Before starting treatment, you must submit a treatment plan drawn up by a doctor to the health insurance company for approval. The statutory health insurance companies will cover 50 percent of the costs of the measures approved in the treatment plan.

Treatments on the man's body are covered by the man's health insurance, treatments on the woman's body are covered by the woman's health insurance.

The main requirements are

• You cannot become pregnant naturally.
• From a medical point of view, artificial insemination measures are suitable for bringing about a pregnancy
• You are married and use your own egg and sperm cells.
• Women must be between 25 and 39 years old; men between 25 and 49 years old.

Your doctor can advise you on the various methods of artificial insemination.

It often takes several attempts at artificial insemination for you to become pregnant. Artificial insemination measures may only be carried out at the expense of the statutory health insurance funds if there is a reasonable chance that the chosen treatment method will result in pregnancy. The Federal Joint Committee stipulates further details in its guidelines on artificial insemination. According to these guidelines, there is no longer a reasonable chance of success for the respective treatment measures if

• up to eight times in the case of insemination in a spontaneous cycle,
• up to three times in the case of insemination following hormonal stimulation,
• up to three times in the case of in vitro fertilization,
• up to twice for intratubal gamete transfer,
• up to three times in the case of intracytoplasmic sperm injection

without a clinically proven pregnancy having occurred.

You are entitled to have the costs of cryopreservation measures covered if this appears necessary due to an illness and its treatment with a germ cell-damaging therapy in order to carry out subsequent artificial insemination measures. You can find out what other requirements must be met for this from your health insurance provider.