How Do Brazilian Fertility Regulations Compare to US State Laws?
The comparison between Brazilian and US fertility regulation comes up regularly in our consultations, usually from patients who’ve done their homework and want to understand what the differences actually mean for the care they’d receive. It’s a reasonable thing to look into before choosing where to pursue treatment, and we walk through it often enough that we have a clear way of framing it.
At Chedid Grieco, we’ve operated within both the Brazilian and American regulatory frameworks for more than 30 years. Our consultations happen in Miami and treatment takes place at our FDA- and NYDH-licensed facility in Sao Paulo. If you’re exploring fertility tourism and this is one of your open questions, here’s how we typically cover it.
How Brazil Oversees Fertility Clinics
When patients ask how our Sao Paulo clinic is held accountable, the first thing we explain is that Brazil’s approach runs through a medical ethics body rather than through legislation. The Federal Council of Medicine, or CFM, issues binding clinical resolutions that govern what we do: documentation we’re required to maintain, which procedures we’re authorized to perform, and the conditions under which each is permitted. Brazil hasn’t codified this into statutory law the way some US states have, but the CFM’s authority over clinical practice is genuine and applied uniformly across the country.
The practical result is that a fertility clinic in Sao Paulo answers to the same framework as one anywhere else in Brazil. Patients we’ve seen who’ve received care at more than one Brazilian clinic often notice that consistency. On the question of eligibility, the CFM is direct: single individuals and same-sex couples are explicitly included, which patients in non-traditional family-building situations typically ask about before committing to travel.
Which Procedures Are Available
Patients asking this question want to know whether they’d have access to the same range of treatments in Brazil that they’d have at home. Egg donation, embryo cryopreservation, and preimplantation genetic testing are all within what the CFM framework allows, each with documentation and ethical review requirements built in. We go through whichever of these applies to a specific patient’s situation during the consultation. What Brazil doesn’t have is a mandate requiring insurance coverage for fertility care, which matters for cost planning even if it doesn’t affect clinical access.
How US Fertility Care Is Regulated
What we hear most from patients who’ve tried to navigate fertility care within the US is that the regulatory picture is more variable than they expected. Regulation of assisted reproduction is split across multiple federal agencies: the FDA handles donor tissue oversight, the CDC tracks and publishes clinic outcomes through the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, CMS covers reimbursement standards. These agencies operate under different mandates and there is no single body that sets unified clinical rules for how fertility clinics across the US must operate.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine has identified access as among the most persistent challenges in US fertility care. Coverage for in vitro fertilization is required by law in some states and entirely absent in others. Rules around embryo disposition, surrogacy, and donor anonymity vary by state in ways that catch patients off guard. We hear about this regularly from patients who assumed the rules were consistent nationally and discovered otherwise mid-process.
Where the Two Systems Diverge
When patients ask us which system is more straightforward to work within, the honest answer is Brazil, for the specific reason that there is one standard and every clinic in the country answers to it. The US produces a mix of state laws, federal agency mandates, and professional guidelines that interact differently depending on where a patient lives, and even experienced providers sometimes have to work through those interactions carefully.
For most patients who are doing this research seriously, cost is also part of what they’re comparing. IVF cycles in Brazil come in considerably below US pricing, and that gap holds up after accounting for travel in most situations. The ethical and legal aspects of assisted reproduction in Brazil are also more clearly settled in certain areas, particularly around donor gametes and embryo use, which removes a layer of uncertainty that some US patients encounter when trying to plan.
What Our Licenses Reflect
Chedid Grieco holds FDA licensing and a New York Department of Health tissue license, placing us among a small number of facilities outside the United States with that combination. Our licenses and associations exist because we’ve built the clinic to meet both frameworks, not just the one where treatment takes place. For patients specifically looking for a facility that is accountable to US-recognized standards in addition to Brazilian ones, that’s what the licensing represents.
Whether you’re just beginning to sort out how the regulatory side works or you’re ready to take the next step, our team can walk you through what treatment at our Sao Paulo facility involves. Contact us to schedule your consultation in Miami.
