Amy Galvan, DOM, L' Ac, FABORM
Comprehensive Women's Health
Acupuncture Infertility Specialist
How A Very Simple Daily Habit Can Make All The Difference In Your TTC Journey---And In Your Life!
Amy Galvan • September 10, 2020
When you are fighting infertility, you need to beat the odds. We know a great strategy to make that easier in our fertility acupuncture clinic in Jacksonville.
The class bully’s eyes were fixed upon me with fear, rage, and threats of failure and defeat. Her body was trembling and her brow began to sweat. I did not falter. I held my scrawny little body in position on the chin up bar next to her, to beat her in this year's chin up challenge as part of our 7th grade Presidential Fitness test. Tracy was favored to win, being the toughest girl in school---and yet she fell to the floor in a collapse of tears after about 45 seconds. I chose to remain holding my chin above the bar for another 5 seconds, just to prove a point:
Don't underestimate me.
Scrawny though I was, I had a chin up bar in my hallway at home growing up. Every time I walked down the hall, I would pull myself up on the bar and hold. With frequency and repetition, I went from sure to be defeated, to sure to win against all odds. And you can, too, to overcome infertility.
Let's talk about a simple habit you can do with frequency and repetition to build your fertility and overcome the odds.
Don’t worry. There are no chin up bars involved!
Is it an apple a day?
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away." This is a favorite old adage. You might have your own daily habits for health. You might have even changed a bad habit (like too much coffee) to a good habit (like bulletproof coffee). What if there were a daily habit as easy as bulletproof coffee in the morning that could help you have a healthy baby (and keep you energized without the caffeine no-no when trying to conceive)?
What's better than an apple a day?
Medicinal herbs. That's right. I didn’t ask what TASTES better than an apple a day. But oftentimes, prescription herbal medicine botanicals for fertility WILL keep the doctor away! In fact, herbs may be your best ticket to freedom from a fragile fertility state. In fact, when some couples are turned away from IVF clinics (or recommended to use an egg or sperm donor), a few months of herbs can turn around the IVF outcomes completely!
Even better than acupuncture?
Yes. I am about to tell you why. But first, keep in mind that herbs won’t work at all if you forget to take them! Unlike acupuncture, you need to take your herbal treatment daily. Every day. Twice a day. Three times a day. According to your prescription. And if that’s too much, do the method from my chin-up story above: dissolve an entire daily dose in a glass of water on your counter, and every time you walk by . . . Do a chin-up! I mean . . . Take a sip!
Make sure to check with your practitioner about the best time to take your herbs. And on which days of your cycle you should take them.
6 Reasons why there is no substitute for herbal medicine for infertility
Properly prescribed, prescription strength, pharmaceutical grade Chinese herbs for fertility are so powerful, they can often be a stand-alone treatment for reversing infertility.
1. Hormonal Building Blocks
What is the difference between a hormone and a hormone building block? PLENTY! Your body determines how much of each hormone to make on any given day according to it’s innate biofeedback mechanisms (think of it like a chemical checks and balances system that governs your body). When your hormonal balance is off, sometimes you don’t need to take prescription hormones as much as you just simply need the building blocks to make them. It’s as though your body were a hormone factory, and the factory ran out of raw materials.
Herbs supply the raw materials to build with. Herbs typically alter your hormones indirectly, safely; as opposed to directly like a prescription bioidentical hormone. Taking an actual hormone can be tricky if your body changes and the prescription does not change with it. Herbs have leeway. They allow your body to ramp production up or down, in accordance with your daily needs, stress, cycle, moon phase, or whatever your body seems to respond to.
2. Mitochondrial Egg Quality
Research has shown how the right botanicals, in the right combination, can safely double or triple the number of mitochondria in your eggs. Mitochondria are organelles in the egg cell (oocyte) that provide the energy that keeps the fertilized egg alive until implantation. Want to help your embryos to make it to Day 5 transfer? Want to help your embryos to survive the 5-day freefall journey down your fallopian tubes to the womb? Take your herbs.
3. DNA Quality
Egg and sperm each contribute one half of the DNA strands that will make up that first cell of your baby. The DNA strands come from many cycles of cell division (meiosis) during the 3-7 months it took to mature that egg (oogenesis), and the 2-4 months it took to mature the sperm (spermatogenesis) before conception. If something goes wrong, you get a chromosomal abnormality in the DNA that could result in miscarriage, Down’s syndrome, congenital birth defects, etc. So to help support a more flawless oogenesis and spermatogenesis, take your herbs.
4. Improved Blood Quality and Circulation
The baby is fed by the quality and quantity of blood that nourishes it. If blood is too weak (dilute, not carrying enough nutrients), or the flow is too much (or too little), then the developing embryo is at risk. Your period is a great indicator of your blood quality and microcirculation pathways of the uterus. If you have had period problems in the 3 months prior to conception, you have added risk to having the healthiest baby possible. Periods are so significant, that it has been accepted as the new vital sign (just like heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure) by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
5. Stress Reduction
Numerous studies have shown how herbal medicine reduces stress. If a cup of chamomile tea has ever soothed your raw nerves, imagine what a concentrated dose of 10x that amount would do—with a prescription botanical that is much stronger than chamomile. If the military veterans with PTSD say it works, you can feel pretty confident that it is going to help calm your stress, anxiety, and depression when it comes to your trying to conceive TTC journey. And reducing stress has been clinically correlated with increased pregnancy rates in infertile women.
6. Cost Savings
Did I get your attention? Each dose of herbs counts as a treatment you do yourself, for pennies on the dollar. Taking herbal medicine for fertility, thirty days, three times a day, is 90 treatments in one month—for the price of around $100. That’s about as much as you pay for ONE acupuncture treatment. For some men and women, there comes a time when herbs for fertility are all they need to correct infertility (lucky people!). Of course, if you need herbs AND acupuncture to turn your fertility around, you can get much more amplified results from acupuncture when simultaneously taking herbal medicine . . . And you might even be able to afford more flexibility in how strictly you have to schedule acupuncture appointments to stay on track.
A litany of other reasons
Taking prescription herbal medicine botanicals for infertility is . . . easy, quick, simple, effective, safe, convenient, harmless, painless, non-bruising, and not scary at all! It is also helpful, for many things like . . .better sleep, better digestion, better bowels, better metabolism, better eyesight, better periods, better skin, better hair and nails, better mood, better libido, better thinking, better focus, better peace of mind. . . .less headaches, less back aches, less neck and shoulder pain, less anxiety, less worry, less nervousness, less overeating, less nail biting, less insomnia, less PMS, less bloating, less memory problems, less painful periods, less fatigue . . . You get what I’m sayin’? Just sayin’!
Not many daily disciplines you do in 5 seconds or less can make you feel that great—and increase your fertility!
But there IS one very important reason NOT to take herbs:
If they are not PHARMACEUTICAL GRADE quality!
How to avoid the dangers of herbal medicine
Herbs can be dangerous if you buy them over the counter. Dangerous to your health, your future baby’s health, and to your wallet . . . not to mention they are not dosed nearly high enough to get good results.
To take a high enough dosage of herbs you buy over the counter, you would often need up to 10x the recommended dosage . . . swallow up to 10x the pills . . . and pay up to 10x the price. Retail price! Let’s face it. You need to buy at a deep discount. That means buying from your doctor, not from a slick advertising brand that makes it’s living solely off selling herbs rather than treating patients in a clinical setting. Please don’t waste your time on the garbage.
Let’s talk REAL DANGERS of the garbage I don’t want you falling for.
How do you know if what you are buying over the counter is what it says it is? What if it lacked authenticity, purity, consistency from pill to pill, or had contaminants? Contaminants can be mold, fungus, spores, heavy metals, bioceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and debris! How do you know the ingredients were cared for with quality standards for resourcing, storing, and processing? I’ll tell you how in three little letters: GMP.
When a manufacturer allows a third party in to certify their products are not in violation of the above, they earn the certification of Good Manufacturing Principles (cGMP). This means they are tested by the highest technological advancements using mass spectrometry and other means to verify authenticity, purity, consistency, and other quality standards for resourcing, storing, processing, and contamination. This is especially important for fertility botanicals! You are supposed to be taking these when you get pregnant!
Most prescription herbal medicine for infertility uses ingredients that are so strong, they are regulated FOR PROFESSIONAL USE ONLY. They are not for sale over the counter. They would be dangerous if you took them incorrectly.
In my practice, I pay a premium price for herbs that meet cGMP standards and even higher: PHARMACY STANDARDS. The herbs are grown under the right conditions, harvested properly at the correct time, and tested for effectiveness against THE SAME STANDARDS USED FOR PHARMACEUTICAL DRUGS.
You will love your herbs . . . but it will probably be in a love-hate kind of way. Why love-hate? Well, let me warn you . . .
They are most effective when you take them in a tea form, not pill form. And . . .
Herbs can taste pretty bad. Bitter. Bitter as widow’s tears, as they say. Like the first time you had black coffee, or beer, or your first sip of whiskey that was a rude awakening. It can be a rough start. But you know what else can be pretty bad? Changing dirty diapers. Months of sleepless nights after the baby comes. And stretch marks. Right?No! Of course not!
In the big picture, it’s not so bad. It’s a gift! Totally worth it! You would probably do anything to have a baby—and drinking medicinal tea is not so bad. So take a second thought about how bad the herbs might taste, and love to hate those herbs. Just do it every day! Be disciplined. Chin up! You will thank me for it later . . . With a selfie of you and your baby!
Melanie’s Success Story
Melanie (whose name is changed here for privacy) was a patient of mine in her early 40’s. Her FSH levels were elevated to 45.5 suggesting she was not ovulating. Her periods were problematic, and she had been unable to conceive. Melanie disciplined herself to taking her herbs daily, three times a day, and changing the formula every week to synchronize with each phase of her cycle: follicular, ovulatory, luteal, and premenstrual. Melanie made taking herbs a simple daily habit she practiced with frequency and consistency. After only 3 months of herbs (and no acupuncture), her menstrual cycles became regular, problem free, and her FSH levels dropped to a more normal level of 12.3 to indicate she was likely ovulating again!
Another Ova-Achieva!
Cathy (whose name is changed here for privacy) was referred to me by a former patient with stage 3-4 endometriosis whom I had helped successfully overcome IVF-related ovarian hyperstimulation. Cathy was 35, with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR), and her reproductive endocrinologist (RE) expected only 4 eggs in her IVF cycle. To compensate for the low estimate, the RE recommended three rounds of IVF to increase her chances of conceiving. Prior to her DOR workup however, Cathy had taken fertility herbs 3x/day for 3 months. It can take 3-9 months for those herbs to result in better test results, so I was not surprised that they found DOR. I was also not surprised that months later, even off the herbs by then, the time investment made on those follicles in the 3-9 month span had paid off! On her first IVF cycle, Cathy had 13 eggs retrieved (not 4), with 9 fertilized, and 5 making it to Day 5 blastocyst. This was enough to put off the next IVF cycles if she chose to. Both Cathy and the former patient who referred her are both mothers now!
What have we learned so far?
There are huge payoffs for practicing a simple habit with frequency and repetition every day—- whether it’s chin ups or raising a glass of properly prescribed herbal medicine for fertility. These things can make even the weakest, beat the odds!
Herbal medicine for fertility can . . .
- help your body manufacture its own hormones.
- Help your eggs build mitochondria to live 5 days until implantation.
- help prevent chromosomal abnormalities.
- help prepare the womb for a secure embryo attachment.
- Help reduce stress, which correlates with successful pregnancies.
- Cost pennies on the dollar for fertility treatments
- Provide a litany of health benefits.
- Be easy, safe, and effective.
- Taste bad if not in pill form, but it’s not so bad in the big picture.
A Final Word
The TTC Journey can be challenging at times. It’s definitely harder than a presidential fitness test from the 7th grade! But what makes for a successful outcome is the same thing: a simple daily discipline that yields startling results over time.
On your TTC journey, you might wrestle with inner fears that the odds are not great, or that things might go wrong, or that you might not have what it takes. When you hear that inner voice of doubt telling you that your ability to have a baby is uncertain, recognize that voice as your Inner Bully. Don't be influenced by her fearful threats. She doesn’t know you have the advantage over her from practicing a simple habit with frequency and repetition that makes all the difference in the end game. Just pull your chin up, raise your glass of herbal medicine, look her sweaty trembling face in the eye, and tell her, "Don't underestimate me."
Written with love by
Amy Galvan, DOM, L'Ac, FABORM
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