With cutting-edge technology, affordable pricing, and soaring success rates, Taiwan has quietly become Asia’s most compelling destination for fertility care.

Situated inside a sleek office building complex in Taipei’s Neihu District is the Stork Fertility Center, a private OB-GYN clinic encased in tinted glass with sliding doors that open into a spacious and warmly lit waiting room. The walls are lined with original artworks centered on motherhood, handpicked by the clinic’s director, offering a chic yet intimate sense of shared experience among those on the path to parenthood.

Taiwanese and international clients flock to Stork to receive state-of-the-art fertility treatment, including egg freezing and in vitro fertilization (IVF). At one point, the clinic’s website promoted the fact that “one out of every 14 IVF babies” in Taiwan was conceived at Stork.

Introducing the clinic, medical consultant Phoebe Tsai points toward the reception area, where a station is set up for clients to have their blood collected upon arrival. The sample is then sent to an in-house laboratory and tested for hormone levels – a process that takes less than an hour – allowing the doctor to enter the consultation with a patient’s hormonal profile already on hand.

Leading the way to the operating room, Tsai passes the embryo culture laboratory. Patients going into surgery can watch in real time as embryologists on the other side of a glass wall freeze eggs, transfer sperm, and check cell cultures, providing a fascinating window into the process of medically assisted reproduction. At the end of the corridor is a regular gynecology operating room. Here, egg retrievals and embryo transfers are performed under general anesthesia – the standard in Taiwan.

Convenience and comfort

As of 2024, Taiwan had 103 government-licensed medical institutions authorized to provide assisted reproductive technology (ART) services, including IVF. This figure encompasses both hospital-based fertility centers and private clinics, all regulated under the Assisted Reproduction Act and overseen by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Health Promotion Administration (HPA).

Stork Fertility Center is a well-established provider with branches in Taipei and Hsinchu. However, as more private clinics enter the market each year, they compete by offering cost-effective treatment, convenience, and flexibility, attracting local and overseas patients alike.

Fertility medicine has become a booming sector in Taiwan, driven by demographic trends like increased maternal age and advances in reproductive technology. Its popularity is reflected in the record number of 11,549 IVF births in 2022 – more than double the number a decade earlier. The number includes babies born through IVF procedures subsidized by the HPA’s fertility treatment program and births from privately financed treatments.

“In terms of technique, convenience, and speedy test results, Taiwan is probably the best place in Asia to get services on an individual case basis,” says Stork’s Tsai. Despite the overall strength of Taiwan’s service providers, private clinics remain ahead of the curve. “If you go to a big hospital [for fertility treatment], you have to go back for every single checkup. With us, that’s not necessary since we offer a remote consultation service.”

Each patient is paired with a dedicated medical consultant. For those living overseas, select diagnostic tests can be conducted locally where they are, while Taiwanese physicians manage treatment remotely, including prescribing medication dosages. To further enhance accessibility, many clinics provide consultation services in English as well as several Asian languages.

In addition to personalized care, Taiwan’s fertility clinics attract patients by offering affordability. The island is uniquely positioned to provide high-quality medical services at competitive prices. Procedures such as egg fertilization and embryo culturing cost roughly a third of what patients might pay in the United States, with some providers – such as the Taipei Fertility Center (TFC) – charging about half the global average.

According to the TFC, one of the first private fertility clinics to be established in Taiwan, Taiwan’s achievements in fertility medicine are another factor attracting patients. “Taiwan’s IVF embryo implantation rate has reached 36.7%, ranking second in the world, and the live birth rate was 35.8%, which is comparable to that of the United States,” it says.

Although the affordability of treatment – driven in part by cost-controlled medication – is a major factor in expanding access, it is also underpinned by comparatively lower wages for medical personnel than in countries like the United States or Japan, raising questions about the long-term sustainability and equity of the model. Nevertheless, the pricing structure has made procedures like egg freezing more accessible, transforming them into a lifestyle choice for many Taiwanese women.

Egg freezing as a lifestyle choice

“It’s a huge thing in Taiwan,” says Jennifer Woo, whose name has been changed to ensure anonymity. “Everyone around me has done it. It was one of those ‘why not?’ choices.” Woo froze her eggs at 34 years old.

Even while dating her now-husband, Woo saw egg freezing as a proactive step to preserve her fertility options. A Taipei-based tax consultant and dual citizen of Taiwan and the United States, she feels there are cultural differences between the two countries when it comes to egg freezing – with Taiwanese society having a more pragmatic and less judgmental approach to fertility treatments.

She notes that egg freezing allowed her not to rush into her marriage solely due to concerns about declining fertility. “To be able to have a clear mind when dating and knowing when you’re ready, financially and emotionally, to have a child is actually quite empowering as a woman,” says Woo.

Still, with a price tag of NT$120,000 (about US$3,700), egg freezing remains accessible primarily to more affluent individuals in Taiwan, where the minimum monthly wage is just over NT$28,000. On top of the initial cost, patients must also pay annual storage fees that can reach up to NT$10,000. While some cities and counties have begun introducing subsidy programs, these are often limited to cases deemed medically necessary, such as fertility preservation before cancer treatment.

Woo has not yet needed to use her frozen eggs. She conceived her son naturally at age 37 and, now 39, says she has no regrets about her decision. “It’s a great thing to know that I can still give my child siblings no matter my age.”

In addition, many overseas Taiwanese women return to access the service. In late 2022, K.K. Chiang, a Taiwanese American content creator based in New York, planned for a 14 day-stay to retrieve her eggs “as an insurance policy.” She opted for one cycle of egg freezing at the TFC, documenting every step in a travel vlog-style video for her YouTube channel.

“It didn’t feel like I was in a hospital,” she said in a video of her intake appointment. Between lab tests, she was seen in her video enjoying a bagel from the waiting room cafeteria while a personalized app alerted her to her next examination. Her takeaway: “It’s still a surgery, but the whole process is very relaxed.”

Legal obstacles

For many women, egg freezing offers a sense of control over their reproductive future. But in Taiwan, legal restrictions complicate that sense of autonomy. Under current law, IVF is available only to heterosexual married couples, regardless of nationality – a limitation that significantly narrows the options for  both unmarried and lesbian women who hope to use their frozen eggs.

A planned reform of this law has been stalled due to opposing voices from across Taiwan’s political spectrum, as reproduction reform is not strictly partisan. A 2022 study by National Taiwan University Hospital showed that only 8.4% of women who freeze their eggs in Taiwan ultimately end up using them. Marketing campaigns that frame egg freezing as an “insurance policy” for the undecided may be contributing to this low number. But the legal barriers to IVF are also a major factor. Single women who wish to use their frozen eggs must export them abroad to undergo treatment – a costly and logistically complex workaround necessitated by existing restrictions.

To facilitate this, some clinics are partnering with agencies specializing in the export of frozen eggs. But the process is neither quick nor cheap. Between agency fees and clinic administrative costs, patients can expect to pay an additional NT$50,000, and the transfer typically takes three to six months to complete, explains Tsai of Stork Fertility Center.

Regardless, Taiwan remains a popular destination for overseas patients. Stork has served over 3,000 foreign patients in the last 10 years. In 2024 alone, the clinic saw 353 patients from 14 countries other than Taiwan, making up 22% of its cases that year. More than half of these patients came from Hong Kong, followed by Japan, China, overseas Taiwanese, Macau, and Singapore.

The majority of these international patients travel to Taiwan specifically for IVF, rather than egg freezing. As domestic demand slows amid declining birth rates and a shrinking population, overseas IVF patients have become an increasingly vital source of growth for fertility clinics.

A 2019 presentation by the TFC estimated the value of Taiwan’s IVF market at NT$5.2 billion (about US$162 million). By comparison, global estimates for the IVF market in 2023 ranged from US$19 billion to US$25 billion, with projections suggesting that figure could double over the next decade. The Asia-Pacific region in particular is expected to see considerable expansion, with annual growth rates projected at around 7%.

In Taiwan, patients typically pay between NT$150,000 and NT$250,000 per IVF cycle, excluding the cost of donor material. While these fees are lower by up to 60% compared to those in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and Japan, Taiwan also boasts the highest implantation rate in the region. This combination of affordability and clinical success gives the island a distinct edge in the competitive fertility tourism market.

Cost and quality are not the only drivers that bring foreign patients to Taiwan. Nuwa Healthcare’s Director of International Medical Services and OB-GYN Dr. Cindy Chan cites legal restrictions in her patients’ home countries as another.

“Many Asian countries don’t allow donor eggs at all,” says Dr. Chan. “So then if those patients really do need to use donor eggs, they have to go outside of their country.” However, Taiwan doesn’t have such restrictions.

Another consideration for international patients is the availability of preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) in Taiwan. “We use this screening to find which embryo has a normal number of chromosomes and transfer it for a pregnancy,” she says. PGS can increase the success rates of IVF pregnancy, but the procedure is heavily regulated in China, Japan, and Singapore.

Nuwa Fertility Center is one of the newcomers in Taipei’s fertility clinic landscape. Founded just three years ago, it partners with the private Dianthus Medical Group, a high-end prenatal, delivery, and pediatric provider in northern Taiwan. The fertility clinic’s main branch is located right at the exit of the Da’an MRT station in the heart of Taipei.

American-born Dr. Chan regularly sees international patients, including those who fly in just for IVF treatment. “It’s pretty patient-friendly now,” she says. “We can actually set up your treatment cycle with your medications and have you take them back to start your medications in your home country, then just come back for the main procedure.”

Most of Nuwa’s foreign patients also come from other East Asian countries. However, Dr. Chan has seen even greater reach, with people flying in from Australia and the United States.

“It has been steadily increasing,” she says. “Almost 10% of our patients now are international patients. We hope to see it increase by at least 5% every year.”

The clinic is actively working toward that goal. Besides Japanese, English, and Cantonese support, Nuwa has recently added an Indonesian speaker to their medical consultant staff. In addition, doctors and nurses host outreach events, including talks and workshops, in places like Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines.

As Taiwan’s fertility sector continues to evolve, providers are embracing a more global outlook, reflecting shifting demographics, cross-border patient mobility, and diverse cultural expectations around reproduction. With legal reform still lagging behind clinical advancement, the country’s next challenge may lie not in expanding medical access but in ensuring the autonomy and equity of those who seek it.