West and East: Two Paths to Health
For a moment, we'll put aside whatever Western diagnosis you may have received: high FSH? early menopause? unexplained infertility? thin uterine lining or poor egg quality? Instead, let's look at your body the way a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine might.
In general, a Western physician diagnoses illness based on the patient's complaints and treats it by applying solutions that have worked on other patients with the same symptoms. A practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine also listens to the patient's complaints, but before she prescribes a course of treatment, she also checks the patient's weather.
A practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine would ask about your body when diagnosing your condition. She would explore your health - top to bottom, inside and out - using five traditional methods of investigation: 1) Asking: A practitioner will inquire about your life and your health. 2) Observing: She will note both your appearance (including face, eyes, and tongue) and behavior. 3) Smelling: Does your breath or your body have a fresh or stagnant odor? Sweet or acrid? 4) Listening: She will listen not only to what you say, but also to the exact words you choose; to the timber, tone, and volume of your voice; to the sound of your breathing. 5) Feeling: She'll check your body temperature and assess your pulses. (In Traditional Chinese Medicine, we consult more than one pulse, and we do more than count the beats. We assess the quality of each pulse: Weak or strong? Wiry or smooth? Rising or sinking?)
All of these observations are woven together into a diagnosis that describes a specific pattern of disharmony within your body.
In making a diagnosis, an Eastern practitioner considers things most Western physicians don't take into account, such as if you are feeling angry, sad, fearful, or worried. An Eastern practitioner will also pay attention to your body's "essences." Although there are several essences critical to our health - some familiar to us (phlegm, semen), some not (Jing, the primordial energy that passes to us at conception; and Shen, our spiritual and creative energy) - we will focus on the two that are most important to fertility: Qi, the life-force energy of all things; and Blood, the fluid that nourishes every aspect of our bodies.
Qi - (pronounced "chee") is the body's most dynamic, immediate energy. It animates all things, and it is everywhere; in animals and plants, in oceans and rivers, in the food we eat, in the pulsation of the cosmos itself. Qi supports growth, change, and transformation. It enables us to maintain the structure of our bodies. The good news is that, although we cannot change the Qi we are born with, Qi can be transformed. For example, the Qi of illness can be changed into healthy Qi through medicine, meditation, and exercise.
Blood - As it circulates, propelled by the Qi of our hearts, Blood moistens and nourishes our bodies. Through its constant motion, it ensures that we remain vital, not stagnant, by feeding the organs that create and control Qi. It is critical that we keep our Blood healthy. We can do this, in part, through the foods we eat. A healthful diet is an important tool in enhancing Blood's contribution to fertility.
As you might imagine, Traditional Chinese Medicine takes a different approach to defining infertility, based on the idea of whole-person health. Instead of looking at conditions related strictly to your reproductive organs, Eastern medicine looks at the manifestation of illness across the entire person: body and emotions; external symptoms and internal weather; the health of Blood and Qi; balance between Yin and Yang; congruency among Head, Heart, and Gut; and harmony or disharmony among the Five Elements.
In my more than 30 years of practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine, particularly my last 20 years specializing in fertility enhancement, I've learned to quickly recognize common fertility-impairing "weather reports" among men and women, regardless of their Western diagnoses.
In women, fertility challenges result from disharmonies of the Blood.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine there are three organs that affect how Blood functions in the body. The Heart powers blood circulation. The Liver stores Blood. And the Spleen governs the vessels that transport Blood throughout the body. In women, when any one of these organs is compromised, Blood may be out of harmony and fertility impaired.
We can have the biggest impact on Blood disharmonies by altering our intake of the substances from which Blood is derived: food and drink.; by practicing a few simple acupressure, meditation, and exercise techniques; and by breathing in harmony with nature.
Roughly 40 percent of fertility clients come to our clinic with a diagnosis of unexplained infertility. These are women whose blood work shows normal hormone levels; women with normal uterine linings and no detected scar tissue, ovarian cysts, or fibroids; women whose youth and seemingly healthy eggs should produce healthy babies; women whose partners have healthy sperm. But for some reason, these women are unable to conceive.
Often the frustration of such a diagnosis becomes a health issue in itself: Stressed from the constant pressures of tracking cycles, taking temperatures, scheduling appointments, and watching every month with no sign of a baby, these women are often fatigued, depleted, discouraged, anxious, or depressed, and in no emotional state to conceive.
For many of the women I see, getting pregnant is no problem. Staying pregnant is. In fact, statistics show that roughly 20 percent of pregnancies end in first-trimester miscarriages. As women who've followed our program successfully after multiple miscarriages will tell you, a gentle, centered life that includes plenty of restful sleep (and no disruptive exercise or travel) can make the difference between staying pregnant and just getting pregnant.
All too often, women come into our clinic assuming that high FSH dooms them to intensive hormone therapy, intrauterine insemination, in vitro fertilization, donor eggs, or adoption. But, when they follow my program carefully, I've seen women who, at the outset of our work together, had FSH levels higher than 100 reduce their FSH (in one case, from 118 to 9) and conceive naturally. As they prepare their bodies for pregnancy, these women stay optimistic, committed, and focused on the good work they're doing to enhance their pregnancy odds, not on one number that limits their opportunities.
