The difference between Western reproductive medicine and TCM in their approach to infertility treatment

Western reproductive medicine can do the following: promote follicular development with certain drugs, promote ovulation with other drugs, perform intrauterine insemination and in vitro fertilization. Western reproductive surgeons can also perform surgeries often necessary to create a fertile environment where polyps, fibroids, uterine abnormalities, and cervical abnormalities are present. Without these types of interventions, many infertile women would never have children.

Traditional Chinese medicine can often regulate systemic dysfunction naturally. That means that TCM can contribute to helping the PCOS patient ovulate without Clomid or perhaps with a lesser amount of Clomid. In the morbidly obese PCOS patient, weight loss is paramount to increasing the ability to conceive because excess fat stores androgens and converts androgens to estrogens, thus creating a hormonal imbalance that is unlikely to allow conception. . Acupuncture and herbal medicine along with exercise and lifestyle changes can make weight loss and the health benefits that come with it possible.

In the patient with endometriosis, acupuncture and herbal medicine cannot eradicate endometriosis but they can reduce the inflammatory environment associated with this disease. An interesting example of this is the patient with stage 1 endometriosis who has no pelvic distortion but is unable to become pregnant. Why not? Her husband’s sperm is fine and, other than endometriosis, there are no contributing factors to the state of infertility. Even other autoimmune disorders have been ruled out as possible contributing factors. Infertility stems from an inflammatory intrauterine environment that destroys embryos or makes the lining of the uterus inhospitable to an embryo trying to implant. Acupuncture and herbal medicine can often regulate this environment by reducing this inflammatory process.

male factor. Many men have a low sperm count as a result of a minor vericocele. Surgeons do not operate on minor vericoceles because the benefit does not outweigh this risk. The cause of a vericocele is the accumulation, stagnation and overheating of blood in the pampiniform plexus. The pampiniform plexus refers to the veins of the testicles. The heat that kills sperm is caused by pooling and stagnation of blood. Acupuncture and herbs can strongly move the qi (energy, metabolism, circulation) and blood in the testicles. As a result of this, the blood is less frozen, the blood flow is more functional and the heat decreases, which contributes to increasing the sperm count. Even in the face of a major vericocele, surgical results are successful 50% of the time. This means that even with surgery, there is a 50/50 chance that the count will remain low. One of the reasons for this is that long-term blood stagnation and heat in the testicles causes tissue necrosis (death) and sperm cannot be produced properly.

The determination of success can only be made after surgery. Recovery time after surgery is six months. The reason this is the case is because the swelling caused by the surgery takes a long time to reduce. The use of acupuncture and herbal medicines after a vericocelectomy shortens recovery time by approximately two months, bringing the total recovery time to four months instead of six. Men with a sperm abnormality should refrain from taking hot baths, saunas, or riding a bicycle for long periods of time, as all these activities facilitate the increase in testicular temperature.

What about the patient who wants to do IVF with her own eggs but her FSH is 20 and her doctor says that the only option is the donor egg? The doctor, essentially, is right. He or she views this patient as someone who will not respond to gonadotropin stimulation and will therefore produce very few or no eggs to justify continuing the IVF cycle. So, the reproductive endocrinologist offers the option to donate eggs with complete integrity and with the best interest of the patient in mind. But this is what I have witnessed on more than a few occasions: I will treat the patient with acupuncture and herbal medicine and her numbers will regulate. Not necessarily at a ‘perfect’ level, but at levels that will make it easier for the reproductive endocrinologist to have a ‘second look’. Subsequently, many IVF cycles have been completed with many successful results and also many failures. But I choose not to give too much importance to failures. They are the successes that would never have happened if acupuncture and herbal medicine had not been used on the patient who was told that egg donation was the only option. In other words, the inclusion of TCM only has positive potential.

Implantation failure accounts for a substantial amount of infertility. Almost every patient I have reports that their lining is “beautiful” according to their reproductive endocrinologist. However, the scientific truth is that lining morphology is not analogous to intraendometrial vascularity. This means that although the lining may be thick, it does not mean that there is enough blood flow to the lining. For this reason, sometimes, even in the absence of any observable or diagnosable pathology, infertility manifests itself. Acupuncture and herbal medicine have been shown to increase endometrial vascularity and therefore increase implantation potential.

The idiopathic patient. Idiopathy means ‘without known cause’. What ‘no known cause’ means is that the limited Western medical diagnostic capabilities available today can only diagnose what they can, not what they can’t. In other words, there are many undiagnosable causes of infertility that have yet to be discovered and to date have no cure. Over time, this will change. This is in no way intended as a derisive comment on Western reproductive medicine. IVF has brought millions of children into the world and created many happy families. These successes would not have been possible in the ‘infertile population’ before the advent of this incredible technological advance.

Traditional Chinese medicine, based on its diagnostic method, does not have, as part of its medical vocabulary, a word that is analogous to ‘idiopathic’. In other words, all cases of infertility can be diagnosed and treated. There are no mysteries or impossible cases. Each and every one of the cases can be analyzed, differentiated, diagnosed and treated.

TCM can often establish a treatment protocol where Western medicine has nothing to offer other than a donated egg. TCM uses specific herbal formulas prescribed for a particular patient for a particular disorder, taking into account the patient as a whole, as well as her pathology. The whole person is treated, not just the person’s disease. What does the “whole person” really mean? It means that if the patient has a bad marriage, has low libido, chronic headaches, arthritis, depression, anxiety, frustration, history of surgeries, history of psycho-emotional trauma, a job he hates, a dying mother, low self-esteem. -esteem, a smoker, a drinker, a stress eater, etc., etc., these things can contribute to her infertility.

As? Because the mind, the spirit and the body are inextricably connected. Not convinced? Ok, so why, when you are very stressed you get a headache or a stomach ache. Why do you have no energy when you are very depressed? Why do you feel more empowered when you pray? Why is it that when you look better you feel better and when you feel better you have more energy and when you have more energy you are less likely to get sick and when you don’t get sick often you are not chronically depressed?

Because the mind, the spirit and the body are inextricably connected. This is why TCM doctors treat the whole person; just treating the disease is like treating a cancer patient with painkillers for the pain of it.

This is why the best case scenario in treating reproductive disorders (as well as all disorders) is to integrate both methods of medical expertise. The TCM app will help make the western reproductive medical protocol successful in a shorter period of time. Or TCM can be the difference between success and failure in the western medical environment; remember, IVF has a 30% success rate, which conversely means it has a 70% failure rate.

Herbs. Herbal medicine, when prescribed by a Board Certified Herbalist, is not only safe, but safer than Western drugs. Can herbs “interfere” with western medicine in an IVF cycle? No. I have been giving herbs to patients while they have been taking western medicine for thirteen years. All that has happened is the production of babies. Could the western medical system be threatened by herbs or acupuncture? I leave that to you to answer.

Here is a medical proof. If you had a choice to do one thing that could improve your chances of conception, it would be:

1. Meditating

2. Praying

3. Yoga

4. Acupuncture

5. Herbal medicine

6. Change your diet

7. Reduce stress

You are right; all this will help. But can you identify the two things above that have a three thousand year history of successful infertility treatment? There are only two on the list.

What I find surprising is that all infertile couples do not include acupuncture and herbal medicine as part of their protocol to conceive. Some people say they “don’t believe in it.” How can you not believe in something that has been scientifically proven to be effective in countless Western scientific studies? To the best of my knowledge, very few studies have been done on herbal medicine and fertility outcomes, but many acupuncture studies have been completed.

I am a strong supporter and firm believer in Western reproductive medicine. But TCM has been successfully treating infertility for 2,930 years longer than Western medicine. And I want parity. Not because of my ego or because of the validation of the medicine that I practice with such pride, but because parity will allow real care for the patient; better patient care than we currently have; more successful outcomes, more families given to those who should but cannot have them.

Based on the information I have provided here, my conclusion is that not using Traditional Chinese Medicine as part of an assisted reproductive medical protocol is indeed very short-sighted.