New Baby of The Month- One Patient’s Journey To Getting Pregnant

The other day I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from a patient of mine

who just had her baby boy a couple of weeks ago. Welcome Julian! Not only were the flowers a wonderful gift, but they signified a celebration of a hard journey that my patient took to get pregnant.

Michelle came into my office about 11 months ago. She was 38 years old and she was desperately trying to get pregnant.  Her doctor suggested an IUI with clomid, a commonly used fertility drug. She had three IUI’s and unfortunately the side effects of clomid were migraines, night sweats, hot flashes and anxiety.  Although clomid works to help many women ovulate, it is warming and drying. Therefore, if a woman already has fluid insufficiency, this can accentuate her symptoms.  In December of 2009, Michelle did not ovulate. Further testing from her doctor showed that her estradiole levels were very low and her FSH went up to 30! Her doctor said she should look into IVF immediately and if it did not work in one round to seriously consider using donor eggs.

Michelle called my office incredibly upset and crying her whole visit.  I explained that I did not believe that what her doctor told her was her true hormone levels. Because she was already warm and dry, clomid was actually damaging her fluids. In Chinese Medicine, estradiole is known as a yin substance. As her estradiole was depleted, her FSH levels rose.  As I calmed her down, I told her not to give up but it was essential to start to “rescue” her depleted estrogen. I prescribed her a heavy dosage of herbal medicine to help replenish her low estradiole levels.

Lo and behold, when Michelle came back in February she was pregnant! This is a great case of how Chinese Herbal Medicine can really help nourish hormones and boost fertility. Michelle now has a beautiful baby boy, Julian, and he was well worth her fertility journey.