The Royal Spanish Football Federation is finalizing a program to cover egg freezing costs at a private clinic for its international women players.
The initiative, first reported by Spanish newspaper El País, could officially launch on September 21 after the federation completes an agreement with a private medical facility.
Spain midfielder Alexia Putellas became the first player to speak publicly about the measure in an interview with El País published over the weekend. She said the initiative was a major step forward because the federation understood that athletes served their country against their biological timeline, unable to pause their careers or become mothers because their bodies were needed for work.
Fertility protection in elite sport
The proposed scheme aims to eliminate the biological dilemma faced by elite female athletes, allowing them to secure future family options without interrupting their sports careers.
Recent years have seen significant structural advances in women's football as players broke down traditional male dominated barriers. Notable progress includes full professionalisation, paid maternity leave, and potential increases in bonus payments for international competitions.
Spain's national team recently returned to the top spot in the FIFA world rankings after finishing in second place at the European Championship.
Similar initiatives in tennis and healthcare
Other elite sports organisations have introduced similar rules to safeguard motherhood. In June 2025, the Women's Tennis Association introduced its Special Fertility Protection Rule, allowing players to take leave for fertility preservation procedures such as egg or embryo freezing while keeping their ranking protected upon return.
Public health administrations have also introduced targeted measures for women seeking to preserve fertility. In 2024, the Galician Health Service announced a program running until 2028 that enables women without medical conditions to freeze eggs progressively in age brackets.
Egg freezing process and costs in Spain
Egg freezing, also known as vitrification, is an assisted reproduction procedure that has grown in popularity among women choosing to delay motherhood.
In Spain, the procedure typically costs between 2,000 euros and 5,000 euros per cycle. Patients must also pay between 1,000 euros and 1,200 euros for hormonal medication, along with an annual maintenance fee of 300 euros to 400 euros to store the eggs.
The vitrification process takes approximately two weeks and consists of four main stages:
- Ovarian stimulation: Injections of hormones are administered for 10 to 12 days to encourage the ovaries to produce multiple mature eggs at once.
- Medical monitoring: Frequent ultrasound examinations and blood tests are conducted to check follicle growth.
- Ovarian puncture: A minor outpatient surgical procedure lasting about 15 minutes is performed under sedation to extract eggs from the ovaries.
- Vitrification: Laboratory specialists freeze the eggs ultrafast using liquid nitrogen to prevent cellular damage and store them safely.
