Stork options: Singapore’s IVF market sees patient demand amid birth dearth

Detailed summary

Facing high costs and competition, private healthcare sector could benefit from potential enhancements to government subsidies

Facing high costs and competition, private healthcare sector could benefit from potential enhancements to government subsidies

[SINGAPORE] More would-be parents are trying for babies with the help of modern medicine – and this is leaving the field wide open for operators in the fertility health segment.

In a 2024 report, consulting firm Kearney identified Singapore as “a prime example of a mature in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) market”, with widespread access and partial public funding contributing to a high penetration rate of more than seven cycles per 1,000 women.

Organic demand aside, a revamp of the government’s marriage and parenthood measures could also boost the fertility market and provide uplift to private healthcare players.

Fertility and maternal health are already issues under review by Singapore’s national Marriage and Parenthood Reset Workgroup, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah announced in October. That is as the country’s total fertility rate (TFR) fell to a historic low of 0.87 in 2025, from 0.97 in 2024.

The workgroup, which she chairs, is expected to release a fresh slate of policy recommendations in early 2027. When that happens, watchers are not ruling out enhancements to government subsidies that could widen patients’ assisted reproductive technology (ART) options.

Though Singapore-specific data is hard to come by, the value of the Asia-Pacific ART market is estimated to be in the billions of dollars.

One cycle of IVF at a public clinic could set would-be parents back by S$15,000 to S$18,000, while private facilities charge around S$20,000 to S$25,000. The Ministry of Health (MOH) disclosed in 2024 that IVF cycle costs at public hospitals rose by about 2 per cent each year in the decade prior.

The number of ART treatment cycles carried out in Singapore nearly doubled in the last decade or so – from 5,800 in 2013 to 10,500 in 2022, according to figures previously reported by MOH.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Business Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.