Getting pregnant naturally after multiple failed IVF cycles, is most people’s dream. But for many people it sadly doesn’t happen like that. The most common reason people struggle to get pregnant naturally or with IVF, is because the real root cause of their fertility health imbalance is not being addressed. Once you find your root cause, and you rebalance it naturally, your chances of getting pregnant naturally or with IVF increase significantly.
Before coming to see me LXY had 3 failed IVF cycles, Progesterone issues, Luteal phase deficiency, irregular cycles, and the removal of one of her fallopian tubes – before she got pregnant naturally on our herbal medication program at aged 39.
Ms. LXY, 39 years old had been trying to conceive (TTC) for 4 years. She had done 3 stimulation IVF cycles and transfer 6 times and none of them successful.
Western Medicine + General Diagnosis Before Treatment:
3 IVF stimulation cycles collected 10 to 13 each time, 6 transfers of blastocysts – none implanted.
One fallopian tube removed due to a hydrosalpinx.
Low luteal phase Progesterone level, Luteal Phase deficiency.
Erratic BBT chart temperatures.
Irregular ovulation.
Irregular cycles of 22-33 days (this is called: “sometimes early, sometimes late” in Chinese medicine and shows a particular type of imbalance).
Never pregnant before.
Western Medicine Diagnosis of Husband:
No known health issues and no concerns with sperm health.
Western Medicine Suggested Treatment:
IVF as many times as they can afford to do.
If not successful, then egg donation in the future.
What They Tried Before our Chinese medicine help:
Over the entire duration of TTC before coming to us, she worked on diet, supplements, lifestyle changes, mindset, and emotional support. She felt that her physical health was good as she couldn’t find anything else that might be wrong.
She felt well in herself but was stressed about not getting pregnant and her husband was starting to think they maybe continue their live childless. The stress from both their parents and relative is mounting and they starting to avoid going to family gathering just to avoid having to face those questions “When are you going to have baby?”
This is when they decided to come see us for Traditional Chinese Medicine, since they have their best in IVF treatment and still have not get them anywhere.
From the FREE consultation we found out that she only have one fallopian tube, irregular cycles, irregular ovulation, erratic BBT temps and low progesterone levels – we needed to find the root of her health balance – for a natural or future IVF pregnancy to become possible.
1. Reviewed their medical test results to see what was presenting itself physically and medically.
We found some issues with her blood quality and circulation, and a lack of Progesterone too. The blood quality issue was reflected in the irregular ovulation and cycle length, and in the Progesterone deficiency. The blood circulation issue was also reflected in her hormone balance, as the Progesterone deficiency created a type of relative estrogen excess.
This lack of blood quality and circulation could also cause a potential lack of support and nourishment of her eggs, which would likely decrease her egg quality.
2. Assessed their health with a Traditional Chinese Medicine point of view, to find the underlying health balance for each of them.
Traditional Chinese Medicine diagnosis is about assessing your body from a natural perspective that is different to the western medical approach. This is to look for any underlying patterns of imbalance in your body – to find the root cause of why pregnancy isn’t happening.
Her husband had some Qi (energy) deficiency issues that were affecting his fertility as well.
For Ms. LXY we confirmed the root cause of her health issues:
Qi deficiency – a lack of strong energy and metabolism
Dampness – retention of fluids in the body
Yang deficiency – a lack of warmth
Blood deficiency – poor quality of blood
Blood stagnation – poor circulation of blood
These patterns presented as a combined complex presentation, which is common with fertility issues.
Let’s look at each one in a little more depth.
Qi Deficiency and Dampness:
Qi (energy) deficiency presented itself with too little energy for her body to function at the level at which it should. Interestingly she never felt tired but was instead very active every day. A lack of energy meant that her body was unable to properly break down food, absorb nutrients and create new energy in an ongoing cycle. The lack of energy was also causing a build-up of fluids in her body (Dampness), as Qi is needed to properly detoxify and keep the circulation of fluids regulated.
Low energy = poor circulation.
Poor circulation = accumulation of fluids.
Accumulation of fluids = obstruction of normal processes and pathways of the body, including the fallopian tubes where the eggs travel to the uterus.
A lack of Qi is known as a ‘hypo’ situation in western medicine – a situation of underactivity of the body where your body becomes less able to fulfil its normal functions. When this happens, getting pregnant takes second place over your general health and well-being, as there is not enough energy for everything to work at its optimum level.
When fluid builds up in the fallopian tubes they can obstruct the movement of eggs, alter hormone levels, and affect the other areas of the reproductive system such as the uterus and ovaries – obstructing ovulation and implantation.
Dampness is fluid and waste accumulation that collects in the body over time, and it is always problematic to good health.
Blood Deficiency and Blood Stagnation:
As her Qi was weak it interfered with her ability to make healthy red blood cells, and her blood quality decreased. Once her blood quality reduced it was unable to circulate properly, which also contributed to the accumulation of fluids (Dampness) in the fallopian tube.
Circulation of the blood is directly linked to blood quality in Chinese medicine. Her poor blood quality created poor blood circulation that presented with a clotted menstrual flow that was dark in colour.
These 2 simple symptoms showed us that circulation in the reproductive area was poor, and that this would impact the circulation of all fluids including those around the fallopian tubes.
Poor blood flow is a common presentation in fallopian tube issues, particularly with accumulation of fluids.
When treating this it’s important to know that you can’t only increase blood flow, as the blood flow issue is mostly due to poor blood quality. Blood quality must therefore be improved at the same time as increasing circulation. If you only increase blood circulation, you will further weaken the blood and the situation gets worse.
Another aspect of poor blood quality, and circulation, is the negative impact on egg health. If the blood is weak, it can’t carry the right level of nutrients, and so the eggs are not properly or fully nourished. Over time this weakens the eggs and reduces their quality. The same is true for sperm health.
Yang Deficiency and Low Progesterone:
Ms LXY body also showed signs of coldness, which indicated a Yang deficiency (lack of warmth). The strength of our Yang is directly related to our ability to produce the warming hormone, Progesterone.
Low Progesterone levels usually present from a deep and long-term lack of Qi and Blood, which weakens the Kidney adrenal glands and ovaries – causing a reduction of progesterone after you ovulate.
Once we had the western medicine diagnosis, and the Chinese medicine root cause understood, we had our complete diagnosis.
We were then able to use this as a basis for deciding on how to effectively treat her and restore her fertility health.
So next was to continue trying to get pregnant naturally, whilst working on her health with traditional Chinese Medicine – to prepare for a natural pregnancy within 4 months.
Treatment: Herbal Medicine prescriptions were personally created for each stage of her menstrual cycle. This was to strengthen her Qi and Blood quality and increase blood circulation, whilst also working to strengthen her Yang and reduce her Dampness.
Lifestyle and diet were altered to support the herbal medicine treatment with a particular focus on foods for strengthening her Qi and clearing Dampness. We cleaned up her diet and removed all processed and flour-based foods along with alcohol, sugar, caffeine, and dairy. We increased her green vegetable and root vegetable intake too – making sure to get the balance of these right so that we didn’t aggravate the Dampness. Gradually we rebuilt her Qi reserves and blood quality and worked to increase circulation whilst removing the dampness and waste.
Lifestyle: We worked through key areas of activity versus rest and rejuvenation, that could support her Qi and strengthen it. This was interesting as she didn’t feel tired, and so some extra focus was put on getting to bed earlier and not overworking.
Back-up plan was decided that if they reached this stage, they would immediately progress to an IVF cycle with her eggs, while continuing the traditional Chinese medicine.
The idea was that after having spent 9-months optimising her health and preparing for pregnancy, she would have a much better foundation for a possible IVF cycle.
Having an IVF preparation time would help with egg quality, future embryo development, and optimising implantation of a healthy IVF embryo.
Good news…
After 9 months on the program, on the 7th December, we got a WhatsApp message telling us she was pregnant naturally!
We continued to support her with Herbal Medicine, Diet and Lifestyle support throughout the entire pregnancy – to reduce miscarriage and give her the best foundation for the pregnancy.
She gave birth to a healthy baby at 39 years old.
Some personal words from Ms. LXY:
“One week later my period still hadn’t arrived – I was pregnant naturally!!
What a shock and surprise we had. Just weeks before starting IVF we had finally done it!
I continued Golden Gate Fertility Centre support through the pregnancy until week 39.
Dr Khoo and Dr Isaiah was always in the background to answer questions, offer guidance, and help if I needed anything throughout the whole pregnancy.
39 weeks later my beautiful baby S. was born!
Needless to say, my husband has changed his mind about traditional Chinese medicine treatment!
We are forever grateful to Golden Gate Fertility Centre for all the support and love during this journey. Thank you.”
Ms LXY.
