You may be wondering do Chinese Herbs help success with Infertility? Traditional Chinese Medicine has a good reputation with Women's Health and producing results. Let's take a closer look at Chinese Herbs & how it supports better Fertility in more detail.
Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM has two main branches from it; Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Medicine. TCM has a philosophy of restoring the body back to a natural balance of Qi & Blood Flow. But how does that translate into helping your fertility?
8 Things You didn't know about Chinese Herbal Medicine & Infertility.
- Helps manage endometriosis - pain & menstrual flow
If you've been diagnosed with Endometriosis or are not sure you have it and experience severe period pain. There are Herbs that 'move blood stagnation', stop pain and smooth out the clots in your menstrual flow. With endometriosis being a hurdle to fertility, using Chinese Herbs to start combating this condition is a sensible step. Another issue with people with endometriosis is that their temperature charts can be lower than normal ranges for the follicular and luteal phases. This means using herbs to help Kidney energy can help raise them up to normal standards again.
2. Can regulate and shorten a Long cycle - no or poor ovulation
In the case of PCOS where you may not be ovulating regularly and there are long silent weeks and sometimes months in between your menstrual periods, herbs can be useful. Moving stagnation with Liver herbs, strengthening Kidney energy will start to tighten a long cycle and get you ovulating more frequently. Because Ovulation is essential for any natural fertility attempts, and this is the hurdle with PCOS, addressing anovulation should be your number one priority.
3. Can regulate a short cycle - low energy reserves
Women experiencing a short cycle often are deficient in something. The energy and blood and nutrition required to ovulate and menstruate must be of a level where there is no room for weakness, deficiency and poor functioning. Chinese Herbs can be used to strengthen the Spleen and Kidney, Nourish the Qi & Blood. The next best thing to herbs is taking a bone broth like this one. Women experiencing Infertility can typically manifest low iron, have a low libido, are lethargic or tired all the time.
Remember, Fertility is a sign that your body is generally functioning at optimal levels. Because in a perfect world, when everything is working well, and your body is happy, you are fertile.
When you're finding it challenging to conceive, it's common for you to have symptoms indicating your "weak spots". That's what TCM means when they're talking about deficiency.
Fertility means you're energised, strong and healthy. Infertility is an indicator you need some R & R, nourishment and support of some kind. Your TCM Practitioner's job is to narrow down to the specific deficiency needing to be addressed and so follows with the appropriate acupuncture and herbal prescription.
4. Improve Sperm Quality - tired and wired
For men, sperm quality can be enhanced by using Chinese Herbs. In Chinese Medicine they talk about strengthening a substance with a substance. Meaning Herbs are considered a good option for deficiencies in blood, body fluids, sperm and egg quality.
Scientific trials report that sperm morphology and virility are improved with TCM. The approach is to use Kidney herbs to strengthen the yin, yang and Jing. (You can read more about the importance of Jing here. You can read more about Yin here.) This is because typically men presenting with low sperm count may have a few lifestyle factors such as high stress, high work pressures, smoking or alcohol, poor hydration, poor sleep, anxiety and more. This begins to paint a picture of Adrenal Exhaustion, where the stress on the body is so high that the restorative, calming state isn't experienced much by this person anymore.
[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""]It's a vicious cycle of stress & anxiety building with no reprieve and completely exhausts the body, to the point that it shows up on the cellular level in the form of your sperm quality.[/perfectpullquote]
5. Improve Egg Quality - tired and wired
The female counterpart to the previous point, shows up as poor egg quality or months or years of attempting natural conception to no avail. It is more urgent for the woman with Low AMH, as their ovarian reserve may be limited and so is their time to try and conceive. Maximising egg quality becomes paramount to increase the chances of successful conception. Again using Herbs to benefit the Kidney Yin, Yang and Jing is the approach, as these women are also very hard on themselves and stress will be high amid other lifestyle factors promoting a stress state, rather than a restorative and recovery state to improve fertility. The herbs supplement this picture nicely, assisting the body to do just that. Recover.
6. Manage PMS - the emotional rollercoaster
PMS isn't necessarily a hurdle to fertility, but it may be a hurdle to a relationship with the woman experiencing the full highs and lows of her hormone imbalances. PMS is a signal that hormones might need regulating though and Chinese Herbs can certainly help in that department. Liver herbs come to the rescue here and help soothe the mind, relax the body and regulate a bumpy cycle. The more regulated the qi, the more likely a menstrual period will come on time and the woman will be happier, feeling calm and more balanced than she has ever felt.
There is no one way with treating any of these conditions. More that, a Registered TCM Practitioner will give you a TCM diagnosis after taking your pulse and looking at your tongue to gather more information. It is this full case history and treatment process that reveal what your TCM Diagnosis and body type is. Without that, Chinese Herbal Medicine is a stab in the dark. Under a registered Chinese Herbal Medicine Practitioner, the deliberate prescription of a classic Chinese Herbal Formula and understanding the intricacies of each herb and their contribution to the treatment strategy is needed to fully benefit from taking Chinese Herbal Medicine.
I highly recommend you try Chinese Herbs as part of your Fertility plans as they can achieve results faster when included with Acupuncture. There are some instances where you need to check if taking herbs is appropriate for your case and this would be:
- Taking any medications
- Taking any IVF drugs or fertility drugs (first round)
You do need to discuss with your doctor. Check out my FB Live video about Chinese Herbs and side effects here or the blogpost on the same topic here.
