Chelsea are setting the standard in the WSL by putting players' pitch-first pelvic floor health and support at the forefront, now expanding their support for players navigating pregnancy, parenthood, and fertility. They have introduced a package of policies that includes financial assistance for fertility treatments and egg freezing.
The club’s partnership with London clinic Fertility Plus gives every member of the women’s squad access to a fund supporting fertility assessments, treatment, counselling, workshops and wider gynaecological care. The initiative is understood to be worth at least £189,000, with each of Chelsea’s 27 players receiving an annual allocation at the clinic.
The aim was to give players greater financial security, information, and control over reproductive health decisions.
This is part of a wider club initiative, including an enhanced player maternity policy that provides personalised support throughout and dedicated medical care for each player's return to professional football. The club learned this firsthand with Melanie Leupolz, who became pregnant, gave birth, and returned to football at the club.
It also includes private scans and delivery options, post-partum physical, mental and emotional support, financial assistance for a partner or nanny to travel to away fixtures for up to a year after returning to play, subsidised childcare and enhanced adoption and parental leave.
The policy is designed to support players in how they choose to grow their family. Support will be tailored to their circumstances and built for different family-building journeys.
Aki Mandhar, chief executive of Chelsea FC Women, said the club wanted players to have the “support, security and care” they deserve. At the same time, sporting director Phil Radley said the aim was to build an organisation that values players both as athletes and as people.
The fertility partnership therefore sits within a broader attempt to address aspects of women's professional careers that have traditionally received less attention than performance, training and competition. It also ensures that those who wish to become mothers while still playing the game can get the support they need.
One of the services they will cover is egg freezing; this includes not only egg freezing itself but also fertility assessment, IVF, contraception, smear tests, and specialist consultations. The partnership also includes counselling, educational material, and workshops designed to address misconceptions about fertility.
This educational element matters because reproductive health remains an area with significant knowledge gaps. Research from UCLH cited in the material found that 41% of people who were actively trying to conceive did not know when their fertile window occurred.
For professional athletes, access to accurate information could allow decisions to be made earlier and with a better understanding of the available options, rather than leaving players to navigate fertility questions privately.
This is not a simple process for women's footballers or any athletes, as it generally takes around three weeks, and treatment has to be balanced against training, travel, matches, and the physical demands of elite competition.
Chelsea and Fertility Plus present fertility treatment as an option rather than an instruction. Players are not expected to freeze their eggs, and the club is not expected to dictate when they should undergo treatment.
Another policy Chelsea has introduced is maternity leave; for many, it is a balancing act, which is why many choose to have children after their playing career ends.
Chelsea's new framework includes post-partum medical support, childcare assistance and help for a partner or nanny to travel to away matches during the first year after a player's return.
Those measures address a different problem from fertility preservation: how to make motherhood compatible with elite competition.
High-profile athletes such as Serena Williams have demonstrated that returning to elite sport after childbirth is possible and, in fact, played and won the Australian Open while pregnant. In contrast, other athletes choose to wait until retirement. Her husband ironically owns equality in the Chelsea women's team,
Former England and Chelsea captain Millie Bright announced her pregnancy after retiring in April, illustrating how motherhood can still be seen as something that belongs outside an athlete's competitive career.
While this might be the first in football, it has already grown in other sports, including England rugby, which has developed tailored maternity support. At the same time, the Women's Tennis Association has introduced ranking protections for players who leave the tour because of pregnancy or fertility procedures. WNBA players can receive reimbursement of up to $20,000 a year for fertility treatment, with a career cap of $60,000. The Professional Footballers' Association has also partnered with Care Fertility to provide support for players in both men's and women's football. Other football organisations are considering similar initiatives.
The challenge for football is therefore broader than paying for fertility treatment. It involves contracts, medical care, childcare, rehabilitation and creating realistic routes back into competition after childbirth.
Chelsea's approach therefore represents part of a wider movement towards acknowledging that athletes' careers involve more than what happens during training and matches.
The more common these schemes become, however, the more important their underlying principles will be.
Chelsea's fertility fund is a significant investment in an area of women's health that professional sport has often struggled to address.
For some players, financial assistance could make fertility assessments or treatment accessible when cost might otherwise be a barrier. The educational component could also help athletes make better-informed decisions about fertility, menstrual health and family planning.
But the initiative's success should not be measured simply by how many players use the fund.
Its broader test will be whether Chelsea can create an environment that supports a player who wants to delay motherhood. In contrast, a player who wants to become a mother during her career is equally supported.
That is why the club's expanded maternity provisions matter alongside the fertility partnership. Together, they raise a more fundamental question about the future of women's professional sport: should athletes adapt their reproductive lives to fit elite sport, or should elite sport keep adapting so women can make those choices for themselves?
Chelsea's policy cannot answer that question alone. But it places the issue firmly on the agenda.
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