Atlanta Center for Reproductive Medicine (ACRM) — Fertlo Editorial Review

Atlanta Center for Reproductive Medicine (ACRM) has operated for decades as one of metro Atlanta's anchor IVF programs. Today the practice runs three treatment centers — Perimeter (Sandy Springs), Buckhead, and Marietta — giving patients geographic flexibility that few Georgia fertility practices can match. In 2016 ACRM joined the CCRM (Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine) Fertility Network, a partnership under which ACRM physicians continue to run all clinical care while CCRM manages the embryology and clinical laboratories. That arrangement gives Atlanta-area patients access to lab protocols developed by one of the highest-volume IVF networks in the country without leaving their home state.

The Physician Team

ACRM fields five fellowship-trained, board-certified or board-eligible reproductive endocrinologists — an unusually deep bench for a private practice. Every physician on staff holds Castle Connolly Top Doctor recognition, an honor granted to roughly 7 percent of U.S. physicians and one the practice has parlayed into a #1 Reproductive Medicine Private Practice in Georgia designation by Castle Connolly for 2025.

• Dr. Kathryn C. Calhoun, MD — Medical Director. Fellowship-trained at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Has led ACRM's clinical program since joining in 2012 and serves as the public face of the practice's academic and outcomes work.
• Dr. Robin Fogle, MD — A senior member of the Atlanta REI community with long-standing roots in the practice.
• Dr. Bonnie Patel, MD — Joined in 2018 with focused interests in oncofertility, assisted reproduction, and minimally invasive surgery — an important subspecialty given the overlap between cancer treatment and fertility preservation needs.
• Dr. Stephanie Smeltzer, MD — Fellowship-trained at Duke University; joined in 2020 with expertise in medical management, surgical management, and IVF.
• Dr. Ashley Tiegs, MD — Fellowship-trained at Jefferson-RMA in Philadelphia; joined in 2020, bringing RMA network exposure to the team's collective skillset.

The five-physician model reduces wait times for new-patient consultations and spreads surgical and retrieval coverage across a larger team than most single-physician boutique practices.

Full Service Line

ACRM covers the complete spectrum of reproductive medicine:

IVF and ART: The core program includes standard IVF, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), frozen embryo transfer (FET), and tandem cycles for high-risk cases. The CCRM lab partnership means embryo culture and cryopreservation follow standardized, audited protocols used across one of the most clinically scrutinized networks in U.S. fertility medicine.

Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT): ACRM offers PGT-A (comprehensive chromosome screening) and PGT-M (monogenic disease testing). The clinic's own success rate disclosures note miscarriage rates of roughly 5–10 percent for embryo transfers following PGT-A, compared to up to 20 percent without — a clinically meaningful difference for patients with recurrent pregnancy loss or advanced maternal age. For patients with endometriosis or other conditions that complicate implantation, PGT-A can meaningfully improve transfer efficiency.

Egg Freezing and Fertility Preservation: Oocyte cryopreservation (vitrification) is available for elective fertility preservation and for oncofertility patients. Dr. Patel's dedicated oncofertility focus makes ACRM one of the better-equipped Atlanta practices for patients facing cancer diagnoses who need to move quickly.

Donor Egg Program: ACRM operates a dedicated egg donor program. The clinic actively recruits donors and provides a full application pathway on its website, suggesting a reasonably active donor pool rather than exclusive reliance on agency procurement.

Gestational Surrogacy: The practice supports gestational carrier cycles, including legal coordination guidance, which is relevant in Georgia where surrogacy is permissible but requires careful legal groundwork.

LGBTQ+ Family Building: ACRM explicitly markets LGBTQ+ services, covering reciprocal IVF for female couples, donor sperm IUI and IVF for single women and female couples, and gestational surrogacy with donor egg or partner sperm for male couples and single men. Telehealth intake appointments are available, lowering the friction of a first consultation for out-of-area or out-of-state patients.

Diagnostic and Supportive Services: Fertility testing (hormonal panels, semen analysis, saline sonography), recurrent pregnancy loss evaluation, PCOS management, and treatment for premature ovarian insufficiency are all listed. Free weekly patient support groups, mental health counseling, and nutritional guidance round out the support infrastructure — services that many high-volume practices do not provide in-house.

Success Rates and How to Read Them

ACRM is a SART member clinic with verified lab accreditation, and its data is reported annually to the CDC/SART database — the two most authoritative public sources for U.S. fertility outcomes. You can review SART's multi-year clinic summary directly.

The practice takes an unusually transparent approach to explaining why its internally published rates may differ from what appears on SART.org: their charts use "number of women who received an embryo transfer" as the denominator, while CDC/SART data divides by every patient who had a retrieval or even a new-patient visit. Neither method is dishonest; they measure different things. Patients evaluating success rates should use our guide to IVF success rates by age to contextualize any clinic's numbers against national age-adjusted benchmarks. ACRM cited approximately 800 babies born through the practice in 2021 — a volume figure suggesting meaningful cycle throughput at a dedicated private practice.

National recognition includes Newsweek's America's Best Fertility Clinics in both 2023 and 2024, an OptumHealth Center of Excellence designation, and Aetna Institute of Excellence status — the last two particularly relevant for patients navigating insurance, as these network designations sometimes unlock benefit tiers.

The Atlanta Competitive Landscape and the Insurance Gap

Atlanta is one of the most competitive fertility markets in the Southeast. ACRM's direct peers include Reproductive Biology Associates (RBA), one of the most established IVF programs in the country; Pinnacle Fertility (actively expanding in metro Atlanta); and academic programs at Emory University and Northside Hospital. RBA has deep SART history and research output; Emory offers academic-medicine credentials; Pinnacle competes on pricing and multi-cycle packages.

ACRM differentiates on three pillars: the CCRM lab network, a five-REI team that prevents single-physician bottlenecks, and a three-site footprint covering Perimeter, Buckhead, and Marietta. The Castle Connolly #1 state ranking carries real marketing weight in a market where patients research heavily — see our fertility clinics in Georgia roundup for a side-by-side view.

One factor that bears emphasizing: Georgia has no fertility insurance mandate. Unlike states such as Massachusetts or Illinois, Georgia employers are under no obligation to cover IVF or other ART services. That puts the full cost — often $15,000–$20,000 per IVF cycle before medications — on patients or their employers' voluntary benefit packages. ACRM partially addresses this through multi-cycle packages (the "Assure" and "Multi-Cycle" programs), a partnership with Future Family financing, and a military discount. Patients should also use our fertility insurance by state guide to verify whether their employer plan includes any IVF coverage before assuming they are uninsured for treatment. For broader cost context, see IVF cost by state.

If you are still weighing whether ACRM is the right fit against other Atlanta options, our how to choose a fertility clinic framework covers the questions worth asking at your first consultation — including how to benchmark a clinic's published rates against your own clinical profile.

Rating in Context: 4.3 Stars / 310 Reviews

ACRM's 4.3-star rating across 310 reviews is a credible score for a high-volume IVF center. Practices that treat the most complex cases — recurrent implantation failure, poor ovarian reserve, repeated cycle failures — inevitably collect a broader range of patient experiences than boutique practices. A 4.3 at 300-plus reviews reflects genuine operational volume. Patient feedback consistently highlights physician responsiveness and the in-house mental health and support services as meaningful differentiators.

Considering At-Home Insemination?

Not every fertility journey begins in a clinic. At-home intracervical insemination (ICI) is a lower-cost, private option that suits patients with no known fertility diagnosis — including single parents by choice, same-sex couples, and people who want to try a few cycles before committing to clinical treatment.

At-home insemination kits like those from MakeAMom come with step-by-step instructions designed for donor or partner sperm. Kits are a one-time purchase that can be reused until conception succeeds, require no clinic visit, and arrive in plain, discreet packaging. Many patients use them as a first step while working toward a fertility consultation — or alongside ovulation tracking while they wait for an appointment slot.

If you have a known fertility diagnosis, have been trying for 12 months without success (six months if you're over 35), or your physician has already recommended IUI or IVF, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist is the right next step.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does ACRM accept patients from outside Georgia, and can I start the process remotely?

Yes. ACRM offers telehealth intake appointments, which means patients located outside the Atlanta metro — or those whose initial schedules make in-person visits difficult — can complete an initial consultation remotely. Monitoring appointments (bloodwork and ultrasounds) can often be performed at a local OB/GYN or imaging center and results forwarded to ACRM, though egg retrieval and embryo transfer require on-site visits at one of the three Atlanta-area locations.

What does ACRM's CCRM network affiliation mean for my embryo lab work?

Under the CCRM partnership, ACRM's embryology and clinical laboratories are managed by CCRM rather than operated as a standalone private lab. In practice this means standardized culture media, equipment specifications, and quality-control audits aligned with one of the most scrutinized IVF lab networks in the U.S. Patients whose embryos are biopsied for PGT benefit from protocols refined across the broader CCRM network's case volume. ACRM physicians retain full control of all clinical decisions; the partnership affects lab operations, not your treatment plan.

How does Georgia's lack of a fertility insurance mandate affect costs at ACRM?

Georgia does not require health insurers or employers to cover IVF or most fertility treatments, so most patients pay out-of-pocket unless their employer voluntarily offers an infertility benefit. ACRM holds OptumHealth Center of Excellence and Aetna Institute of Excellence designations, which can unlock favorable network tiers for patients whose plans include some fertility coverage. For uninsured patients, ACRM offers multi-cycle programs and financing through Future Family. Reviewing your Summary of Benefits and Explanation of Benefits before your first appointment — and consulting our state-by-state insurance guide — is the most reliable way to understand your actual financial exposure before beginning treatment.