One of the most common causes in my clinic that I see which might be defined as unexplained infertility by your own doctor is where the reproductive blood is out of balance.
There are two main types of blood imbalances in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture. One is called blood deficiency…. The other blood stasis….. These imbalances can have a massive impact on your ability to get pregnant. The main reason is that they are involved in the environment for implantation of your embryo and the first trimester of your pregnancy.
Blood deficiency is where the quality of the blood is not 100%, so imagine we have this Gold Fish Bowl, and we take all the oxygen out of the water, take all the fish food and all the plant life out of our bowl. Lets say we put a gold fish into this bowl. What happens…. Well unfortunately the fish won’t survive very long…. Now lets say we put an embryo into this type of environment, what happens….
Blood stasis is a little different, its similar to the movement of water, when water stops moving, it becomes stagnant. So for a moment if you can imagine – we have 2 lakes, the first has a lovely mountain river flowing into it, the sun is shining….. and you can see your reflection in the water….. and we have a lovely happy fish in the lake…
The second lake – there is a brown layer of mud on the lake, we have a shopping trolley in the water and there are flies floating around the water… and we have a fish in here also…… can I ask which fish you would prefer for dinner….. the clear beautiful lake or the smelly lake……
and again…. If we have an embryo for transfer…… which environment do you think is better for a successful IVF cycle….
Its very easy to see if you have one of these imbalance, and if you do have one, there is a strong chance the second one is there also….
What to look out for:
- Scanty Period – A good period length is 5-6 days, if you are around 2-3 days there may be a problem, and these are 2-3 full days, spotting or very light blood is not a full day so do make sure its a full day of heavy bleeding.
- Spotting before or after your period is not normal, yes you may have it all the time and it may seem normal, but its a potential issue which could effect implantation
- Brown, dark, or even black blood – If the quality of the period is not a good bright red, almost as if you cut your hand. This is a potential issue, especially if there is brown to black blood.
Most couples have an average of 22-24% chance of conceiving per month….. which is a 75 to 80% chance per month that you won’t get pregnant. And this is normal…. Where there is a window of about 4/5 days where you can get pregnant.
I think its important to state here, that you can’t get pregnant at any time….. you have a 4-5 day window…. What makes it difficult is that everyones window is different, depending on their cycle length and when they are ovulating…..
The average for most women is day 12 to day 16 with a 28 day cycle and a 5-6 day bleed. If you’r not that then do look into which days a re your fertile window.
Acupuncture is amazing at helping to improve blood imbalance issues….. the thing is, IVF does not fix these problems….. IVF helps and supports collection of eggs and sperm, the fertilisation of sperm and egg, and then the transfer into the in uterine environment… The thing is, if you put an amazing wonderful beautiful, rockstar of an embryo into a smelly lake….. chances are that implantation won’t occur….. Medication does not fix this problem…. And yes, you will get the triple layer, and the thickness of the lining will improve….. but that’s a quantitive number, not quality…. Your period is a representation of the quality…
Blood deficiency and blood stasis is a typical example of where western medicine and acupuncture can support each other….
If you have any questions Im happy to answer them.
Gordon