
IVF-Fonds-Gesetz (IVF fund act) - consolidated versionThe start is the first prescription or administration of medication to the woman. Not the first consultation, not egg retrieval, not transfer. The day before her 40th birthday is fine; the day after is not.
IVF-Fonds-Gesetz (IVF fund act) - consolidated versionYou normally file no application at all. Which is exactly why paying yourself and reclaiming later is impossible. Start outside the fund route and the money for that attempt is gone for good.
IVF-Fonds - information and the brochure "Wir möchten ein Baby"Single women are excluded from medically assisted reproduction in Austria. Two women in a registered partnership or cohabiting partnership do have access.
Fortpflanzungsmedizingesetz (Reproductive Medicine Act) - consolidated versionThe Constitutional Court struck the ban down in October 2025, but with a deadline: it stands until the end of 31 March 2027. So "Austria has legalised social egg freezing" is true - just not yet. Freezing with a medical reason, before cancer treatment for instance, has long been allowed.
Constitutional Court G52/2024 - social egg freezing ban struck down, effective 1 April 2027How it usually goes
Order matters more here than almost anywhere else - several of these steps only count if they happen before treatment begins.
- 1Investigation with a gynaecologist or - for the man - a urologist or andrologist. You need no referral to see a specialist
- 2The diagnosis must exist before treatment starts. A diagnosis made later will not rescue the attempt
- 3Contact a contract centre - the centre itself decides whether the conditions are met
- 4Medical counselling, at least 14 days before treatment. You cannot validly waive this waiting period
- 5Not married, or using donor sperm? Then it needs a notarial deed
- 6The treatment contract, then the treatment
- 7Report the outcome within three months - or the fund reclaims its share from you
What it costs
- Your share with the fund
- 30% per attempt - roughly €1,100–€1,350 depending on treatment and age
- What the fund never pays for
- Insemination (IUI), and the provision of donor sperm or donor eggs
- Without the fund
- One centre publishes €4,860 for an IVF/ICSI cycle (excluding anaesthesia and freezing)
Treat this number with care: the tariffs rose on 1 July 2026, and the only published source for the new figures is the centres’ own price lists - the ministry has not published them. Ask your centre for the current amount rather than relying on a number from here.
IVF-Fonds - information and the brochure "Wir möchten ein Baby"Not even when the IVF around it is funded. Anaesthesia and add-ons frequently sit outside the tariff too.
IVF-Fonds - information and the brochure "Wir möchten ein Baby"Most Austrian centres publish no private prices at all. That is why this is a single figure and not a range - a range would be guesswork.
IVF/ICSI costs - published private prices of a contract centreWhere people come unstuck
The diagnosis the law does not have
The IVF fund recognises exactly four grounds: infertility in the woman caused by the tubes, by endometriosis, or by PCOS - or infertility of the man. That is the whole list.
A couple whose every test comes back normal receives nothing. This is not an oversight; the law requires at least one of those grounds to be present.
The way through that few people know: "no cause found" only rules you out at the level of the couple. On the male side the fund explicitly accepts idiopathic pathospermia - two abnormal semen analyses at least four weeks apart. So if you have been told "unexplained" without two semen analyses having been done, the question is not actually settled.
Every frozen transfer burns one of your four attempts
This surprises nearly everyone: a cycle using embryos frozen during an earlier, completed attempt counts as an attempt of its own. Four can run out faster than the number suggests.
There is one exception. If an attempt is stopped for medical reasons after egg retrieval and those frozen embryos are used in the next cycle, the two count as one.
If an attempt does end in a pregnancy, entitlement to four further attempts revives.
The notification that costs four figures
You have to report the outcome of the attempt to the fund - and any birth. Miss that by three months and the fund reclaims the share it paid.
It is pure paperwork with four-figure consequences, and it is the one step in this process that nobody reminds you about.
Female couples: access is not the same as funding
Two women in a registered partnership or cohabiting partnership may be treated - that has been settled since 2015.
But the fund only pays if one of the three female grounds applies to the woman who intends to carry the child. "Infertility of the man" has nobody here to refer to.
So a female couple with no female-factor diagnosis receives nothing at all. And the provision of donor sperm is never covered regardless.
Whether a married female couple is covered is left open by the statute - it names only registered partnership and cohabitation, and was never updated after marriage equality. That is a question for a lawyer, not for us.
The formalities that can sink a treatment
Unmarried couples need a notarial deed for consent; married couples using their own gametes do not. The moment donor gametes are involved, everyone needs one.
That notarial deed may be no more than two years old at the moment of transfer.
Medical counselling must happen at least 14 days before treatment. Waiving it has no legal effect - so the wait cannot be shortened even if everyone is in a hurry.
If you are privately insured, the insurer’s consent must be in place before the attempt begins.
Where the centres are
There are 28 contract centres in Austria - 7 public and 21 private (as of April 2026).
They are unevenly spread. Lower Austria and Carinthia have no public contract centre. Burgenland has exactly one centre in total.
Nobody in Austria publishes waiting times - not the ministry, not the centres. Anyone quoting you a number has guessed it.
Next step
- Understand how the Austrian system works
- Prepare for an appointment
- See the health ministry’s list of contract centres
- Call 1450 - free health advice, around the clock