Banafsheh (Bana) Kashani, MD - Fertility and IVF Specialist

About Banafsheh (Bana) Kashani, MD - Fertility and IVF Specialist

This is a solo reproductive endocrinology practice in Aliso Viejo, and Dr. Kashani personally runs it. She has been treating infertility patients since 2014, has practiced in Orange County since 2017, and opened the Aliso Viejo clinic in 2020 so patients could get the individualized attention a small office makes possible. The practice is now affiliated with South Coast Fertility Specialists, and Dr. Kashani continues to see patients at the Pacific Park Drive location.

The scope is full-service: consultations, ovarian stimulation protocols, bloodwork and monitoring scans, IUI procedures, egg retrievals, and embryo transfers are all performed by Dr. Kashani herself. Embryo culture and ICSI happen at an affiliated embryology lab rather than an in-house one, so you don’t get a walk-in embryology tour, but you do get a physician who reviews your case in front of the lab team rather than reading a summary later. The practice runs roughly 133 ART cycles a year — small enough that patients are not a number in a queue, and big enough that Dr. Kashani does these procedures every week.

Google reviews at the Aliso Viejo listing sit at 5.0 stars across 58 reviews, and patients routinely describe her as attentive, thorough, and clear about what to expect. She consults in English, Farsi, and Spanish.

Accreditations & Awards

• Double board-certified by ABOG in Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility
• Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (FACOG)
• Member, American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)
• Member, Pacific Coast Reproductive Society (PCRS)
• Member, Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (SREI)
• Daniel R. Mishell Resident of the Year (USC Ob/Gyn residency)
• Nurses Choice Award and Physician Selected by Peers to be Their Personal Physician
• Endocrine Society Clinical Fellows Award in Women’s Health
• ACOG Gibbons Award (medical school, University of South Alabama)
• Administrative Chief Resident, LAC+USC Medical Center
• Co-investigator on a large SART-CORS study of frozen embryo transfer trends
• Google rating 5.0 stars, 58 reviews

Why Choose Banafsheh (Bana) Kashani, MD - Fertility and IVF Specialist

• You see the physician, not a rotation of PAs. In solo practice, Dr. Kashani is the one who reviews your labs in the morning, calls in your stim dose adjustments, performs your retrieval, and does your transfer. Large clinics typically split those steps across a nurse practitioner, a monitoring sonographer, and a rotating physician.
• Double-board certified in Ob/Gyn and REI. Dr. Kashani holds two ABOG certifications, which matters practically: she can recognize and manage the broader gynecologic issues (fibroids, endometriosis, abnormal uterine bleeding) that show up during a fertility workup rather than referring them out reflexively.
• Research background on endometrium and implantation. Her published work focuses on the uterine lining and embryo implantation, medical management of fibroids and their effect on fertility, fertility preservation, and fertility in women with PCOS and Turner syndrome. That’s the specific territory she thinks about all day.
• Full-scope fertility treatments, not a menu with gaps. IVF, reciprocal IVF, donor-egg IVF, IUI (partner and donor sperm), egg freezing, ovulation induction, genetic carrier screening, PGT, gestational carrier coordination, and diagnosis-and-treatment for PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, uterine adhesions, polyps, recurrent pregnancy loss, and irregular cycles are all offered directly from this one office.
• Orange County native and long-time practitioner. Dr. Kashani grew up here and has practiced in the county since 2017, including time at Kaiser Permanente Orange County and Eden Centers for Advanced Fertility in Newport Beach. She knows which local OB practices, anesthesiologists, and specialty partners fit which patient situation.
• Multilingual visits. She consults in English, Farsi, and Spanish, which for many Orange County families removes a real barrier to understanding your own cycle.

IVF & Fertility Services

• In Vitro Fertilization (IVF): full-cycle management, with egg retrieval and embryo transfer performed by Dr. Kashani at an affiliated surgical and embryology center
• Reciprocal IVF: a family-building option for female same-sex couples in which one partner provides the eggs and the other carries the pregnancy
• Donor Oocyte (Egg Donor) IVF: cycle coordination for patients using donor eggs, including matching, screening, and legal documentation
• Intrauterine Insemination (IUI): partner-sperm and donor-sperm IUI for ovulatory, unexplained, and mild male-factor infertility
• Oocyte Cryopreservation / Egg Freezing: elective and medically-indicated fertility preservation
• Ovulation Induction: letrozole and clomiphene protocols with ultrasound monitoring
• Genetic Carrier Screening: expanded panels for both partners before conception
• Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT): embryo genetic testing coordinated through an affiliated reference lab
• Gestational Carrier / Surrogacy Coordination: medical management of the carrier cycle, with legal agreements through California’s Family Code framework
• Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Evaluation: structured workup for patients with multiple losses
• PCOS Diagnosis and Management: lifestyle, ovulation induction, and IVF protocols scaled to the patient rather than defaulted to the most aggressive one
• Endometriosis, Fibroids, Polyps, Adhesions, Abnormal Uterine Bleeding, Irregular Cycles: diagnosis and medical management; surgical cases are referred to a gynecologic surgeon partner when needed

Service boundaries worth knowing: embryo culture and ICSI happen at an affiliated embryology lab rather than at the Aliso Viejo office, and Dr. Kashani’s practice does not perform operative hysteroscopy or laparoscopy on site. When a case calls for surgical pathology, advanced andrology, or a specific oncology-preservation timeline, referrals go out to a partner practice in the network.

Fees & Packages

There’s no published price list on the practice website. Cycle costs — IVF, IUI, egg freezing, and every add-on service — are quoted after the new-patient consultation once the specific protocol, medications, genetic testing, lab fees, and any donor or carrier costs are set. Financial details are covered in the consult itself rather than via a website pricing page; bring your insurance card so the front desk can check benefits for the plan you’re on before you commit to a cycle. Ask specifically about what’s included in a “cycle” quote (monitoring, trigger shot, retrieval anesthesia, transfer, embryo storage), what happens financially if a cycle is canceled, and how medications billed by the specialty pharmacy sit separate from the clinic’s own charges.

Patient Journey

1. New-patient consultation, in person at the Pacific Park Drive suite or by telehealth depending on your starting point. Dr. Kashani handles the consultation herself rather than delegating to a nurse practitioner.
2. Detailed history — a conversation with you (and your partner, if applicable) about lifestyle, medical history, prior surgeries, menstrual patterns, ovulation tracking, medications, and your goals. This is not a five-minute intake; it’s the substantive part of the visit.
3. Prior testing and prior treatments reviewed — bring every lab, ultrasound, hysterosalpingogram report, and prior IUI/IVF cycle summary you can get your hands on. If you’ve had a failed cycle somewhere else, Dr. Kashani reads the actual protocol rather than just the outcome line, and adjusts.
4. Exam and baseline ultrasound — a physical to make sure you’re well enough to proceed, and a pelvic ultrasound to look at the uterus and ovaries (fibroids, cysts, antral follicle count for ovarian reserve).
5. Any additional workup and referrals — hormone panels, semen analysis for the partner, infectious-disease screening, and specialty referrals when the case calls for them.
6. Questions answered before you leave. The practice explicitly encourages patients to bring a written list of questions. Nothing gets scheduled or started until your own understanding of the plan matches theirs.
7. Treatment cycle — for IVF, this means stim medications, monitoring bloodwork and scans, an in-person trigger, retrieval under sedation, culture at the affiliated lab, and transfer scheduled either fresh or in a subsequent frozen-transfer cycle.

Local Legal Framework

California is one of the most ART-friendly states in the country. The legal architecture is written into the California Family Code, and it applies whether you’re single, married, opposite-sex, same-sex, using your own gametes, using donor gametes, or working with a gestational carrier.

• Gestational carrier / surrogacy: California Family Code §§ 7960-7962 sets out the framework for an enforceable gestational carrier agreement. The written contract can be signed before or during the pregnancy. Each party — intended parents and carrier (and her spouse, if any) — must either have their own independent legal counsel or be informed in writing of the right to obtain counsel and given a reasonable opportunity to do so. The agreement must address the planned use of IVF, allocate responsibility for reasonable expenses of the pregnancy, provide health and life insurance for the carrier, and confirm the carrier’s right to make her own medical decisions about the pregnancy — including whether to continue or terminate it. When those requirements are met, the intended parents are the legal parents from conception; the carrier has no parental rights or obligations. Pre-birth parentage orders are routinely issued.
• Marital-status and orientation requirements: California does not require intended parents to be married, genetically related to the child, or of any particular sexual orientation. Our source does not document the birth-certificate or adoption steps a same-sex couple takes to register parentage.
• Egg, sperm, and embryo donation: California Family Code § 7613 makes the recipient the legal parent and the donor has no parental rights, regardless of marital status or genetic link. Our sources do not document any donor-compensation rule that applies to clinical egg-retrieval cycles.
• PGT-A / PGT-M: No California-specific restriction. Standard informed consent plus CLIA-certified laboratory standards apply.
• Embryo disposition: California does not define embryos as legal persons. Disposition of unused embryos follows the consent forms you sign at creation, so read them before a cycle starts.
• Insurance: California Health & Safety Code § 1367.5 requires most HMO plans to cover IVF treatment for eligible patients — up to two complete cycles for patients under 40, and one cycle for patients 40 and older, subject to the plan’s infertility-services language and any employer religious exemption. Self-funded (ERISA) plans are not bound by the state mandate; check your Summary Plan Description.

Location

• Address: 24541 Pacific Park Drive, Suite 109, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
• Phone: 949-516-0150