Reciprocal IVF (ROPA) for Female Couples: Where It's Legal and What's Required

Reciprocal IVF, often called ROPA (reception of oocytes from partner), lets two women share a pregnancy in a specific way: one partner's eggs are retrieved and fertilized with donor sperm, and the resulting embryo is transferred to the other partner, who carries the pregnancy. Legally, it sits at the meeting point of three bodies of law that vary country by country: who may receive fertility treatment, how donor gametes are handled, and who the law recognizes as the child's parents.

This guide sets out what we could verify from official and legal sources for eight countries, as of October 2026, and marks plainly where we could not. Treat every row below as a starting point for questions, not as legal advice.

How ROPA works, and why the law treats it differently

The UK fertility regulator, the HFEA, describes the process clearly: eggs are collected from one partner, fertilized with donor sperm taken from storage, and usually one embryo is transferred two to five days later to the partner who will carry the pregnancy¹.

The legal complications come from the fact that the egg-providing partner is not a typical patient and not a typical donor. Depending on the country, the law may treat her as:

• Part of the treated couple, so her eggs are simply the couple's own gametes;
• An egg donor, which can trigger rules on donor anonymity, donor screening and donor compensation that were written for strangers; or
• Outside the law entirely, where treatment is limited to a man and a woman.

The HFEA also notes a practical point that surprises many couples: in the UK, the partner whose eggs were used has the final say over the embryos, including storage consent, and can withdraw consent up until transfer. The carrying partner cannot make those decisions¹. Other countries allocate embryo control differently, so ask about it wherever you go.

Country-by-country summary table (as of October 2026)

Sources are cited in the country sections below. "Not confirmed" means we could not verify the point from an official or legal source for this guide, not that the answer is no.

Spain: open access, anonymous donors, and a parentage step

Spain's assisted reproduction law, Ley 14/2006, is the most cited reason couples choose it. Article 6 says any woman over 18 with full legal capacity can be a recipient, regardless of her marital status and sexual orientation². That wording is why female couples and single women can access treatment without a male partner.

Article 5 governs donors. Donation must be anonymous, cannot be commercial, donors must be over 18 and in good health, and no more than six children born in Spain may come from one donor². For ROPA, the anonymity rule is the reason clinics care about how your relationship is documented: the egg-providing partner is obviously not anonymous to the carrying partner, so the clinic needs a basis for treating her eggs as the couple's own rather than as a donation. Ask the clinic to explain, in writing, what documents it requires (marriage certificate, registered partnership certificate, or neither) and why.

Parentage is handled separately. The official BOE record for Ley 14/2006 shows that Article 7, on filiation, was modified in 2007 and that Article 7.3 was modified again in 2015². Spanish legal commentary on "doble maternidad" also discusses how the second mother is entered in the Civil Registry³. Because these provisions have been amended more than once, read the current consolidated text with a Spanish family lawyer, and ask specifically whether the non-gestating partner must sign anything before the birth, and before whom.

Portugal and Greece: confirm the current rules directly

Portugal

Portugal amended its medically assisted procreation law in 2016 (Lei n.º 17/2016), and the official text is published in the Diário da República⁴. We were not able to verify the current wording on ROPA, donor identity or how the second mother's parentage is established for this guide, so every Portugal cell in the table is marked "not confirmed."

If Portugal is on your shortlist, ask the clinic three things in writing: whether it performs ROPA and under which article of the law, whether your donor sperm will be identity-release or anonymous under current Portuguese rules, and what both partners must sign for the non-gestating partner to be recorded as a parent at birth. Then have a Portuguese lawyer confirm the answers; our Portugal IVF overview covers the practical side.

Greece

Greece legalized same-sex marriage in February 2024⁵. Marriage law and assisted reproduction law are separate statutes, though, and we could not verify from an official source whether Greek fertility law now allows female couples to receive treatment together, whether ROPA is permitted, or how the second mother's parentage would be established. Everything in the Greece row beyond marriage is therefore marked "not confirmed."

Ask any Greek clinic to name the legal provision that allows the treatment it offers you, and confirm with a Greek lawyer before paying a deposit.

United Kingdom: consents before treatment decide parentage

The UK is the clearest jurisdiction we checked, because the regulator states the parentage rules directly. The person who gives birth is always the child's legal mother, even when her partner's eggs were used. If the couple is married or in a civil partnership, the partner automatically becomes the other legal parent at birth. If the couple is not married, the non-carrying partner does not automatically become a parent, and both partners must give consent before treatment takes place¹. This applies to anyone who gives birth, including trans men and non-binary people.

On screening, the egg-providing partner needs the same tests as any IVF patient, including HIV and hepatitis B and C. Enhanced screening of the kind used for unknown egg donors was a legal requirement until November 2024; since the law changed, clinics are no longer legally required to perform it¹. The HFEA also maintains a broader guide for LGBT+ patients⁶.

If your donor sperm is coming from an overseas bank, note that a clinic in Great Britain importing from outside the UK needs that import authorized under its importing tissue establishment certificate, and only the clinic, not the patient, can apply to the HFEA for special permission if the import does not meet the standard requirements⁷. For UK residents weighing treatment abroad, see UK patients and IVF abroad.

Czech Republic: limited to a woman and a man

Czech law is the clearest "no" in this list. Under Act No. 373/2011 Coll. on Specific Health Services, artificial insemination is performed on the written request of a woman and a man who intend to undergo it together, defined in the English translation as an "infertile couple"; the request must be no older than six months, and consent must be given again before each procedure⁸. The same act requires mutual anonymity between donors and the couple, and limits the recipient to women who have not exceeded 49 years of age⁸.

Under that wording, neither ROPA nor any treatment for a female couple fits. The text we read is an English translation hosted on a Czech government site, so check whether it has since been amended before ruling the country in or out.

Mexico and Colombia: what we could and could not verify

If a clinic in either country offers you ROPA, ask it to show you the legal basis. What we could not find, within the research for this guide, was an official federal or national source that sets out ROPA's legal status, marriage requirements or donor sperm rules in either country. That is why both rows are marked "not confirmed."

Mexico

Civil registration in Mexico is run by each state's civil registry, so the answer can depend on where the baby is born and registered. Ask the clinic which state's civil registry it expects you to use, whether that registry records two mothers on a birth certificate, and whether it has documents from previous couples showing that it does. Confirm with a lawyer in that state.

Colombia

In March 2026, Colombia's Constitutional Court recognized the right of families formed by two women to maternity leave for both mothers⁹. The ruling concerns employment benefits, not fertility treatment or birth registration. Ask the clinic how the second mother is recorded with the Registraduría, and have a Colombian lawyer confirm it.

United States: federal screening rules, state parentage rules

In the US, fertility treatment access is mostly set by clinics and state law, but donor screening is federal. FDA regulations at 21 CFR 1271.90 exempt reproductive cells or tissue donated by a sexually intimate partner of the recipient, for reproductive use, from the donor-eligibility determination and testing that applies to other donors. Gametes that skip those steps must carry labeling such as "NOT EVALUATED FOR INFECTIOUS SUBSTANCES" and a warning to advise the recipient of communicable disease risks¹⁰.

Ask your clinic how it applies that exception to the egg-providing partner in ROPA, and what testing it performs regardless. Banked donor sperm is a different matter: it comes from a donor who is not an intimate partner, so the full donor-eligibility rules apply. Legal parentage is a matter of state law, and the right protective step depends on your state and your marital status, so consult a family lawyer in the state where you live.

Parentage at home, and the questions to ask before booking

Even if the treatment country records both mothers, your home country decides whether it recognizes that record. A birth certificate issued abroad does not automatically settle parentage in another country, especially for unmarried couples, and the rules for passports and citizenship by descent can add another layer. Our guide to legal considerations for IVF abroad covers this in more depth.

Before you book, work through this list with a family lawyer in your home country:

• Will the non-carrying partner be recognized as a legal parent from birth, or only after a court order or adoption?
• Does it matter whether you are married, and does your home country recognize your marriage or partnership as registered?
• Will the foreign birth certificate be accepted for the child's passport, and what translations or apostilles are needed?
• Does it matter that the treatment used a donor who is anonymous rather than identity-release, if your home country gives donor-conceived people a right to donor information?
• What happens to stored embryos if you separate, and which partner controls them under the clinic's consent forms?

Questions to ask a clinic about ROPA

1. Legal basis. Which law or regulation allows the clinic to perform ROPA for you, and does it require marriage or any other proof of relationship?
2. Screening of each partner. What tests will the egg-providing partner and the carrying partner each need, and are any of them donor-level tests?
3. Donor sperm. Is the sperm anonymous or identity-release, where does it come from, and what import approvals are needed if it comes from abroad?
4. Embryo control. Who signs storage and disposition consents for the embryos, and what happens if you separate or one partner dies?
5. Parentage paperwork. What must both partners sign, and when, for the second mother to be recorded at birth in that country?

Female couples deciding between destinations can also compare access more broadly in our guide to IVF abroad for same-sex couples. When you have a shortlist, you can request a quote and ask each clinic to answer the questions above in writing.