Unexplained Infertility & Chinese Medicine
Unexplained infertility is when standard infertility testing has not found a cause for a couple’s or a woman’s inability to get pregnant. A couple who are confirm fertile may be diagnosed as having unexplained infertility because they have not been successful in reproduction after one year (or longer) of normal unprotected sex.
Some fertility physicians think that a likely cause of unexplained infertility is that the tests performed to assess infertility in the first place may have missed subtle defects due to imperfect testing methods. Other possible causes may include inconsistent or poor quality of egg and/or sperm, intercourse not timed perfectly to coincide with ovulation, and other undetected blockages that prevent proper embedding of the fertilized egg.
Common treatments for unexplained infertility included Intrauterine insemination (IUI), and In vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. Before using these Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), conventional doctor will probably use hormone or other method to stimulate egg production or increase sperm count. The couple will also be educated to better time their sexual intercourse and make lifestyle changes that may improve their odds of natural fertility. Many lifestyle factors such as the age at which to start a family, nutrition, weight, exercise, psychological stress, environmental and occupational exposures can have substantial effects on fertility; lifestyle factors such as cigarette smoking, illicit drug use, alcohol and caffeine consumption can negatively influence fertility while healthy eating and stress management may be beneficial.
From a Chinese medicine perspective, fertility function is closely related to the rise and fall of the innate kidney energy. We believe that visceral energy deficiency, stagnation of energy or imbalance conditions will block an individual’s qi and blood flow, impair one’s yin-yang balance and compromise his/her fertility function. The goal of our treatment is to tonify, remove stasis or re-harmonize the individual’s energy (qi) and blood flow, regulate the female’s menstruation cycle, and strengthen the related visceral systems, while enhancing the individual’s general health.
