Egg freezing  is becoming a popular option for women who plan to start a family later in life. Many reasons exist for considering egg freezing or oocyte vitrification: life trajectories driven by careers, lack of a partner, financial issues, disease, etc. Once the decision has been made to “freeze” eggs, women sometimes feel compelled to do the procedure as soon as possible due to fears of aging eggs. However, this rush might result in a less-than-desired outcome–that’s what I believe happened to Kate.

A few months ago, Kate, a 38 years old patient who just failed a frozen embryo transfer came to my office. She told me that she had frozen her eggs a few years ago but only had one embryo after her embryologist unfroze her eggs last month for fertilization. The pregnancy had not taken place after transfer.

I’ve seen many other similar cases in which women were in a hurry to deposit eggs without any preparation. They did it while they were under a lot of stress, while they were living unhealthy lifestyles. If our body not healthy, our cells aren’t healthy–and neither are our eggs. Preparing our bodies before we deposit our eggs is extremely important.

Kate listened to me and changed her lifestyle, went through acupuncture treatments and took herb supplements to improve circulation and balance hormones. This helped her become less stressed and healthier–which in turn improved her egg quality before she started another round of IVF. On the third month of our treatment plan, she became pregnant naturally. Now she is on her fifth month of pregnancy.

Kate’s story told us that preparing the body for egg banking is very important. Some women might end up not using deposited eggs for many years while they’re waiting for the right time to have a child. By that time, their ovarian reserve and egg quality may be already very low. They could lose the chance to have a biological baby if the quality of their frozen eggs are not good enough for them to conceive. In that case, it is not only a financial loss but a loss of biological time.

Endometriosis is a benign disease defined by the presence of endometrial glands and stroma outside the uterus, associated with both pelvic pain and infertility. There are features similar to cancer: in many cases of endometriosis, the endometrium spreads and grows in various places in the body, but it is not a cancer. Patients with endometriosis have damaged reproductive organs because the endometrial lining in the pelvic area sheds and causes bleeding when a normal period comes. The bleeding induces pelvic inflammation, adhesion and scar tissue.

When Cindy visited me for the first time, her eyes were wide open but empty, and the muscles in her face were tense. Her facial skin was very wrinkled. She did not look as young as most people her age. She spoke very fast and wanted to tell me all about her difficult life in a short period of time. She gave me the impression that she had a hard life with severe depression and anxiety.

I looked at the chart she filled out. She had written down about 6 medications she was taking at that time. She had suffered from headaches for more than 10 years and was taking pain medicine every day. She had been diagnosed with stage IV endome-triosis and also had a history of allergies, Fibromyalgia, anxiety, and depression. She was taking different kinds of medications from different doctors. She had taken birth control pills for almost 18 years before she tried to have a baby. And in the past ten years, she had had 3 laparoscopic procedures and surgery to clear the endometriosis. The last surgery had been two years ago and one of her ovaries was removed.

She had been trying to conceive for 2 years. She went through IUI and IVF treat-ment but all failed. Her doctor suggested that she use donor eggs because her AMH was only 0.16 ng/ml. She was worried about her reproductive ability, and she told me that if she couldn’t become pregnant in the future, her husband would divorce her.

“Can you help me” she asked with a doubtful look in her eyes. I told her that I would do my best to help her. What she needed to do was to change her lifestyle because she was extremely unhealthy, which meant her body was completely out of balance. Her menstrual cycle can significantly less frequently than the average 28 day cycle. During her period, her blood was dark red with clotting, and she experienced severe cramping. There was no cervical mucus at all during ovulation. She also suffered from anxiety and depression. She had difficulty falling asleep and often woke up in middle of the night. She had a high stress job. Her tongue was dark red with deep cracks in the middle.

After a long conversation, Cindy decided she wanted to try Chinese medicine and acupuncture. I outlined a treatment plan for her:

First, I suggested that she change her diet and consume more alkaline food to bal-ance her acidic body. She discontinued soda and coffee, which were acidic foods. She also increased her water intake. She ate all natural products and avoided dairy prod-ucts including cheese and milk.

Second, I suggested she ask her doctor to start slowly cutting down her medication. After two months of Chinese medicine and acupuncture treatment, she was able to live without medication. Her menstrual cycle went back to 28 days. Her menstrual cramp-ing was less severe—while she once rated the pain as a 10, it was now down to a 2. Her headache was 90 percent better, and she generally felt much better.

Finally, I recommended that she change her life style. She allowed herself to spend more spare time between tasks to decrease her stress and anxiety level. In addi-tion, she practiced meditation and breathing exercises to deal with stress.

With the help of Chinese medicine and a change in her lifestyle, four months later, she became pregnant! She had a level II sonogram on the 11th week of her pregnancy that showed the fetus was normal, and her blood work was perfect. Seven months later, she delivered a healthy baby boy.

Endometriosis is considered a disease of the hormone and immune systems, in which tissue similar to that of the uterus is also found elsewhere. We have found large degrees of relief through acupuncture and traditional Chinese herbal medicine. Cindy’s story told us that the modification of lifestyle and diet also helps patients significantly reduce symptoms of endometriosis.

“Waiting for Baby $55,000 and counting,” an article published in Time Magazine (read it here: http://time.com/money/page/waiting-for-baby/), details the devastating financial and emotional situation of the Zamipich couple. For many couples, the story may seem all too familiar. Carrie and Dan Zamipich have been struggling with infertility for five years. They pursued costly treatments, none of which worked but all of which dented their finances severely. Their debt mounting and Carrie’s biological clock ticking, they have now turned to treatment with an egg donor after multiple rounds of IVF. The article mentions a few helpful options to help minimize debt when considering costly treatments and surgeries, but what it doesn’t mention are the alternative options the couple had at the beginning of their journey. If I were the couple’s fertility consultant, I would advise them to enhance the probability of conception during the first treatment by preparing her body—through healthy diets and low stress environments, something extremely difficult when one is struggling to conceive and to pay off debt—for pregnancy.  This is the best way to minimize fertility costs.

In general, as women age after they turn 30, there is a progressive increase in the incidence of infertility, miscarriage, and birth defects due to declining egg quality. As a result, I focus the improvement of egg/embryo quality as the key treatment of infertility issue. In my clinic, I have seen over fifty cases of women who were over 40 years old but, after 3-6 months of acupuncture and herbal treatment, were able to conceive naturally or with the help of IVF.” I’ve also seen over hundreds of patients with low ovarian reserve who were also able to conceive with our help. Most of them had failed multiple IVF treatments before they visited us. In terms of cost, this is one of the most reasonable options—we only charge $90 per week for the acupuncture fertility program, which includes acupuncture and herbs (just a bit of shameless self-promotion).

But in all seriousness, maximizing your chances of conception from the beginning—and thus reducing the need for future treatments—through options like acupuncture and herbal medicine is the best way to minimize infertility costs.

Many women have problems with their period: period delays, light periods without ovulation, no periods without medication. Inexplicably, some women are overweight while others are exceedingly thin. Some might have excessive body hair, acne, or thinning hair. In many of these cases, these symptoms are a result of a multitude of small cysts in the ovaries, commonly referred to as symptoms of “pore-cysts ovarian”—PCOS. These cysts result from follicles that stop growing in the middle of the follicular phase. It might be that hormones like estrogen, LH, FSH and their receptors, insulin, IGH-II, aromatics and androgen etc. are out of balance. Others believe that it might be related to the performance of hypothalamus and pituitary gland. Even though previous research suggests that PCOS can be inherited, the causes of PCOS are still unknown. But like most other inherited diseases, unless it is stimulated by the environment, the disease does not manifest itself in the body. Especially for women with PCOS who have no family history of PCOS, diet and lifestyle are major contributors to the development and the alleviation of the disease.

When I first started seeing patients in the US many years ago, I discovered that there were many more patients with PCOS in America than in China. I wasn’t surprised for long—there were obvious differences between my patients in China and my current patients that seemed to contribute. For one, different long term diets affected the prevalence of PCOS. Patients’ diets in the Western world are generally imbalanced with a high intake of fats and carbohydrates and undersized portions of vegetables. In China, along with better standards of living and newfound open-mindedness to the world, the number of PCOS patients has also increased rapidly in Chinese population in last two decade—primarily because the Western lifestyle and diet  have also spread quickly. Overeating carbohydrates and refined sugar are conducive to weight gain. Overeating animal meat that contain hormones, antibiotics and their by-products that stay in our body will also impact women’s overall health, especially the functioning of the ovaries.  The original hormone balance in the ovaries has been disturbed because of these environmental changes within the body. The result of these changes makes women more susceptible to PCOS.

The manifestations of PCOS are complicated and vary from person to person. No two patients have the same exact condition. A patient with PCOS may have a blood test that presents an abnormal LH/FSH ratio, or high levels of androgen, or high levels of insulin resistance. It could also show that all these hormones are in the normal range or are slightly imbalanced. Medication has not always adequately treated all these different cases because PCOS is complicated. Some patients don’t respond well to any of the medication their doctors gave them or cannot get healthy eggs from a larger quantity of the mature follicles after stimulation. Medication for PCOS is often chemical, specifically targeted to one part of the body with side effects. But PCOS is very complicated with multiple imbalances in the entire body. It has not only problem in endocrine system but also circulation system, nerve system and metabolic system. Each case is very individualized, which means that PCOS can manifest itself in different ways in each individual. Simple medication cannot target all the factors that contribute to the disease.

Chinese herbal medicine is made from multiple herbs in different combinations to satisfy the need of individual PCOS patients. These personalized formulae are made from different herbs according to different conditions that a patient has.  The formula not only balances patients’ hormones and build up the receptors for those hormones  but also change the pelvic environment. Healing the pelvic environment allows the ovaries to more readily respond to the signals released from the hypothalamus-pituitary axis.   Just as we do not completely understand the causes of PCOS, we do not understand the pathology of the herbs used to heal—although perhaps science will fully explore these pathways one day.  Chinese medicine has developed from thousands years of accumulated experience. And in my practice, after treatment with Chinese medicine, many of my patients either have a healthy ovulation or conceive. In some cases, the patient conceived without having period while western medicine requires a period before stimulation. This treatment and its methods and technology are very different compared with western medicine. It is why even patients who had failed multiple IUI or IVF treatments were still able to conceive naturally with the help of Chinese medicine or were able to conceive through IVF or IUI treatments that they had previously failed.

For an example, my patient Anna, 30 years old, had just failed an IVF when she was referred to our clinic by her doctor. Anna never had her period without medication.. She was over weight (around 200 pounds) and had high levels of testosterone. Her hair was thinning on her head but she had extra hair growing on her abdomen and nipples. She tried to conceive after she married  4 years ago but she never got pregnant. She tried different medication such as metformin, clomiphin, follistim, letrozole and menopur etc.  but she still did not ovulate most of the time. When she did ovulate, she went through IUI but still never got pregnant. With her doctor’s suggestion she tried IVF. She produced 30 eggs in the IVF cycle but only transferred two embryo. She failed her first IVF. She visited our clinic in order to prepare the next IVF cycle.

When I first saw her, Anna hadn’t had a period in over two months since her last IVF cycle. With her condition, we decided that her egg quality was the main problem behind her failed IVF cycle because she only had two embryos that could be viably transferred in day-five-fertilization. I suggested that she change her diet to lose weight and improve the environment of her body, receive acupuncture once a week to improve her pelvic circulation to absorb the inflammation and the cysts, and take Chinese herb formula to balance her hormone levels to be ready for next IVF. Less than a  month treatment, she was able to successfully conceive her son—naturally, without going through a previous period.

I have seen many young women with PCOS who came to my clinic after they failed an IVF cycle. They were only in their twenties—and at that age, egg quality should not be a problem.  But they always produced low quality eggs and had great difficulty conceiving even with IUI and IVF. What caused these problems? I realized that most growing follicles during IVF might have been the old follicles (cysts) that had stopped growing in the middle of the follicular phase due to the PCOS. Once the medication stimulated the ovaries, the follicles grew from these “low-quality” follicles. In addition, PCOS patients easily overacted to the medication that hyper-stimulated the ovaries, further affecting egg quality.  Furthermore, studies show that PCOS patients tend to have swelling ovaries which lead to inflammation between the follicles. This inflammation possibly affects egg quality, which also prevents a successful IVF cycle.

PCOS is a complicated disease and medical treatment cannot solve all cases.  Patients must take steps to adopt a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet which will increase the chance of pregnancy.  Chinese medicine offers another option to patients with difficult cases of PCOS by improving their body’s general condition, allowing patients greater chances to conceive naturally and readying them for IVF or IUI procedures.

IVF, or in vitro fertilization, was developed in 1978 by the British biologist Robert Edwards who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2003 for this procedure. This treatment was a great move forward in the field of reproductive medicine and has helped millions of women conceive in the past 35 years.

In vitro means glass in Latin—fitting since, through IVF, sperm can fertilize eggs in a glass tube in a lab instead of fertilizing eggs in the fallopian tube. IVF brings hope to women who have fallopian tube problems, anovulation, and unexplained infertilities. But the process is complicated, involving large quantities of medication, blood drawings at certain intervals, monitoring follicles under sonograms, egg retrieval, embryo transfer, post transfer emotional stress and financial issues. Patients are often under pressure and very stressed by this process, which may change the environment within the body, lowering the success rate of IVF.

Research has shown that successful in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfers demand optimal endometrial receptivity, which is strongly related to blood flow impedance in the uterine arteries. IVF doctors can predict failure to conceive by using transvaginal ultrasonography with pulsed Dopler curves. Knowing the rates of success beforehand, doctors and patients began looking for help from other forms of medicine other than conventional medicine to increase this success rate. Acupuncture is one of the most effective methods in assisting IVF.

Acupuncture has been confirmed as the best method of stress relief. It involves central mechanisms and generally inhibits the sympathetic outflow. Patients who have problems with stress will feel much better after acupuncture treatments. With these treatments, the side effects of medication such as headaches, insomnia, emotions, bloating, etc. generally decrease during the IVF cycle. Several studies have shown that acupuncture can also help increase the pelvic blood flow to improve the performance of the ovaries and increase IVF success rates. Eva* was one good example.

Eva, a 42 year old woman, had just failed an IVF treatment. She was a mother of two teenagers from a first marriage and had recently remarried a man who did not have children. She loved him and wanted to have another child with him. Eva was a nutritionist and was very careful about what she ate. She knew that age was going to be her main issue. After a while trying unsuccessfully to conceive on her own, she decided to go for IVF treatments as her doctor recommended. Her doctor maximized the medication he gave all older women—375 UI of gonal F and two viles of manopure. She produced three eggs, which were fertilized but none of them successfully implanted. Her doctor referred her to our clinic for acupuncture.

Eva complained of headaches, night sweats and feverish nights during and after the IVF treatment. This condition occurs frequently in women who do IVF treatments around the age of 40, which suggests that their hormones are all over the place after large amounts of hormones had stimulated the body. Her tongue was very red, which indicated a lot of “heat” (acid metabolites) inside her body. This “heat” was cumulated metabolites that could not get out of the body. We have all had this experience: we feel warm, thirsty and flustered when we haven’t had water all day. This is an example of a “head flare up” that disturbs the body.” Using Chinese medicine, treatment can clear away the “heat.”

How does Chinese medicine work to do so? Generally in nature, water carries away heat: rainfall brings coolness to a hot summer day, lakes and oceans can moderate warmer climates. Another opposite in nature, the cold can also be used to clear away “heat in the body.” Drinking fluids and eating fruits and vegetables—such as watermelon, kale, spinach, bitter melon, celery—that are “cold” in nature balance out the “heat” as well. For Eva, I recommended that she stop eating high energy foods like sugar and cheese and instead begin drinking extra water and consuming more “cold” food, like the ones listed above, in order to balance her heat. Once the “heat” had been cleared away, her symptoms would disappear. Simultaneously with her change in diet, we were doing acupuncture twice a week for her to help her manage her stress and increase pelvic circulation to prepare for the next IVF cycle.

After three months of treatment, Eva did a new IVF cycle again with the same protocols as the first cycle. This cycle went smoothly—she no longer suffered from the symptoms from the first IVF cycle. She had five mature follicles in this cycle: three of them were from good to excellent quality. Her doctor put three embryos into the uterus in the 5th day after her egg retrieval and she became pregnant with fraternal twins!

“It was unbelievable,” Eva said, “now I am truly a believer in acupuncture. I feel much healthier. May I continue acupuncture until the baby is born to decrease my stress?” “Yes!” I said. Eva continued acupuncture treatment until 40 weeks and carried two healthy babies to full term.

In my career, I have seen women with longer healthy reproductive years than others. I had a patient who needed IVF help to conceive her daughter at age 41 but naturally conceived her son at age 45—but of her babies were healthy. Eva was one of those women. She worked as a nutritionist and ate healthily, which slowed down her aging speed. Her egg quality was much higher than the average for her age group of woman, but age still took its toll nevertheless—that was the reason why her first IVF cycle failed. But after acupuncture treatment, she produced better eggs and made a healthy baby. Your ovaries may not be in the same shape as Eva’s, but don’t be disappointed: acupuncture and Chinese herbal supplements will help get your eggs to a better quality.

*Patient’s name has been changed for privacy purposes

A miscarriage, or a spontaneous abortion, is defined as the sudden end of a pregnancy before the embryo or fetus has finished growing. Miscarriages are often caused by chromosomal abnormalities, blood clots, autoimmune disorders, low progesterone, infections, and diseases such as thyroid disease, uterus structure abnormalities, etc. If this has occurred more than three times, it is known as recurrent miscarriages.
Miscarriages can happen to women of all ages, but they happen more frequently to older women. As we age, our circulation and immune system functions become weaker. Our organs function less effectively and our eggs age. Chinese medicine calls a recurrent miscarriage “hua tai.” “Hua” means slip. “Tai” means fetus. Chinese medicine focuses more on the environment of the growing embryo, understanding why the fetus might “slip” away from the uterus. This focus on the nourishing the growing baby instead of on preventing termination of the pregnancy means that Chinese medicine treats miscarriage by balancing the whole body to create a good environment to accommodate the fetus. This method is so effective, more than 90% of our miscarriage cases with women under 40 years of age have been solved. We have even had patients who have miscarried six times who, with our help, successfully carried a healthy baby to full term. Nancy is an example.

Nancy, 40 years old, had been pregnant 6 times in the past 4 years but miscarried every time. After she miscarried for the fourth time, she was referred to us by her friend who had successfully, naturally conceived in our clinic.

But Nancy didn’t come then. She believed that she had the ability to have a baby. She thought her pregnancies were unsuccessful because she was just unlucky but that she would have a baby eventually if she just continued to try. But then she had two more miscarriages. By the time she visited us, she had not been pregnant since her last miscarriage ten months ago, even though she had continued to try and take different kinds of medicine. She felt that conceiving was much harder than it had been a year ago. That was the reason why she came to see me.

Nancy and her husband had done a genetic test, which was normal. The pathology test of the fetus was normal too. She only had a slight problem with blood clotting. In the past 4 years, she had seen a specialist. She did more than 6 IUIs with clomid and/ or follistim from 2009 until she came to see me. But none of the cycles brought back positive news. She did two IVF cycles in 2010: in one one of the cycle she got pregnant and took heparin to prevent blood clotting but still miscarried. Her ovarian reserve was getting progressively lower as she aged. Because of all these issues, her doctor would not do any IVF for her anymore and suggested that she use donor eggs. But she was not ready to give up yet—she began to understand that western medicine couldn’t help her condition. She instead began to look for alternative methods.
Nancy is a happy and positive women—she had never cried over any of her miscarriages in the past. She asked me, “why have I had recurrent miscarriages even after all that I’ve tried?” The answer was that she didn’t need to change her medication or treatment—she needed to change herself. Her uterus was not suitable for the baby to grow. Nancy’s diet was terrible. Cold drinks, large servings of red meat, and oily, deep fried fast food made up her everyday meals. As someone who exercised minimally, she was also overweight. In addition, she also experienced hot flashes, constipation, and was very thirsty at night—all symptoms that Chinese medicine describes as “yin deficiency.” Yin is opposite of yang. Blood, liquid, saliva, lubrication and cervical mucous are all categorized under “yin.” Blood thickens if there is not enough yin. Her dark red tongue and the purple color on the side were the signs of her “blood stasis” condition according to Chinese medicine, which can easily result in blood clots. Chinese medicine solves this condition differently in order to create a healthy environment for the baby to grow.

I told her that I could help her with Chinese medicine and acupuncture—under the condition that she first change her lifestyle. First, I explained to her that drinking cold water all day long would cool her blood and stimulate arterial contractions, which would narrow blood vessels, slowing circulation. Slowing circulation would then affect material exchange between the organ and tissues. Because of this, the organs (including the ovaries) would lack nutrients and oxygen. Not only would nutrients have trouble moving in, acid metabolites and other waste also would not move out as quickly, which could result in a dysfunctional reproduction system and poor egg quality in the ovaries. According to Chinese medicine, a “cold uterus” can’t conceive.

In addition, I spoke to her about her diet. The greasy food that she often ate would cause high cholesterol, leading to plaque sticking and building up along with her artery walls. Pieces of plaque can break off at any time to form a clot which blocks circulation.

In order to solve the problem, Nancy decided to follow my recommendation and eat a lighter and more balanced diet. I also prescribe herbal supplements to help with her yin deficiency and blood stasis. In Chinese medicine, “blood stasis” is define as an abnormal blood flow, mic- circulation obstacles and abnormal blood dynamics in certain areas of the body—blood clots are a kind of blood stasis. Numerous studies have shown that there are different herbs that could suppress plaque forming, balance the coagulation and fibrinolytic systems to prevent blood clots, and improve blood flow and microcirculation to avoid blockage formation. Along with herbal supplements, Nancy came for acupuncture twice a week to help decrease stress and increase circulation. By the second month of treatment, her hot flashes and other symptoms were disappearing and she had lost ten pounds. Her tongue was turning from dark red into light red which indicated that her circulation was improving. On the twelfth day after ovulating on her third cycle, Nancy found out she had conceived with a high HCG that she had never had before. She continued both herbal and acupuncture treatment until her twelfth week of pregnancy and carried a healthy baby boy to full term. “Chinese medicine was amazing!” Nancy said, “I not only have a baby now, but I also feel much healthier!”

Blood clotting happens in many cases of unexplained recurrent miscarriages. In some cases, it can be tested before pregnancy (as in Nancy’s situation) but others might unpredictably occur during pregnancy. A couple of symptoms, blue or purple fingernails, dark red or purple lips and tongue, uterus fibroids, ovarian cysts and scar tissue etc. are the signs of “blood stasis” and often suggest that blood clotting is likely. If you have recurrent miscarriages along with above symptoms, you may have potential blood clotting or other abnormal blood issues. I suggest you try to correct it first before you try to pregnant again. But it is important not to lose hope! As you can see, even in the most extreme cases, like that of Nancy, a healthy pregnancy is still possible.

Michelle, 34 years old white female, was referred to my clinic by one of my patients. You could see worry apparent in her eyes as she walked in. She told me she was a flight attendant and hadn’t been able to settle down her life in the last ten years. However, she dreamed of having three children.

After she and her husband decided to have a baby two years ago, she discovered that her AMH was 0.16 and was diagnosed with Diminished Ovarian Reserve (DOR) .

Note:Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) is released by antral follicles glanulosa cells in the ovaries and can be used to evaluate the state of one’s ovarian reserve. AMH should progressively lower from year to year and is expected to be extremely low around menopause. Considered low if it is below 1.0 ng/ml, her AMH is considered in the bottom line .

When I first saw her, Michelle had failed six cycles of IUI with medication: three cycles used clomid from 50 mg to 100 mg. but her antral follicles were still very low and would either grow very slowly or stop growing at all. Her doctor used clomid in addition to Follistim in the other three cycles. Each of her cycles produced one to two eggs but she never conceived.

She was not a candidate for IVF since she had very low ovarian reserve. But as in many other cases, her doctor let her try one cycle of IVF to see what would happen but then warned that she should try to get into a donor program if it was not successful. Michelle felt terribly sad and feared that she would never have her own children.

Michelle didn’t have a family history of premature menopause. She didn’t understand how she had come to this point. But her life provided some essential clues: Michelle was a flight attendant for over ten years. Her irregular working schedule probably meant low quality and quantity of sleep, which may have caused this accelerated aging.

Recent studies have shown that sleeping times can greatly affect cell activity. When sleep was restricted to under six hours a night, researchers noted that genes either showed suppressed activity or more activity than normal. These changes disturb body’s functions, including the immune system.

For Michelle, her irregular sleep pattern affected her eggs quality and ovaries function. This correlation between hardworking young women and premature aging problems is now understandable: a lack of sleep can often result in an unhealthy body environment that strains the body’s functions and accelerate the ovaries aging speed, causing such problems as premature ovarian aging.

In Chinese medicine, less sleeping and stress–overusing one’s body– will result in a deficiency of “yin.”. Everyone has had this experience: you develop cold sores or mouth ulcers after constantly living under high stress and staying up late at night, especially when you’re around your 40s.

In Chinese medicine, night is “yin”; the lack of quality sleep will consume the yin cause“yin deficiency.” Yin and yang must be balanced in order to keep the body healthy: yang will flare up if the body is deficient in yin, but too much yang leads to a pathologic change called “heat.” An ulcer is a result of yin deficiency with heat. “Heat” is characterized by the inability of the body to discharge metabolites and other products of disease causing substances in our body, leading to symptoms like ulcers or dehydration.

However, the symptoms of “heat” and yin deficiency may vary depending on the personal weaknesses of the body. Michelle had hot flashes at night, disturbed sleeping, red dry tongue, and less cervical mucus. This is unsurprising:“yin deficiency ”often happen to women in their 40s, who often have hormone imbalance, stressed condition and weakened immune systems.

How might these issues be resolved using Chinese medicine? It could balance hormones and the immune system according to several pharmacology studies. Michelle also was treated with acupuncture, which helped alleviate stress and promote circulation.

Pregnancy would not be difficult with a balanced body. And, in Michelle’s case, it wasn’t. After giving her herb and acupuncture treatments specific to her situation for four months, her AMH increase to 0.39 and she had five antral follicles, and three mature eggs in the fifth cycle.

She became pregnant and carried a healthy baby girl to full term. “Without your help, I couldn’t get pregnant,” she told me when she conceived for the first time. “I’ll come back for the second one after my baby is born,”she promised.

Michelle got pregnant naturally again with Chinese medicine help while her AMH was 0.12 two years later. The most exciting thing was that she had her third baby after she stopped breast feeding!