Spain emerges as The Eldorado of fertility treatments

Madrid, Spain: "Making parents out of our patients," reads an ad in Madrid's metro for one of Spain's many fertility clinics that have opened their doors to husbands and wives, same-sex couples and single women thanks to lenient laws.

Every year, more than 5,000 people walk through the glass doors of the Madrid IVF clinic, where couples sit in a hushed atmosphere, English, Spanish and French wafting through the waiting room to help foreign customers, 20 percent of all its patients.

Sitting in his office behind the reception, where black-and white photos of babies' hands hang on the wall, director Juan Antonio Garcia Velasco says that Spain has become a "reference point" for fertility treatment.

He points for instance to "being able to provide treatment that is banned in many countries."

Up to 50 years old

A law that came into force in 2006 allows women aged 18 or over -- be they single, in heterosexual or same-sex couples -- to access assisted reproductive technology such as artificial insemination or in vitro fertilisation (IVF).