IVF Holidays in Czechoslovakia

Like many North American couples that marry for a second or third time, Tom had a teenage son from a previous marriage and had had a vasectomy. Younger than Tom, Hana wanted her own children, so Tom underwent a vasectomy reversal, which alone can be costly. However, their doctor said they would still need to do IVF. When they were quoted a price of more than $10,000 for treatment in the United States, they were devastated. Like the couples we met in chapter 1, they knew Tom’s middle-class salary alone would not be enough to pay for treatment. Hana decided to visit a Czech clinic during one of her annual visits home. 52 | Virtual Communities and Markets Luckily, Hana’s first cycle of IVF led to the birth of twin girls. Buoyed by their success, Tom and Hana talked about helping other lowermiddle-class North Americans travel to the Czech Republic, where they could take advantage of the lower prices of Czech reproductive medicine. Four months pregnant, Hana began to make arrangements with several places of accommodation and the clinic where she had been treated. When Dr. R., head of the clinic, narrated the beginning of his relationship with IVF Holiday, he said Hana was very “wise” in creating her website, which she called “IVF Holiday.” Suddenly, patients diligently conducting research online would land upon this broker website, where they are greeted by a picture of Tom and pregnant Hana, the happy ending to their infertility story implicit from the first glance at her expanding belly. Images of postage stamps and European travel destinations adorn the background of the website, alongside pictures of beautiful castles, lush scenery, and the most effective testimonial of Czech IVF: a picture of Tom and Hana’s twins smiling at the bottom of their personal story. In the first few months of their business, Hana was approached by a woman, Petra, who was another Czech married to a North American. Petra proffered a partnership, which Tom and Hana declined. In May 2006, they were appalled to discover a website, “IVF Choices,” that mimicked their business model. Petra also worked with a clinic in Moravia. Like Hana, Petra networked with various hotels in Brno and contracted with an apartment her mother managed. Unlike Hana, however, she earned an exclusive contract with the clinic, which benefited tremendously from gaining foreign clientele. The sudden appearance of these two broker companies whose business models mirrored each other reflects the extent to which this medical tourism industry is highly competitive.


In January 2006, IVF Holiday trademarked its website and began arranging travel to Zlín, Czech Republic. The beginning was slow going until the company’s first clients gave birth; their successful cycle and testimonial propelled the business. By 2008, IVF Holiday was sending five to fourteen couples to the clinic each month, with business steadily growing for several years. The company advertised on Yahoo and Google and received national attention from news companies, anthropologists, blogs, and many patients. In these first few years, any North American couple that wanted to go to the Czech Republic for IVF had to use the services of IVF Holiday. Broker rates varied from $399 to $3,000, and couples could choose from different packages and services. Once the business had had enough successful cycles, clients provided testimonials, which became the mainstay in terms of advertising fertility tourism.