How I Treat Fertility (Pre-Natal)
Traditional Chinese Medicine has a fundamental doctrine: treat the same disease differently when the roots are different, and treat different diseases the same when the root is the same.
How I treat fertility is how I treat any other condition. In my view, unless there is a structural blockage (congenital or acquired) or structural change (from trauma or surgery) in the reproductive organs, treating fertility is always about restoring the body’s normal function.
This is a broader idea than simply making the reproductive organs work properly.
When the reproductive organs themselves have functional issues — irregular menstruation, painful menstruation, impotence — the first priority is to restore those functions. But when reproductive function appears normal in every respect, the work shifts to helping the whole body stop struggling to get through the day. If you have bowel issues, migraines, poor sleep, or chronic pain, your body will default to survival mode. Energy is finite, and most of it will go toward staying afloat rather than reproducing. The body always prioritizes survival over reproduction — that is the principle to understand.
For this reason, my treatment shifts constantly with the patient in front of me. It depends on where a female patient is in her menstrual cycle, how the patient slept the night before, whether they had a bowel movement that morning, how their pre-existing conditions are behaving, and so on.
Patients aren’t trained to read what the body is saying — we are. In Traditional Chinese Medicine school, we learn to observe the body, tongue, and face; to detect odors from the mouth, feet, and occasionally flatulence; to ask the right questions; and to palpate the body, including the pulse, in order to interpret the signals the body is sending. Part of my work is teaching patients to recognize the signals most relevant to them, so they stay connected to their own bodies between visits.
People often call and ask, “I’m about to start trying — when is a good time to begin treatment?” If my philosophy above makes sense to you, the answer is simple: as soon as possible. The body is never in perfect homeostasis for long, so there is always something we can work on together to improve your chances.
