Before booking fertility treatment abroad, ask for an individualized assessment, a complete cycle estimate and a plan for care at home. A quoted IVF price or success percentage cannot tell you whether a particular treatment fits your circumstances.
You may be considering care yourself or helping a family member prepare. Discuss how age and individual health affect assessment, eligibility and expected results. This guide helps prepare conversations about care in Mexico or Costa Rica. It does not recommend a clinic, establish eligibility or provide treatment instructions.
Click or tap to open a first-inquiry message you can adapt
Use this to start a conversation, then work through the full guide below. Send it directly to the practice, not to Fruitful Years. Delete anything that does not apply. Do not include records, ID or a detailed health history in a first message; ask how to share records securely. A reply does not establish that treatment or travel is appropriate for you.
I am considering an assessment for fertility care. Who would assess me and coordinate each stage, and at which facility? Which appointments require travel, and what remains provisional? Please send a complete estimate for one cycle, including medicines and, where relevant, storage, later transfers or further cycles, plus cancellation and refund terms. For any success figure, what outcome and denominator are used, which patient group does it describe, and what is the reporting period? How are cancelled cycles counted? How would monitoring, records and follow-up be coordinated with a clinician at home who has agreed to help?
Use the sections below to follow up on incomplete answers. An unanswered item is still unresolved.
Clarify the treatment and the travel plan
Ask which clinician assesses you, what can be discussed remotely and what requires examination or testing. Ask about alternatives and which decisions may change after assessment. Obtain a written outline of each stage, the appointments that require your presence, who supplies monitoring and how changes affect your stay. Do not assume one advertised trip covers an entire cycle.
Ask the treating team to coordinate with a willing clinician at home before paying. Confirm who provides monitoring, prescriptions, test interpretation and follow-up. Ask what happens if the cycle is cancelled, delayed or requires another trip.
Make success figures comparable
Ask for the outcome, denominator, reporting period and patient group behind any advertised percentage. A pregnancy rate is different from a live-birth rate. Results per embryo transfer can differ from results per cycle started or egg collection. Ask whether cancelled cycles are included.
- Are these results for people of your age and clinical circumstances?
- Are donor eggs and patients’ own eggs, and fresh and frozen transfers, reported separately?
- How many cases support the figure, and has it been independently checked?
- What does the result tell you, and what can it not predict for you?
Compare like with like. For example, label “per transfer” and “per cycle started” separately in your notes rather than placing the two percentages in one comparison column. Ask the clinician to explain uncertainty; a clinic average is not your personal chance of success.
Discuss risks before setting travel dates
Discuss the number of embryos proposed for transfer and the risks of a multiple pregnancy. Ask how the team monitors for ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), a reaction to fertility medicines, which symptoms require urgent assessment and how this could change travel plans. Obtain individualized instructions from the treating team.
Request the whole cost, including later decisions
Use our written-estimate checklist. Request an itemized written estimate. Ask which assessments, medicines, laboratory services, procedures and review appointments are included. Ask separately about donor services if applicable, freezing, storage, later transfers, additional cycles and cancellation/refund terms. Request the currency, payment dates and conditions that could change the estimate.
If an optional add-on is proposed, ask its exact name, the evidence relevant to your situation, potential harms, extra cost and what happens if you decline it. Paying more does not establish that an intervention improves your outcome.
Confirm who supplies medicines and whether prescriptions can be filled where you will be. Discuss storage and lawful transport with the clinician and pharmacist; use our medicine planning guide.
Check consent, storage and donor arrangements
Ask for understandable consent documents before committing. Discuss who makes decisions about stored eggs, sperm or embryos, storage duration and fees, renewal, loss of contact, withdrawal of consent and transport to another facility. Ask what happens if the clinic closes. If material may later be moved across borders, check both countries’ requirements and the receiving facility’s acceptance before committing.
Where donor treatment is involved, ask about screening, counselling, donor information, future access to identifying information and legal parentage. Eligibility and legal rules differ between countries and may require individual legal advice. Do not assume rules at home apply abroad. Surrogacy involves additional legal questions and is outside this guide’s scope.
Check the exact facility and country requirements
In Mexico, COFEPRIS facility-licensing guidance specifically includes ambulatory assisted-reproduction procedures. Ask for the exact facility’s relevant licence and responsible professional, and verify through the appropriate authority. A facility licence does not establish your eligibility, a clinician’s qualifications or a guaranteed result.
Costa Rica’s IVF facility standard, decree 39646-S, sets requirements for staffing, premises, equipment, documentation and safety. The official database shows the latest version and notes a 2025 amendment. Ask the Ministry of Health to confirm the exact facility’s current habilitación for the proposed service, and ask who is responsible for the IVF laboratory. This guide has not verified any clinic’s authorization or settled current eligibility, donor or parentage rules in either country.
Start with the Mexico or Costa Rica registration questions; check facility and professional information separately.
Agree support, urgent care and records
Ask who answers clinical questions after hours, where urgent assessment is available and how complications or extra care are charged, including after you return home. In an emergency, seek care where you are rather than waiting for an overseas reply. Discuss travel readiness with your treating clinician; an itinerary is not medical clearance.
Agree which records your receiving clinician needs and how they will be shared securely. Do not send medical records through this website. Confirm in writing whether your insurance covers the proposed treatment, related complications and emergency care. Obtain the facility’s complaint process and the appropriate local contact. Arrange emotional support and counselling if wanted, and ask about available support when a cycle does not lead to the hoped-for outcome.
Record the named clinician, stages requiring travel, full costs, consent/storage arrangements and agreed home follow-up in the Planning Care Abroad workbook. Resolve material gaps before paying.
Sources and scope
HFEA: fertility treatment abroad; HFEA: choosing a clinic and interpreting results; HFEA: treatment add-ons; HFEA: fertility-treatment risks; COFEPRIS: facility licensing guidance; Costa Rica PGR: 2025 IVF facility opinion; Costa Rica: IVF facility standard 39646-S, latest displayed version; CDC: medical tourism. Checked October 6, 2026. HFEA informs planning questions, not Mexican or Costa Rican law. No provider, price or clinical protocol is verified here; this guide has not been reviewed by a fertility specialist.
FREE PLANNING WORKBOOK
Keep your care-abroad questions together.
This workbook was developed for dental travel. Its proposal, budget and contact sections may help with other planned-care questions; ask your usual clinician which sections apply. It is a private planning record, not clinical instructions.
Fill it in on your device, or print it and write by hand. Keep completed copies private.