Lower costs, an established fertility sector and Greece’s reproductive laws are attracting patients from around the world — including a growing number of Americans.

When Emilie and Justin Solomon traveled from Florida to Greece in the summer of 2024, their family and friends thought they were taking another European vacation.

They were actually beginning IVF treatment in Athens.

Between medical appointments, the couple spent a weekend on Milos, where they rented a boat and explored the island. They returned to Greece several months later for an embryo transfer.

This summer, they welcomed a baby boy.

Their experience, recently chronicled by The Washington Post, puts an American face on a phenomenon that has been developing in Greece for years: people are increasingly crossing borders for fertility treatment, and Greece has emerged as one of the countries attracting them.

According to the Post, the number of Americans choosing European fertility clinics increased by more than 37 percent last year, citing figures from the European Fertility Society. Greece and Spain are among the destinations drawing particular interest.

For many Americans, the attraction begins with a simple calculation: cost.

The Solomons said they were quoted $40,000 for a single round of IVF in Florida. Their treatment in Greece — including medication, fertilization, embryo storage and the eventual transfer, but not their travel expenses — cost approximately $12,000.

The Post reports that IVF in Greece using a patient’s own eggs typically costs about $3,000 to $4,000 before medication.

Even after airfare and accommodation are added, the difference can be substantial.

But Greece’s rise as a fertility destination goes well beyond price.

A substantial IVF sector already exists in Greece

Official figures from Greece’s National Authority for Medically Assisted Reproduction show the scale of the country’s fertility sector.

Greek clinics reported 23,083 IVF cycles in 2023 and another 21,988 in 2024. The authority cautions that the 2024 figure is incomplete because data from all assisted-reproduction units had not yet been incorporated.

A treatment cycle is not the same as an individual patient — one person may undergo multiple cycles — but the figures demonstrate the volume of assisted reproductive care taking place in the country.

European figures provide another indication of Greece’s prominence.

A 2025 fact sheet from the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, using the latest comparable European data available in that report, identifies Greece along with the Czech Republic and Estonia as having the highest availability of assisted reproductive technology in Europe, with more than 2,900 treatment cycles per million inhabitants.

The same report says that more than 5 percent of babies born in Greece in the data examined were conceived through assisted reproductive technology.

There is also striking evidence of how international the Greek fertility sector has become.

According to statistics released by Greece’s national assisted-reproduction authority, 2,427 foreign-national patients received donated eggs in 2024. In 2025, the number was 2,472.

Those figures should not be interpreted as a count of fertility tourists. Foreign nationals may live in Greece, and the authority does not currently maintain comprehensive statistics showing how many patients travel to the country specifically for treatment.

That missing information is important.

Ismini Kriari, president of the National Authority for Medically Assisted Reproduction, acknowledged the lack of firm national figures in an interview with Kathimerini earlier this year.

What Greek authorities do know, she said, is that patients are arriving from numerous countries, often because fertility treatment is more restricted or expensive at home.

“Greece has become a country where infertile individuals from five continents come to have children,” Kriari told the newspaper.

Individual Greek clinics report a substantial foreign clientele as well.

One major Athens fertility center told Kathimerini that it receives between 800 and 1,000 women from abroad annually and has treated patients from 69 countries. A Thessaloniki clinic estimated that 50 to 60 percent of its patients come from outside Greece.

Those are figures supplied by individual clinics, not independently compiled national statistics, but they offer another indication of the international demand.

Greek law is part of the attraction

Greece’s legal framework for assisted reproduction also plays a role.

Under legislation adopted in 2022, medically assisted reproduction can be provided to women up to age 54. Women older than 50 and up to age 54 require authorization from Greece’s National Authority for Medically Assisted Reproduction.

The country also has an established system of egg donation, an area in which differences in availability and regulation can influence where patients seek treatment.

These considerations can be especially important for people who have exhausted options in their home countries or face significant waiting periods, restrictions or costs.

Kathimerini reported in March on several women who repeatedly traveled to Greece for IVF.

One British woman living in the United States said each cycle she underwent in Athens cost around $5,000 including medication. It ultimately took five rounds of treatment and seven trips to Greece before she became pregnant.

Another patient, a Canadian nurse, calculated that airfare, five weeks in Greece, accommodation, meals and her fertility treatment would cost roughly what another IVF cycle alone would have cost in Canada.

For her, the calculation was not entirely financial. She told Kathimerini that even if the treatment failed, she and her husband would at least have shared an experience in Greece rather than simply undergone another unsuccessful cycle at home.

When medical travel becomes a trip to Greece

That intersection between medical treatment and travel is becoming part of the story.

The Solomons underwent the demanding process of hormone injections, egg retrieval and embryo transfer, but they also found themselves swimming in the Aegean and exploring Milos between appointments.

One Athens fertility clinic interviewed by The Washington Post said it even helps international patients arrange airport transportation and island excursions.

It is easy to see how the term “IVF vacation” emerged.

But the phrase can also trivialize what patients are actually going through.

IVF can be physically demanding, emotionally exhausting and financially punishing. Success is never guaranteed. Traveling abroad adds another set of considerations, including choosing and evaluating a clinic, understanding another country’s regulations, transferring medical records and coordinating care between physicians thousands of miles apart.

The Washington Post also highlighted concerns raised by American fertility specialists about patients having difficulty assessing overseas clinics, transporting temperature-sensitive medications or obtaining complete medical records after returning home.

Greek experts have raised oversight concerns of their own.

Kathimerini’s investigation noted that Greece’s fertility sector has expanded faster than the collection of national data about international patients. Legal experts interviewed by the newspaper argued that continued growth needs to be matched by strong oversight of clinics, donors and reproductive material.

That distinction matters.

Greece’s growing popularity for IVF should not be confused with a guarantee of outcomes, nor should fertility treatment be marketed as simply another reason to book a Greek holiday. Patients considering treatment abroad still need to evaluate individual clinics, physicians, success rates, regulations and their own medical circumstances carefully.

What is increasingly difficult to dispute, however, is that Greece has developed a significant position in international fertility care.

The country combines a large assisted-reproduction sector, substantially lower costs than those faced by many American patients, an established egg-donation system and a legal framework that allows treatment in circumstances that may be more restricted elsewhere.

And then there is Greece itself.

For someone already preparing to travel thousands of miles for treatment, recovering between appointments in Athens or spending a few quiet days beside the Aegean may make an extraordinarily difficult process feel different from undergoing it at home.

That does not turn IVF into a vacation.

It does help explain why, when patients begin looking beyond their own borders for the possibility of having a child, Greece is increasingly appearing on the map.