Women in same sex relationships undergoing IVF treatment are twice (27% vs 13%) as likely to take a demotion as those in heterosexual relationships due to a lack of support from their employer.
Research from insurer Zurich of 250 women who have recently undergone IVF treatment also showed 12% of all women undergoing IVF quit their jobs due to a lack of support from their employer.
Similar numbers (14%) were forced to reduce their working hours or take on lower paid roles (13%).
More than half of women (58%) surveyed said they do not feel able to tell their employer they were going through IVF, with fear of losing their job (32%) cited as the biggest reason for keeping quiet.
Worries over career progression was another issue with a quarter (26%) of respondents concerned it would make them seem less committed to their role.
While most women surveyed did not feel able to, those who did tell their employers about their IVF treatment saw significant benefits.
The vast majority (64%) said discussing IVF with managers or employers made their overall IVF experience easier or much easier to deal with.
However, in some cases people who chose to discuss their IVF status at work opened themselves to invasive or misinformed comments from their colleagues and managers, including insinuations that they were ‘too old’ (30%), ‘too young’ (15%) for treatment, or that they could have avoided the need for IVF with better lifestyle changes (40%).
Offering enhanced leave policies was the most important factor in determining whether employees would have felt comfortable disclosing their IVF treatment to their employer.
More than half (52%) of women who did not disclose their treatment said they would have been more willing to do so if their company had these policies in place.
This split in employer attitudes was echoed through a survey of 504 HR decision makers by Peppy.
It found 39% of employers either always had employee benefits to support staff with their reproductive health, or had put them in place in the past year, while 31% of had no plans to offer fertility support.
It argued that left a significant number of employees without adequate support for their fertility journey now.
Steve Collinson, chief HR officer of Zurich UK, said: “The journey to starting a family is unique to everyone, but regardless of how a person chooses to become a parent they should never fear losing their job or being left to feel unsupported in the workplace.
“Enabling women to prosper at all life stages is vital to attracting and retaining high performing individuals.
“IVF treatment can be emotionally and physically stressful, and the length of the process can mean that women open themselves up to difficult conversations or even discrimination much earlier than those who are able to conceive naturally.
“Enshrining IVF leave as a right for all women won’t solve the whole problem, but it is a huge step towards ensuring that IVF is better understood and more sensitively handled in the workplace.”
Natalie Silverman, cofounder of Fertility Matters at Work, added: “This is why we are doing the work we do, aiming to guide organisations into a culture shift to really understand the impact of infertility and the struggles people have in bringing home a baby.
“Our aim is that along with better awareness of the issue, there is better internal support and signposting.
“When we consider just how much of our time we spend at work, we want it to be a psychologically safe space. One that addresses this significant life event that a person might have to go through.”