Austin Fertility Institute

AFI proudly celebrated thirteen years of serving our families ❤️ last week! The annual event at was great fun and, despite the heat 🔥, the briefly donned their new AFI hoodies courtesy of sharing their smiles and gratitude.
At the intersections between experience and enthusiasm, caring and commitment, Dr. M and the entire AFI crew remain ready to assist you with all the challenges of fertility treatment. As always, we thank you for letting us take care of you! 🤗

Happy Nurse’s Week to the rock star AFI crew! 💉❤️‍🩹 Amy and Jamie have been helping our families for NINE amazing years and we are so excited to welcome Katelyn to the fold. Cheers 🍸 and appreciation 🥰to the best fertility nurses around!

Dr. M enjoyed a sentimental jaunt to this past week, connecting with friends and family for his 25 year . As usual, the Big Easy provided a warm welcome, including some educational home cooking at the Tulane School of Culinary Medicine. Happy Doctor’s Day and cheers to a quarter century of being a physician to Dr. M and all of his fellow classmates! 🩺💜💚💛

We are so appreciative 🤗 of Monique and her team at Articulture Designs! Our new artwork not only provides a warm reception to the AFI families currently under our care, but also a bright backdrop for a fond farewell to our graduating patients. 🤍🫶 Thank you and Spring greetings to all of our AFI peeps! 🌷🌼🌸

There is certainly no shortage of incredibly influential and dynamic ladies for us to acknowledge and appreciate on beginning with Dr. M’s wonderful wife , extending to our amazing and culminating in the strong and resilient women we are fortunate enough to care for every day. Thank you for your tireless dedication to all that you do!
For , Dr. M would like to specifically congratulate his sister and sister-in-law for becoming owners of their own general dentistry 🦷🪥periodontics 😃 practices this past year. They are educators and entrepreneurs in their respective fields, making a positive impact as second generation female healthcare providers. Cheers to their continued success. 🍾🥂🎉

It’s beignet a while since we shared a post with our AFI families. 😉 Celebrating Mardi Gras today with the help of and sending well wishes to all of you—laissez les bon temps roulez! 💜💛💚

Warm holiday wishes go out to all of our AFI families on this Thanksgiving Day!
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A special acknowledgment from the AFI team goes out today to this wonderful military family. We are always honored to care for those individuals who so admirably serve our country. Happy Veteran’s Day!🇺🇸🪖

Dr. M’s landmark birthday was so thoughtfully acknowledged by the AFI team and his wonderful family this Halloween 👻🎃weekend. We hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday and look forward to rekindling old friendships at our AFI baby reunion in 2022!

His 2020 white coat ceremony never took place, but , Dr. M, and ‘Papah’ Dr. M had some fun a few weeks ago with a mini-acknowledgment of the occasion one year later. Cheers 🥂to three generations of dedicated past, present, and future ‘moga-docs’. 🤷🏻‍♂️ A very 😊 Happy Birthday to Kameron Moghadam also! 🎂🎉 📷

The Austin Fertility Laboratory team is a remarkable union of experience and education, caring and consistency. Established in 2011, our crew is proud to currently represent the oldest independently-owned assisted reproduction and andrology laboratory in Austin. Please join us in acknowledging and thanking these wonderful individuals on !
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From “we’re checking out!” to “hey, check her out!” and everything before and after, Dr. M and the AFI team always appreciate the opportunity to share in every aspect of your fertility care. Simply put, we are an experienced group of reproductive health professionals that love what we do. Wishing all our families a great Friday and weekend!

To celebrate our eleven year anniversary, the AFI team decided to ‘mix it up’ with some libations and merriment under the expert guidance of the crew. We had a fun-filled tutorial on traditional and Hemingway daiquiris, Lavender old fashioned’s, and even a Dark and Stormy (Dr. M’s new office nickname 😮). We are VERY appreciative to be as busy as ever, as we work on our second decade of providing fertility services to the Austin community. Thank you for letting us take care of you! 🥂

It would be completely remiss not to properly celebrate two of the special people on our AFI team, Jamie Nott, RN and Amy Branscum, RN. Grateful to have a day to spoil the nurses that give so much to our patients EVERY day. 💗Thank you and happy 2021 to them and all the great nurses out there!

Many of our kind patients have graciously acknowledged the time Dr. M spends away from his own family taking care of others. A huge AFI thank you goes out to for her commitment as a full-time working do-it-all Mom and spouse!
Happy Mother’s Day to her and all of our families. As always, we are reminded of both the struggles and triumphs of those we are fortunate enough to care for, this day and every day. ❤️

Sharing an AFI embryo that bears an uncanny 🤔resemblance to the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy. Hope the force is with all of our AFI friends and family today! 💫

Literally a blast from the past! 🤗 Thank you .mikaela.rush for sharing a part of your fertility journey during 🧡 . You are a wonderful doctor and colleague and we love the fun things you are doing with your podcast.
This was a PERFECT return for us after a little hiatus from our page. Boundless gratitude goes out to all our families for letting us take care of you, especially during . Your struggles and successes are defining moments for us.❤️

Shout out to the ORIGINAL Dr. M! He is 78 years old today and sporting the content smile of a retired doc enjoying the rewards of life after nearly five decades of helping others. Happy Birthday!!

2020 was neither linear nor predictable for anyone. The stress that our families were navigating was palpable, and we are VERY grateful that they continued to see us without interruption.
Dr. M is especially appreciative and proud of our do-it-all . They provided a safe environment without sacrificing the quality or comprehensiveness of their care. It was and continues to be no easy feat.
We look ahead to 2021 as the only independently-owned fertility practice and laboratory in Austin with one-on-one physician care and no team member with less than 3 years experience in Women’s Health (p.s. Dr. M is an Austin Monthly top doctor for the third consecutive year too!). Thank you for letting us take care of you, and best wishes to everyone for a better and Happy New Year!

How should the express our thankfulness? We are grateful for the couple that drove from San Antonio and back to see us today. We are as appreciative of our Austin Fertility Institute families as this is for her new brother. 💕 Most of all, Dr. M and all of us at AFI are indebted for the chance to provide experienced and personalized reproductive care to the greater Austin community for over a decade. Please give an extra to each other from all of us, and have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Her arrival was delayed by more than half a decade, but so very worth the wait. 💕 Congratulations from all of us at AFI! 🎉

Thank you, Dr. M and AFI staff, for all you did for us. Seven years later, we walked away with the most coveted onesie! Meet our Emma Belle, born on 9/22/20, via surrogacy. Our love for her is immeasurable! We will be forever grateful to you for taking a chance on our wondrous Emma. The odds were stacked against us, but our God led us to the perfect doctor! Hoping for safer days to bring her to meet you!❤️

Best wishes on Veteran’s Day to this military family and all of our AFI military families! It is an honor to serve those who serve and sacrifice for others. 🇺🇸💪🏽

Our boo boo 👻 doctor had a great birthday and wishes all of our Austin Fertility Institute families a Happy Halloween! We are sad to take a pandemic pause on our AFI Baby Reunion tradition but hope 🤞🏼 to be back in full force next Fall. Thank you for letting us take care of you from Dr. M and the entire AFI crew!

Halftime show! Same jersey with AFI dad on the left, AFI son on the right. Hope everyone is having a great football Sunday!

AFI onesie: $5.20👶
Smiling baby and shout out on the announcement letter board: priceless💕
Thank you to this family and all of our families at Austin Fertility Institute for letting us take care of you. Happy Friday!

A very heartfelt and genuine account by of her fertility journey (more details in stories). We are grateful to have been a part of it. 🌈💕

Our scientists, Wenling Zhang PhD and Maile McCharen, are not only exceptionally dedicated and talented in their work🔬, but also truly caring and special people. This photo is from one of our dinner meetings—collaboration and appreciation are so important when it comes to creating our collective outcomes! A BIG AFI shout out to them on World Embryologist’s Day for all that they do. ❤️

Another busy day at AFI with with Amy 😷 tending to afternoon results. Looking 👀 forward to a hectic 🏃🏽‍♀️ and hopeful 🤞🏼end of July. 💕

Our families are at the heart ❤️ of everything we do at AFI. Each facet of our program, from our versatile physician and team to our electronic medical record/patient portal to our easy-to-access location with on-site comprehensive fertility services has been thoughtfully designed with you in mind. When we come to work each day, YOUR dreams and ours are one and the same because, after all, that is what matters most.
That philosophy starts with our logo. Meet Kristen and her two children, Max (12) and Maya (10). She is the graphic designer that created the AFI logo before we had an office, lab or crew! Back when he was practicing in the Midwest, Dr. M helped Kristen through laparoscopic and hysteroscopic surgery, with the latter involving removal of a uterine septum. She was able to conceive and deliver successfully afterwards. 😊
These days, Kristen divides her time between teaching at her kids’ school and pet 🐶🐱portraits. A link to her website and artwork is in our bio. She has been elated to see that so many babies 👶🏽 have worn her design on an AFI onesie over the last decade!
Thank you for letting us take care of you. We believe that your stories are so important and are proud to share them here for others facing infertility. If you are interested in with AFI, please send us a PM so we can reconnect!

From Dr. M:
“This is a really good day, at least that is what I keep telling myself. Every parent, including those we help become parents, is marching towards this moment. I am and should be grateful, even if I am not ready to watch you go.”
“Did I enjoy having you and your brothers all together enough? Emphatically, the answer is no. All too often, others confuse that sentiment with regret. Putting your heart into something/someone without knowing the reward is a commitment towards hope, failure, beauty, and growth. My lofty goal was to match or exceed my father’s example, and it is only for each of you boys to decide if I succeeded.”
“I believe wholeheartedly that you will be the best doctor yet in this family. Legacy can be both uplifting and strangely disempowering, at least when it comes to self-determination. I remember feeling that conflict at your stage, and it was foolish in retrospect. You are your own man, and have reached this point through incredible gifts and effort. Whatever path you choose to follow in medicine will be uniquely yours.”
“For good form, here are a few paternal thoughts, should you choose to accept them 🙂:
—‘The person across from you is always more vulnerable than you.’ People are not themselves under duress. I have to remind myself this nearly every day.
—‘Relatability does not equate to ability.’ Both are important, but the latter is defining. Hone your skills and develop your knowledge well.
—‘The human body is not linear.’ Precision is not perfection, and it does not always deliver the outcome.
—‘Medicine is service.’ If you don’t enjoy service, you won’t be happy.”
“It is an exciting time; trust me, it will be worth it. But if you ever decide it is not for you, come home. I will be here on the porch waiting for you.”
Love, Dad @ Galveston, Texas

Ignore the slender, bearded version of Dr. M in the middle—this picture is REALLY about the two important women that shaped his career and life. Dr. Fatima Moghadam would have been 75 years old yesterday, and Tammy Moghadam has been married to Dr. M twenty-five years today! ❤️
They have served as exceptional examples in navigating all the demands of work and home. Their personal and professional legacies are both impactful and far-reaching. In short, Dr. M has always had the luxury of counting upon one or both of these wonderful women for insight and inspiration. Please join us in honoring them! 💕

From Dr. M:

“This picture was taken shortly after I arrived in Austin back in 2010. A local magazine—one that is no longer in print—heard that we were opening a new fertility practice. I had two employees, no IVF lab for a couple of months, no credentialing or insurance plans until the Fall. We had moved here with our family, knowing no one but each other.”
“What was the significance? Besides the fact that it was one of the last times I wore a white coat, there was a lot of uncertainty behind that smile. I had my RE board certification and five years experience in the Midwest but did not know what to expect. I just knew that I had to go to a city where I could make the biggest difference or I would always have regret.”
“Before I left Indianapolis I was at a hospital event sitting with an orthopedist, ENT, and plastic surgeon that had been in practice for a while and asked them what their best piece of advice would be for me in this new endeavor. Each of them said the same thing: ‘choose and invest in your people well.’ I remember thinking at the time this was obvious, but their words were not lost on me. As you would expect, team members have come and gone from AFI as their needs and our needs have changed, but we have always been fortunate to have a great staff and I appreciate all of them, past and present.”
“The ‘All in the Family’ tagline has deeper meaning for me today. A portion of the article was about my siblings and parents all being doctors. The special part in retrospect is how my wife , a social worker and now manager in behavioral health for , put her medical career on hold countless times for our sons and me. I am so proud of her and a proud father of all of them, including who will be starting medical school at next month.”
“AFI will ALWAYS be about you and your family. At our baby reunions and on social media I see a beautiful tapestry of children that represent a decade of diverse parental blends and backgrounds. We have been consistent in our availability, message, and caring. As your doctor, nothing matters more to me.”

Three teams. Three dishes. 🥘 And after a grueling sixty minute gauntlet, one AFI Iron Chef 🔪 team emerged victorious. 💪🏼🥇
Dr. M and the AFI crew celebrated 10 incredible years of serving the Austin community by serving up some paëlla and some fun new memories. Fertility care requires energy, passion, patience and kindness. If your doctor is the steward of your outcome, the team is most certainly the steward of your experience. We think our families would agree we have the best of both at Austin Fertility Institute.
Much thanks to for hosting us in a private setting yesterday evening!
@ Swoop House and Swoop Events

Our doors are open, as they have been without interruption, for a decade come this June. We are proud to serve the families of Austin, and our focus and footprint do not extend further because that is enough.
It is not for us to decide whether now is the right time to start or grow your family, since that has always been your choice. We can only promise to provide consistent counseling, support and treatment in a personalized, comfortable setting with everyone’s safety at the forefront of our concerns. As a single physician practice with one location and cross-functional team members, we are grateful that this has been less of a challenge thus far.
We hope everyone is having a restful Memorial Day weekend reconnecting with loved ones. As always, thank you for letting us take care of you!

This painting was given to us a couple of months ago. We had one family to see for a procedure on a Sunday. That morning they brought with them hope, gratitude and possibly an artistic expression of what they were feeling in the moment. Since a little magical thinking🤞🏼is pretty harmless, we waited, and hung it up proudly when they graduated to their OB eight weeks later.
During National Infertility Awareness Week, this small gift reminds us, intended or otherwise, that acknowledging our humanity and unconditionally supporting those who need it is so important. Some of our families chronicle every visit, injection, heartbreak and victory, bolstering their energy and public consciousness. Others prefer the silhouette of privacy, only sharing their story with those closest to them, or waiting until time provides them the benefit of clarity. We live through and perceive infertility differently; awareness is the only canvas that allows our experiences to be conveyed collectively, without shame.
Thank you, as always, for letting Dr. M and the AFI team take care of you.