Department of Health

Assisted Reproductive Technology national consultation

Key messages

  • The national survey is now closed.
  • This consultation was to better understand people's lived experiences of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) services in Australia.

About the consultation

We sought to hear from people who have experience with fertility services in Australia. By this, we mean Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), and we include donor-conceived people. Feedback will help us make these services better.

Health Ministers agreed to recommendations made by an independent reviewExternal Link . We wanted to understand what works well and what we need to know to help us make these changes. And we know that an important way for us to understand is to ask people who have direct experience of ART.

The Victorian Department of Health led this consultation on behalf of all Australian Health Ministers.

We asked for feedback from people who:

  • have used ART/IVF services (including egg freezing) anywhere in Australia – including in a rural, regional or metropolitan area
  • have donated genetic material such as sperm, eggs or embryos
  • have supported someone who has used ART/IVF services
  • are a donor-conceived person.

This included people who used a public or private provider, and people who lived anywhere in Australia.

We ran a national survey, which closed on 31 March 2026. We are incredibly grateful to those who shared their experiences through this process.

We are currently running a limited number of focus groups in April 2026 for people who expressed an interest through a form, which closed on 6 March 2026. Participants were selected to capture a range of experiences and to support diverse representation across Australia, where possible.

Next steps

Findings will be reported to Australian Health Ministers in 2026. A summary report will be available later in the year.

If you have questions

If you have any questions, email the project team at ARTengagement@health.vic.gov.au.

This project has been approved by the Bellberry Human Research Ethics Committee (Registration ID 2025-12-2129) and complies with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2025. If you have a complaint or would like to speak to someone who is not from the project team about the project, you can email Bellberry Research Ethics office at Bellberry@bellberry.com.au.

Parts of the consultation that involve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants have been developed in partnership with the Victorian Department of Health's Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Division.

Reviewed 31 March 2026

Health.vic

In this topic

Contact us

ART Engagement Department of Health

ARTEngagement@health.vic.gov.au
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