Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, Xilin F. Jordan, L.Ac.

Fertility Concepts

A poetic fertility meditation

A mother is a garden. When we garden with flowers, plants and vegetables, the richness and Ph of the soil, the right climate for the specific species, the wind and bees transporting the pollen, the plants and the water they need to grow, the enrichment by fertilization, and the removal of weeds that can steal nourishment — all these processes have their correspondences in the processes of human reproduction (the gardening of mothers) — correspondences, namely, in the mothers’ abundance of qi, blood and other body fluids, balanced hormones, functioning nervous systems, optimal ranges of Ph and temperature, and finally, pure, clean, detoxified bodies. This is the goal toward which we work, both you as patients and we as practitioners. Let us indeed work together so as thus to allow nature to manifest its glory!

In the United States, even with modern medical techniques involving ingested hormones, IUIs, IVFs, and sperm and egg donations, the treatment of infertility has a success rate of below 50 percent. Many women who undergo one or more of the several types of interventions end up suffering from emotional and physical trauma and discomfort caused by manipulation of the hormones and creation of artificial menstrual cycles.

Our view of infertility, as TCM physicians, encompasses both physiological obstacles and mental blockages. Inasmuch as body and mind form a unified entity, physical issues may not stem solely from environmental or genetic factors. Internal emotions as well as external stress, nutrition, diet and lifestyle may contribute equally to infertility.

A successful fertility journey requires four key conditions:

  • Production of a healthy egg
  • Smooth and healthy fallopian tubes to deliver the eggs
  • Quality and quantity of sperm to be able to meet with the eggs
  • Safe embedding of a fertilized egg into a well nourished uterine lining

We help patients to improve their fertility by eliminating anything that may prevent or obstruct the four key requirements for a successful fertility cycle. Thus we have treated patients for:

  • Unhealthy ovaries, i.e. fibroids, cysts, endometriosis
  • Immunological issues such as hypothyroid malfunctioning

  • Irregular, painful, unhealthy and abnormal menstruations
  • Flat levels of basal body temperature
  • Hormonal imbalances, high FSH, luteal phase defects
  • Tubal blockages
  • Poor ovarian responses
  • Recurrent miscarriages
  • Defective functioning of the male reproductive system

Treatment

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treats patients holistically through the use of herbs and meridian energy work. Clinical research has demonstrated the effectiveness of TCM in the treatment of infertility.

The goals of our fertility treatment plans are five-fold:

  • Regulate the menses, and minimize any PMS, by regulating the liver qi and blood, eliminating blood stagnation, establishing a proper basal body temperature, warming and energizing the uterus, and eliminating pain.
  • Enhance the endocrine system and hormonal balance, utilizing the power of the acupuncture (meridian) network, facilitate communication in the hormonal feedback system, along the hypothalamic--pituitary – ovarian axis. Thereby, also, regulate ovulation and maintain a sufficient luteal phase.
  • Acupuncture stimulation and herbal supplements to replenish the kidney essence, increase the flow of abundant blood to the various systems, including to the uterus, thus increasing the chances of ovum implantation, while thinning the endometrial linings and regulating the beneficial cervical fluid.
  • Strengthening the immune system, increasing libido, improving motility, mobility and quantity of sperm, promoting relaxation, detoxifying the body and enhancing the secretion of endorphins.
  • Provide ongoing service, on an on-call basis, to patients, especially those undergoing IVF or IUI interventions. Follow patients' biological clocks and collaborate with reproductive endocrinologists’ procedure schedules, accordingly providing treatments with various modalities suited to promote successful conception.

The most common related issues that we have encountered and successfully treated include:

  • Morning sickness
  • Insomnia
  • Threatened miscarriage
  • Backaches and sciatica
  • Pregnancy hypertension
  • Breech babies
  • Labor preparation and induction
  • Postpartum Syndrome

Highly personalized individual treatment, when possible, can speed up the fertility process:

We design acupuncture and herbal formulas specifically for your personal case, often with more or less subtle differentiations even for patients who present with the same western diagnosis. That is because the identical western diagnosis (essentially of symptomatology) need not point to identical causation or origin of the pathology. Thus with problems of fertility, too, we seek and treat the underlying causes and address issues that may not be immediately manifest.

For example, in the case of two patients who came in with the same diagnosis of unexplained infertility with serious clotting in the menstrual periods. One patient was overweight and suffering from hypothyroidism, with unpleasant headaches. According to our diagnosis, her infertility was caused by “phlegm dampness”, which means that the body had accumulated much extra fat and phlegm dampness that obstructed the free flow of Qi and of blood and the fertile energy. We regulated her menstrual period and got rid of the rice-like foamy clots in her menstrual blood, eliminated her cramps, and used herbal formulae to clear the phlegm-dampness. Subsequently, the patient’s headaches disappeared, she lost weight, and then got pregnant naturally, without any surgical intervention or the use of fertility medications commonly prescribed for fertility patients.

The other case involved blood stagnation. This patient had suffered ever since her first period from menstrual cramping. The blood clots had thus been a regular part of her life for many years. Her PMS quickly responded to our treatment and, as the PMS disappeared, so did (after two full cycles) the blood clotting. The patient was able to conceive and experience a natural pregnancy.