number of days of blood flow; the thickness, colour, and odour of the blood; and the extent of abdominal pain and bloating, fatigue, and headaches before, during, and after menses.
In TCM, these details reflect a woman’s overall state of health and degree of balance within the environment in which she hopes to grow a baby. The information I gather provides a baseline for the way a woman’s body and reproductive system are functioning. I provide information to help my patient better align her body to receive life. For Vanessa, I did acupuncture at specific sites with the goal of sending a message to her brain to release certain hormones, while inhibiting others to decrease her menstrual symptoms and improve her reproductive balance.
Vanessa chose to monitor her cycle through the fertility clinic. Beginning on the third day of her cycle, the woman returns to the clinic almost daily for blood tests and a transvaginal or intrauterine ultrasound, in which a technician inserts a transducer (phallic-shaped probe) covered with a condom and lube into the vagina and blood tests. The ultrasound counts the number of antral follicles (ovarian follicles that contain eggs) the woman has and tracks their growth, while the blood tests measure hormone levels.
Initially, these tests may be performed every couple of days, increasing to daily as the time for ovulation approaches. The woman may also receive injectable hormones to incite superovulation, which stimulates the ovaries to create more than one egg, increasing the chance of conception. Cycle monitoring and injectable hormones prepare the woman for timed intercourse or IUI. During IUI, a catheter deposits pre-washed sperm (the normal and denser sperm, which is separated by a centrifuge from the semen and less viable sperm) directly into the uterus. (Think of it as the turkey-baster method.)
Vanessa immediately underwent three consecutive rounds of cycle monitoring with injectable hormones, followed by IUI. She conceived after the first IUI, but the pregnancy only lasted a few days. This is termed a chemical pregnancy as there was nothing visible to show she was pregnant. After two more IUI cycles without conceiving, Vanessa was disappointed, but the one positive pregnancy test gave her the courage to have a small uterine polyp (benign growth) removed in case it was a factor in preventing implantation.
After the surgery, Vanessa and Robert decided to try IVF. Although she conceived the first time, it was an ectopic pregnancy, which occurs when the fetus develops outside of the uterus, typically in one of the fallopian tubes. She then had to wait several months before trying IVF again. After the second IVF, she conceived again, but the fetus had trisomy 18, a chromosomal abnormality, and Vanessa miscarried in the second trimester. She waited another six months before trying a third IVF, which was unsuccessful.
Using TCM to balance your life
At this point, nearly four years had passed since Vanessa and Robert first visited the fertility clinic. She’d had several IUI cycles and three IVF treatments, and had taken countless fertility drugs. During this time, Vanessa would come to my clinic for treatment but then disappear for long stretches of time. Often women take breaks from treatment, sometimes to mourn the loss of a baby through miscarriage.
After one of her breaks, Vanessa came to me for a relaxing acupuncture treatment and caught me up on her journey. She felt frustrated, like nothing she did was ever enough, she couldn’t make the right choices, and things were out of her control. She worked hard to control the things she could, such as what she ate and drank.
We talked about how even eating and drinking must happen in balance. Many women I see obsess about their food intake, convinced that eating a spotlessly healthy diet will boost their chances of conception. Vanessa wasn’t giving herself much leeway; at her mother’s birthday she felt bad for not eating any birthday cake. When her mother said one piece wouldn’t kill her, she took a small piece but felt guilty about cheating. Imagine the stress of thinking a single piece of cake could ruin her chances of conceiving, thus wasting all the time, money, and effort they’d already invested. This is just not the way it works!
In Chinese medicine, we believe in living a balanced life. We expect you to eat and drink in order to nourish yourself physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If you have cut gluten, sugar, and dairy out of your diet and feel deprived, I say you are out of balance. Perhaps, instead of depriving yourself, you could consider healthier treats. For example, instead of a Mars Bar, you could buy some organic dark Belgian chocolate and eat with reckless abandon once in a while.
Eating for fertility: What to eat
The following tips will not only create a better environment for conception but will help you grow a healthy baby too:
•In general, pick easy recipes with simple ingredients and choose whole, unprocessed, high-fibre foods.
•Make soups with bone broth, ideally homemade. Bone marrow contains precursor cells for red and white blood cells. In TCM, the marrow is considered Jing essence, or kidney energy, which controls reproductive energy. Some people consider beef bones superior because the marrow is more concentrated, but they must also be cooked longer. With more and more people avoiding red meat, I recommend chicken bones and cartilage. Regardless, all bone marrow is very digestible yet filled with minerals (calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus), as well as good fats and simple proteins. (See sidebar on page 14 for a recipe for chicken bone broth soup.)
•Eat organic foods where possible to avoid pesticides and additives, which have been shown to cause menstrual irregularity, miscarriage, stillbirths, and developmental defects, as well as reducing fertility and increasing time-to-pregnancy.3
•For lunch and dinner, fill half your plate with cooked vegetables, such as spinach, zucchini, leeks, string beans, lettuce, sugar snap peas, Swiss chard, carrots, alfalfa sprouts, peppers, artichokes, cucumbers, asparagus, dill, avocado, eggplant, bamboo shoots, escarole, sauerkraut, beans, seaweed, beets, onions, cilantro, parsley, garlic, mushrooms, okra, tomatoes, olives, celery, water chestnuts, peas, and ginger root. These vegetables help keep the body alkaline, creating a healthy environment for sperm to thrive.4 They also provide lots of nutrients, including vitamins A, C, B6, B12, K, beta carotene, calcium, vitamin E, folate, iron, niacin, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, and selenium, all of which are vital to your overall health as well as to making a baby. Veggies are also good sources of dietary fibre, which keeps your bowels healthy and regular.
•In addition to the above vegetables, eat plenty of cruciferous vegetables, such as bok choy, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, collard greens, turnips, and radishes. Research has shown cruciferous vegetables help to detoxify carcinogenic cells and reduce oxidative stress. In TCM, these vegetables are believed to help the liver cleanse your body of toxins (which is its primary role in our bodies) and excess hormones (which may accumulate during fertility treatments).
•Eat iodine-rich foods. Eating only cruciferous vegetables can reduce your iodine levels, which are essential to proper thyroid function, and thyroid function is essential to hormone production. You can counteract this by eating dried sea vegetables such as seaweed, wakame, hijiki, dulse, kombu, and kelp. In addition, Himalayan Crystal salts, cod fish, plain yoghurt, boiled eggs, navy beans, cranberries, strawberries, and supplemental iodine can keep your iodine levels healthy.
NOTE: Do not supplement with iodine or eat too much iodine if you have a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s disease, where your body attacks your own thyroid gland, which is responsible for releasing hormones into your body. If in doubt, minimize iodine-containing foods, as an excess can be bad for your health, but consult a health care practitioner with extensive knowledge of supplements.
•Diversify your food intake to maximize nutritional benefits from a variety
