In this session, Özgü Özün, M.Sc. (Hons), Managing Director at Dünya IVF Center, Kyrenia, North Cyprus has been talking about the unique IVF regulations in North Cyprus that make it such an attractive destination for international IVF patients.
Özgü Özün is the managing director of Dünya IVF in Northern Cyprus and will explain the IVF regulations in Northern Cyprus to help patients simply understand the rules.
Before starting his presentation, Özgü Özün clarified that he would be talking about the assisted reproduction techniques regulation in Northern Cyprus that was last updated in June 2016. Therefore, that will be the basis of his presentation. He mentions this because the regulations can change and be updated at any time; thus, he will summarize parts of it to make it simple and understandable for patients.
Özgü Özün mentions some of the reasons he believes international patients go to North Cyprus for IVF treatment.
For this reason, the clinics are at a very high standard with their technologies and the know-how has grown significantly since IVF started there, a little over 15 years ago.
The availability of multi-ethnic donors without a waitlist is another big plus.
According to Özgü Özün, the value the patient gets for the cost that they have to incur is quite good. Özgü Özün thinks that the warm attitude and relations they have also pass on to the personal and friendly, patient service that they give to the travellers.
Patients can combine their treatment with a holiday. Özün’s clinic is based in Kyrenia, the Northern coast of Cyprus and a very tourist town. All the popular beaches and five-star hotels are quite close to the clinic.
The IVF regulation covers 3 main categories.
The physical infrastructure of the clinic. This talks about several topics, such as:
Personnel – It refers to the number of, for instance, nurses, and doctors that the clinic must have and the qualifications they must have to be working there.
Treatments and what’s possible.
There are quite a lot of treatments allowed in North Cyprus, such as the following:
Most countries in the world have this. Generally, the patient undergoes IVF treatment in their own country first before thinking of travelling abroad, so most of the time the patients that Özün has for IVF are from North Cyprus or patients that might have had several failed cases in their own countries, and then they think of going to the clinic in Cyprus.
According to Özgü Özün, the vast majority of patients travelling to North Cyprus are for donation treatments. That’s mainly for egg donation, where donor eggs are used.
People also travel for Sperm Donation, where donor sperm is used.
This is also allowed, which is a double donation. In this treatment, both donor eggs and donor sperm are used for the treatment.
This treatment can be added under certain conditions.
There is no maximum age limit in the regulation; however, women over 45 don’t need a permit, but from 46 and over, women will need a permit. These patients, in addition to the things required for them, they also need to visit the ethical committee, which takes place in North Cyprus. Thus, if you’re considered for further assessment, typically women over 55, aren’t accepted.
However, there is this possibility for motivated, for instance, 55-year-old women who want to have treatment to apply, yet it’s quite unlikely that a woman over 55 will be accepted. Nevertheless, it may be possible.
The regulation says it depends on the age and the prognosis, so the maximum is 3. However, if you’re a woman around 35, for example, and it’s your first time trying, then 1 is allowed. If you’re an older woman with repeated failures, then a maximum of 3 is allowed.
In Özgü Özün’s clinic, they recommend using only a single embryo transfer. Currently, the average number of embryos that they transfer is around 1.6, 1.7 per cycle for all prognoses.
The egg donation in Northern Cyprus is anonymous. So, it’s not possible to rebuild the identity of egg donors.
In Özün’s clinic has a little more strict rule. They don’t accept donors over 30 years old.
This could be anywhere in the world. There are several that are quite popular in Europe, but it doesn’t mean that they only have to use European Sperm Banks.
Özgü Özün highlighted Thalassemia, HTLV I/II, Cystic fibrosis, and Sickle cell because, generally, these are the ones required even though most of the sperm banks test all these, if not more, on a sperm donor. These are quite specific, especially Thalassemia.
Thalassemia is a big deal in Northern Cyprus, so patients should pay attention if they are bringing their own donor from abroad. They should choose a donor that has been tested. In some rare cases, there are some donor semen without Thalassemia testing done and then imported to Northern Cyprus, it’s not possible. In any case, Özgü Özün states they have a huge stock of semen in their laboratory from sperm banks, so they usually use those.
Embryo donation is a double donation. It’s the case where egg donation and sperm donation are used. This is allowed and called double donation in Western Europe. It shouldn’t be confused with embryo adoption because this is where a patient donates their surplus embryos that they don’t want to use to other couples. There is no mention of this in the regulations, and Özgü Özün doesn’t do this in the clinic.
In Northern Cyprus is allowed, and according to Özün, this is the case in most countries. However, something very interesting is oocyte freezing for social reasons is allowed. This is a very big deal for a woman who would like to preserve their fertility and use their own eggs later in life due to, for example, career or other personal reasons. Moreover, oocytes and semen can also be cryopreserved for medical reasons.
Embryos can also be frozen and thawed with both partners’ consent. What’s important to note is that after embryos are frozen, if the couple separates, then it’s not possible to use the embryos with only one of the partners’ consent. It has to be both because embryos are theirs, not only from one person. Embryos can be stored for up to 15 years, as mentioned in the regulation.
It should be noted that Surrogacy is only accepted for medical reasons. Generally, the guideline about what a medical reason is, would be:
Surrogacy is for heterosexual couples only, but marriage is not required. Moreover, it will not be accepted by the authorities if a couple already has a child, so unfortunately, patients generally find their surrogates, and they’re normally either family members or a surrogate from a surrogacy agency. Özün clarifies that the clinic doesn’t have surrogates and that they don’t arrange for surrogates, it’s the patient that finds their targets.
According to the regulation, surrogates must be between 21 and 40 years old. If the surrogate is married, consent from her partner is required. Another important point to note is, currently, in Norther Cyprus, a woman giving birth is considered the mother, meaning that on the birth certificate would be the person giving birth as the mother, therefore, the birth must happen in a country where there’s favourable surrogacy law. This means that the person giving birth will not automatically be the person on the birth certificate.
Something essential to know is that these regulations are from the clinic in Northern Cyprus. So, an embryo transfer can happen to a surrogate if it meets these requirements, but you should note that if, for example, you arrange a surrogate from an agency in a different country, you must also comply with the regulations of that country. For instance, if that country requires you to have a marriage, then you will have to be married even though it’s not required in North Cyprus.
It’s very important to check the country where the surrogate is going to give birth, and what are the rules there. For example, in Northern Cyprus, you can have surrogacy through egg donation as well as sperm donation, but in some other countries this isn’t possible, thus, you must check this.
My advice for you is to carefully check and even get advice from a lawyer in your destination birth country for surrogacy – suggests Özgü Özün.
PGD or PGS, genetic screening of embryos, is allowed. Gender Selection is also allowed for medical reasons. Typically, patients who assist with genetic screening have two main options:
The advantage here is that the patient only assists the clinic once, but the disadvantage is that only a limited number of chromosomes can be screened in this method. So, things like Down syndrome, trisomy, and XY. If you want to check all chromosomes, what Özgü Özün would recommend, generally, is PGS (PGT-A).
The genetic test takes about 2-3 weeks for the results to be released. That’s why the patient has to travel 2 times and go back for the embryo transfer about 2 months after the initial egg collection. The main advantage here is that all chromosomes are checked, so this is a huge advantage. In less common cases, in very specific situations, if a couple has a single gene disorder that they don’t want to pass on to their offspring, then the clinic can also offer this treatment.
Something that a lot of patients want to know more is about the import and export of human tissue. So, the regulation allows for semen, oocytes, or embryos to be sent or received from Northern Cyprus, but a permit is required for both directions.
What’s important here is that the clinic can receive or send human tissue anywhere in the world; however, like surrogacy, you must check your destination country’s regulations because if, for example, you have embryos in Northern Cyprus that were created with donor eggs, but the destination country doesn’t allow egg donation, then those embryos won’t be allowed by the receiving country. So, this is an important point, but generally, most of Özgü’s patients send donor semen or embryos to the clinic; thus, it’s not an issue they can apply and get a permit.
It usually takes 4 to 6 weeks, depending on how busy the authorities are. Then, they can accept your human tissue. Özgü Özün highlights that semen donors, in addition to the usual tests, must be tested for, Thalassemia, CF, HTLV I/II, and Sickle cell. This is something to pay attention to.
Another important question that patients ask about is, for instance, if they have had treatment somewhere else in the world and have frozen embryos, but because of time, their age has passed, the regulation in the country where they’re storing the embryos, the frozen embryo transfer ages like maximum 50, but they’re now 52, so they won’t be able to transfer their embryos in that country. In this case, the clinic can apply to bring those embryos, apply for a permit both for embryo import and for over 45, and then you can have your embryos at the clinic in Northern Cyprus or any other clinic. After this, an embryo transfer can be done.
You may be interested in reading: IVF in North Cyprus – costs, availability and legal aspects
There are a lot of things to take into account when it comes to the requirements for women over 45; however, Özgü will only discuss some of them.
Generally, you need a report from an internal medicine doctor and the cardiologist to say that you’re fit for pregnancy. The clinic will also be asking for blood tests and urine tests to make sure you’re safe for pregnancy. If all these are fine, the authorities will give you the permit; thus, it’s all about having good results in these and then you will have the permit.
Furthermore, patients from most countries can visit Norther Cyprus VISA-free. EU and Schengen countries and Turkish citizens can enter Northern Cyprus with just an ID, not even a passport is needed. However, everybody else will need to have a passport that’s valid minimum of 6 months.
VISA is only required for citizens of Syria, Nigeria, and Armenia. In addition, Pakistan citizens residing in Pakistan also need a visa, but if they’re not living in Pakistan, they don’t need a visa.
According to the IVF Abroad Patient’s Guide 2026 (IVF Media), “North Cyprus treats women to 58, with Ministry of Health approval required over 45 and an ethics committee review over 55”; single women and female couples are treated, and sex selection is allowed only to prevent a serious inherited disease.
There aren’t any sperm banks in Cyprus. The sperm that we have in our laboratory is from sperm banks from abroad, they’re the ones that you know. So, you’re asking if a non-anonymous donor can be used, yes of course. We can apply for any semen that you’re interested in that fits the categories that I mentioned, and then we will apply to our authorities, and, typically, they would give a permit for this.
We haven’t had a case like this yet. What I can tell you is, that even though it says storage is for a maximum of 15 years, you must have used it within 15 years. If you freeze in 2021, obviously you have to use them by 2036. We haven’t had such a case yet, but what I can tell you is our authorities are quite patient-friendly, so I think after 15 years we would make it a one-off application and ask their opinion if we can transfer if that many years have passed, and you still want to use your embryos.
I would say central Asian donors are possible. If the question is for Far Eastern, then I would say it’s very rare, so the waitlist would be quite long for that, but if the patient is happy with a similar match, like a Central Asian donor, then yes, it’s possible. If the donor is happy to share that information, then we can say what’s their nationality. I assume the question is for an egg donor, but if the question was for a sperm donor, then, of course. There are quite a few different Asian countries that are represented in the sperm banks, so we have them in our stock as well.
Yes, you can. The UK is in an orange category, and countries in orange can come into Northern Cyprus without quarantine if they are fully vaccinated. Orange countries are also German, Switzerland, and Austria. So, yes, they can.
Unfortunately, no because the egg donation program is anonymous, so this is not going to be possible. I would also advise our patients to have a look at our websites or the other clinics in Northern Cyprus, there is a lot of information there that will help them educate and if there is any question in their mind that’s not answered tonight or through the websites. Then please go ahead and send us a message and I will be able to answer those with you.
The main one is karyotyping, that’s where we check the chromosomes of the donors so that everything is normal. If any other genetic test is required by the patient, we can do more things depending on their genetic history or, even if they don’t have any genetic issues, they still want to have a bigger panel of things that they want to check on a donor, then we can add this on, and we can do a test, like a CGT for example that looks at many things, but this is not required. So, typically only if it’s asked, and we do the CGT, but the main genetic thing that we check is the karyotype.
No, there is no current discussion about this, and I don’t expect it to change anytime in the near future about this. It seems that this is going to be like this for a long time.
If it’s an additional test that is not done as a standard, then we would ask this from the patient, so the patient would pay for this genetic test.
According to the IVF Abroad Patient’s Guide 2026 (IVF Media), North Cyprus treats women to 58. Ministry of Health approval is required over 45, and an ethics committee review with the patient present is required over 55.
