Six years ago, myself, Becky and Claire were registering our idea to form a CIC with companies house, with a strong will to make a difference but no idea of how the conversation would land. We celebrated with a glass of champagne and our amazing families – all the result of fertility treatment, at Chatsworth House, in the glorious bank holiday sunshine.
Fertility Matters at Work was built to change that. Not to add a policy and move on. Not to run a webinar and tick a box. To genuinely shift the conditions under which people navigating fertility challenges at work could find the support they deserved, whatever their path and whatever their outcome.
Six years in, something is shifting. This is what that looks like.
The Conversation continues in Parliament
In the last year, our work has moved into rooms where systemic change is made.
Becky Kearns, our Co-Founder and CEO, has been a key driver in the formation of the first fertility All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG). This is the kind of structural recognition that matters: a cross-party commitment to keeping fertility on the political agenda, with the voices of people who have lived this experience at its centre.
Alongside that, we have been proud to support Labour MP Alice McDonald in her launch of the Fertility Support Pledge. The Pledge builds on the foundation laid by former Conservative MP Nicky Aitken, who created the original Fertility Workplace Pledge and drove its early momentum. The baton has been passed across party lines, and what that tells us is important: this is not a political issue. It is a human one.
The presence of these conversations in parliament matters because legislation and political will shape what employers feel permission and obligation to do. Six years ago, we were making the case in HR meetings and at wellbeing events. Now we are part of the conversation that sets the conditions for what happens in those meetings.
The Reach Has Grown Far Beyond Where We Started
When we talk about fertility in the workplace, people sometimes picture a particular kind of organisation: perhaps a large corporate, perhaps one already known for progressive people practices. The truth, as our six years of experience has shown us, is that fertility challenges do not sort themselves by sector.
Our membership now spans finance, legal, telecoms, utilities, space services, retail, automotive, academic, construction, pharma, healthcare, FMCG, real estate and the third sector. Every one of those industries employs people navigating IVF cycles, miscarriage, donor conception, surrogacy, childlessness not by choice and the grief that runs through all of it. Every one of them needs a framework that reflects that reality.
Our UK-wide awareness activity has continued to grow. Following our Dublin launch in 2025, in April 2026, we took the work to Wales, launching in Cardiff with two of our accredited members, the Welsh Government and Welsh Water. Hearing accredited organisations share their experience of implementing genuine fertility support is one of the most powerful things we do: it moves the conversation from the theoretical to the real, and it gives other employers a clear and honest picture of what is possible.
In 2026, our research focus extends to the United States. The scale of the issue is not unique to the UK, and neither is the silence that surrounds it.
This Is Not Only a Women’s Issue
One of the most important things we continue to do this year is say this clearly and consistently, and watch the response. When we talk about fertility challenges as a workplace issue affecting all genders, something shifts in the room. Men who have been carrying this quietly, managers who had no language for what their team members were going through, colleagues who assumed it was not their story to tell: the reframe creates space. This year, our conversations have helped more men in the workplace find their voice. Watch our webinar.
Our work with the LGBTQ+ community has continued with the same commitment. We’re continue to consult on policy development. Alternative routes to parenthood, including donor conception, surrogacy and co-parenting, deserve the same quality of support as any other path. Our expertise in this area is not an add-on. It is integral to what genuinely inclusive fertility support looks like in practice.
Our Research Is Doing More Than Informing the Conversation
The FMAW 2025 UK Research Report, produced in partnership with This Can Happen Global and supported by Ferring Pharmaceuticals, drew on the responses of over 1,000 employed people. The findings are significant, and we have put them to work.
This year, the 2025 research has been used to update our eLearning modules directly. Our manager training now reflects the most current insights we have, giving people in leadership the clearest possible guidance on how to have these conversations with confidence and compassion. Knowing that 70% of employees who disclose tell their line manager first, and that 87% say they were unaware of any manager training on fertility support, the quality of that training matters enormously. A manager who knows what to say, and what not to say, can be the difference between someone feeling supported at work and someone quietly planning to leave.
The research has also produced a cost analysis that has strengthened our ability to make the business case directly. Fertility challenges are estimated to cost UK businesses £217 million each year, through unplanned sick leave, staff turnover and reduced performance. That cost is already being absorbed. It simply does not appear as a line item. Showing an organisation what it is already paying, in concrete terms, changes the nature of the conversation.
For those building that case internally, our 3 Simple Steps guides are available as part of our free resources. They are designed to give HR professionals, people leaders and employee advocates the tools to present a clear and compelling argument to their leadership, without needing to start from scratch.
Supporting Members Means Supporting Their People
Our framework continues to evolve, but one thing has remained constant: our commitment to the people inside the organisations we work with, not only the organisations themselves.
Our monthly Employee Support Sessions provide direct, expert-led support for employees, whether or not they have ever disclosed a thing at work. The sessions cover a broad range of topics, from managing your career alongside fertility treatment to understanding specific conditions such as fibroids. They are a place where people can simply show up, learn something useful and feel less alone. No disclosure required.
Our policy guidance, now backed by over six years of benchmarking across sectors, continues to help members build policies that are genuinely inclusive rather than technically present. There is a meaningful difference between the two, and that difference is felt by real people on the days that matter most.
Our manager training, delivered through our CPD-accredited eLearning module, is built around real people and real stories. It is not a checklist. It is a genuine shift in how leaders understand and respond to what their team members may be carrying.
And as we continue to grow, we are broadening our work to sit alongside other providers of workplace wellbeing. Because fertility challenges do not exist in isolation. The people going through them need more than one kind of support, and we want to be part of an ecosystem that offers exactly that.
What the Year Ahead Holds
The Fertility Friendly Employer Awards are open for a second year, celebrating the organisations doing this well and setting the standard for others. We’re so excited to welcome Emma Barnett as our host and personally I’m both nervous and delighted to get to interview her, I hope I do her proud.
Our third F Word at Work Live takes place in November, bringing together the voices, the evidence and the community that make this work what it is. You can buy your tickets here.
There is so much still to do. That is not a lament. It is what keeps us moving.
As AA Milne wrote: “Now we are six, we are as clever as clever.” We know more than we did. We reach further than we did. And we hold more conviction than ever that every person navigating a fertility journey at work deserves to do so with genuine support around them.
Thank you to our team, Jen, Kellie, Giancarla, Eleanor, Emma, Amber and Imy, for everything they bring to this work every day.
If you would like to find out how FMAW can support your organisation, or if you want to access our free resources including the 3 Simple Steps guides, we would love to hear from you.
Source: FMAW 2025 UK Research Report, in partnership with This Can Happen Global, supported by Ferring Pharmaceuticals.