How to Verify a Fertility Clinic and IVF Doctor in Colombia

Three separate things to verify

A fertility clinic is not one thing to check but three:

1. The physician who will plan your treatment and perform procedures.
2. The health-service provider: the legal entity and the specific site where procedures take place.
3. The fertility program: the embryology laboratory, its staff and its results.

A brand name, a polished website and a WhatsApp number confirm none of these. CDC's guidance on medical travel warns that marketing may leave out accreditation and qualification details, and that local accreditation and certification standards may differ from those you know at home (CDC Yellow Book, 2026).

Step 1: check the doctor in ReTHUS

ReTHUS, the Registro Único Nacional del Talento Humano en Salud, is Colombia's national register of health workers. The Ministry of Health maintains it, and Ley 1164 de 2007 sets the requirements health workers must meet to be listed. Being registered indicates that a person meets the legal requirements to practise a health profession or occupation. Professionals, postgraduate specialists, technologists, technicians and auxiliaries are all required to register and keep their details current (MinSalud).

How to use it:

• Use the ministry's public "Consulta al ciudadano" tool. It appears to search by identity document number, so ask the clinic in writing for the physician's full legal name and document number. A clinic with nothing to hide can provide them.
• Check that the name matches exactly, and note what the record shows about the person's profession and qualifications. If it does not show the specialist training you were told about, ask the clinic for the diploma and the institution that granted it.
• Look for sanctions. ReTHUS records sanctions reported by ethics tribunals and authorities, but the ministry notes that public sanction information only covers medicine, dentistry and nursing (MinSalud).
• Save a dated screenshot or PDF.

Repeat the check for every doctor named in your treatment plan, including any anaesthesia provider named for the retrieval.

Step 2: check the provider and its services in REPS

REPS, the Registro Especial de Prestadores de Servicios de Salud, is the register of health-service providers that have completed habilitación. Departmental and district health authorities collect its data, and the Ministry of Health brings it together nationally (MinSalud).

Habilitación is the process of registering, verifying and monitoring whether a provider meets basic requirements for technical and scientific capacity, financial soundness and administrative capacity. Providers assess themselves and submit a registration; the authorities verify and monitor. REPS records the type of provider, the services it is enabled to offer, their complexity level, and whether they are delivered on site, off site or by telemedicine (MinSalud).

What to check:

• The legal name of the provider on your quote and invoice matches a provider in REPS.
• The address where your retrieval will happen is part of that provider's registration.
• Services relevant to your treatment are listed as enabled, such as the procedure or surgical service used for retrieval and any sedation service.

Keep two limits in mind. Habilitación is a floor of minimum standards, not a quality ranking. And because it begins with the provider's self-assessment, a listing shows the provider is registered and subject to oversight, not that every service is excellent.

Step 3: ask about the fertility-specific framework

Colombia's infertility law, Ley 1953 de 2019, ordered the Ministry of Health to create a single registry of authorised specialised centres and treated patients, including gamete and embryo banks, and states that procedures may only be carried out in registered centres. It also asked the ministry and the Superintendencia Nacional de Salud to regulate oversight of clinics that diagnose and treat infertility (Ley 1953 de 2019). Ask the clinic how it complies: whether it is registered as a specialised centre under that law, and how you can confirm it independently.

Some patients also look for participation in REDLARA, the Latin American assisted-reproduction network. If a clinic mentions it, ask what that participation involves and check REDLARA's own website rather than relying on a badge on the clinic's page.

Step 4: check the laboratory yourself

Registries stop at the laboratory door. Embryology quality shapes much of what IVF can achieve, and the only way to assess it is to ask direct questions:

• Who directs the laboratory, and what is their training?
• Does the lab sit in the same building where retrieval happens? If not, how are eggs carried between them?
• How are eggs, sperm and embryos labelled and double-checked to prevent mix-ups?
• How are storage tanks monitored, alarmed and backed up?
• Does the lab hold any external accreditation, and from which body?
• What are its outcome data by age group, with denominators?

A fuller list is in IVF laboratory questions to ask a Medellín clinic. CDC suggests looking for internationally accredited facilities, for example through Joint Commission International, while stressing that accreditation does not guarantee a good outcome (CDC Yellow Book, 2026).

Step 5: understand your recourse before you pay

Know how things work if something goes wrong. The UK regulator, HFEA, reminds patients that it has no powers over clinics abroad, and suggests finding out in advance how a foreign clinic handles complaints and whether your contract can be enforced (HFEA, 2016). CDC adds that legal options after a complication abroad can be narrower than at home (CDC Yellow Book, 2026).

In Colombia, provider oversight involves the departmental and district health authorities that maintain habilitación and the Superintendencia Nacional de Salud. Ask the clinic for its written complaint process and which authority it answers to, and keep that with your contract.

Signs your verification is not finished

Treat these as open questions to resolve before paying, not necessarily as proof of wrongdoing:

• You have a doctor's name but no document number to check.
• The quote or invoice comes from a company you cannot find in REPS.
• Retrieval or laboratory work happens at an address that is not part of the provider's registration.
• The laboratory is described only as "our partner lab", with no name or director.
• The clinic cannot say how it complies with the specialised-centre registry in Ley 1953 de 2019.

Step 6: keep a verification record

This record pays off later. If you compare two clinics, or if questions arise after treatment, you have dated evidence of what was represented. If something does not match, such as a different legal entity on the invoice from the one in REPS, ask for an explanation before paying. For the commercial side of that decision, see 25 questions to ask before paying an IVF deposit, and for sales claims, IVF clinic marketing claims to question.

Medical disclaimer: MedellinIVF.co is an independent educational and lead-navigation site, not a fertility clinic. Nothing on this page is diagnosis, treatment advice or a guarantee of outcome. Prices and policies change. Verify current information directly with the treating clinic and appropriate Colombian registries.