During pregnancy | IVF

No, but you can ask your employer for time off. There is no obligation on the employer to provide time off for IVF treatment. If you are refused, you may want to ask for annual leave instead to attend appointments.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission Code recommends that employers treat requests for time off for IVF treatment sympathetically and that employers may want to establish procedures for allowing staff to take time off for IVF and fertility treatment.  These procedures may enable women to tell named members of staff, in confidence, that they are having treatment.

See also NHS guidance.

Your protection from pregnancy discrimination begins when fertilised eggs are implanted; it is only then that you are treated as being pregnant.  If the implantation fails, the protected period, during which you must not be treated unfavourably, ends two weeks later.

Last updated: 27 Mar 2017