Fertility Support with Chinese Herbal Medicine Part III: Is TCM Fertility Treatment Right for You?

I would love to help support you in bringing a child into the world. Traditional Chinese Medicine practice is not well known in America, so the way that I work with fertility treatment is likely to be unfamiliar. 

My approach to fertility treatment may yield the results you are looking for, a healthy pregnancy and baby. More than a decade of working in healthcare has taught me that just because treatment results are what we want doesn’t mean it’s how we want them. So there are some important things to understand about this process to see if it’s right for you. 

1. I practice Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine (TCM). If this is new to you, it will be pretty different from medicine you have experienced. Chinese Medicine is a purely clinical medicine. I am using the same diagnostic and treatment methods that Chinese Medicine doctors have used for thousands of years. We use the information gathered from interview and observation to determine the course of treatment with Chinese herbal medicine. This includes asking you questions about your menstrual cycle, digestion, sleep pattern, medical history etc. We use the clinical signs gathered from observation of your tongue pattern, pulse pattern, skin complexion, temperature, etc. This gives me all the information I need for Chinese Medicine treatment. 

   
   

   I do not determine treatment based on lab tests or hormone levels, though I am interested in your OBGYN’s opinion, even if we don’t agree on diagnosis, treatment methods or timing. I am interested in your basal body temperature (BBT) chart, as this is an objective measure of your body temperature and it can inform us about much more than just your hormone levels. 

2. I’m not an OBGYN, and I recommend that you have one. The approach we use in Traditional Chinese Medicine will not always agree with Western medical views of fertility treatment, but I am not a primary care provider and it’s very important that you have one. 

3. My focus is on a healthy mama and baby, not on having a baby at all costs. This is not just a personal treatment philosophy, this is also how a truly holistic medicine like TCM works. Chinese herbal medicine treatment will not create a pregnancy in a body that’s not really up to the task. Chinese Medicine addresses underlying imbalances in the body as a whole so that the mother’s body is vital enough to support conception, implantation, carrying a baby to term and remaining robust postpartum. Modern fertility methods like IVF are capable of creating a pregnancy in a body that is not up to the task. This increases the risk of health problems in the mother, where Chinese herbal medicine treatment does not. 

4. I offer treatment for couples considering IVF in the future, but I don’t offer treatment during IVF treatment. This includes treatment with ovulation stimulating drugs like Clomid & Femara and IUI. I can provide treatment if you are using HRT such as progesterone, but it can be counterproductive and I generally recommend against it.

   
   

   There are a few reasons for this. It’s important that I state that I have no moral objection to IVF treatment. IVF has brought many wonderful people into the world. There are two reasons I don’t offer herbal medicine treatment during IVF. 

   
   

   • It is a better approach to do a course of Chinese herbal medicine treatment before starting IVF. TCM treatment is safer, significantly more affordable, and according to several research studies it can be more effective. Not only that, if couples don’t get pregnant during TCM treatment, IVF will be more likely to work if you have already gone through TCM treatment. Pregnancy is much more complicated than conception and implantation, and herbal medicine treatment can address the underlying imbalances that may prevent your body from carrying a pregnancy to term. 

     
     

   • The second reason, unfortunately, is liability. IVF is very costly, and it’s a very physically and emotionally taxing process. The failure rate of each IVF cycle is 60-80%, so it is much more likely to not work than to work. But if a woman is taking Chinese herbal medicine during the cycle, there is a high likelihood that the herbs will be blamed for the failure - despite no supporting evidence and a statistical reality that failure is the most common outcome of a single round of IVF. 

     
     

5. Chinese herbal medicine treatment takes time. If you’d like to work with me, you will need to take herbs daily for 6 to 12 months. Some of my patients have gotten pregnant within a few months of treatment, but the average time to conceive has been 6 months. I recommend being prepared for up to a year of herbal treatment. 

   
   

6. Slow and steady wins the race. Most people coming to fertility treatment feel like time is the last thing they have. There’s no denying that the biological clock is ticking, but just like in the tortoise and the hare parable, rushing the process can actually make it slower. I have seen this time and time again. Here are some examples.

   
   

   • The stress derived from timing-based panic is extremely counterproductive to getting pregnant. Stress has obvious and measurable effects on physiologic function. 

     
     

   • If the body is not ready to carry a pregnancy, forcing conception with ovulation stimulating drugs like Clomid or Femara, or IVF, will often result in pregnancy and then miscarriage. This process consumes lots of energy and resources, and now the body will need extra time to recover from the miscarriage. This makes it take longer than going slow and preparing the body for conception when it’s ready. 

     
     

   • If the body is not going to be able to carry a pregnancy because of underlying imbalances, IVF can burn through a lot of eggs that don’t result in a successful pregnancy. If too many eggs are harvested during multiple IVF cycles, this can deplete the ovarian reserve to the point of making pregnancy impossible where it may have been possible if TCM treatment had been used first. 

7. Diet and lifestyle are essential ingredients to successful treatment. 

• For all my fertility clients, I will advise you to take 1 tablespoon of maca root powder per day. This instruction is for both the male and female partner. Maca is a food grade herb, and this has been a very important addition to my clinical success alongside Chinese herbal medicine treatment. 

• You may need to follow specific dietary or lifestyle advice. For example, vegans and vegetarians may need to eat red meat as part of treatment. Athletes who are participating in intensive exercise regimens or heavy weight lifting may need to stop these activities during treatment. Everyone needs to sleep. Your life and work schedule may need to change if you’re not allowing yourself 8 hours to sleep. Difficulty sleeping can be addressed with herbal medicine, but your schedule has to allow the time for it. You may need to reduce or eliminate caffeine and alcohol. You may need to moderate sugar intake.

8. It is best for men to get semen analysis done as part of starting treatment. This can identify if the male partner needs herbal medicine treatment, and can save a lot of money and heartache. Whatever the results of semen analysis, I will still advise that the male partner take 1 tablespoon of maca root powder per day throughout the entire process of trying to conceive. 

For more information on the treatment process, logistics, types of herbs formulas, costs, etc, please visit my herbal clinic page. 

To read more about TCM and Fertility Treatment, read Fertility Support with Chinese Herbal Medicine, Chinese Medicine Pattern Diagnosis in Infertility and Herbs I use in Fertility Treatment.

Sincerely, Sean Dugan L.Ac.

Sean Dugan L.Ac. is a licensed and board-certified herbalist and acupuncturist. He holds a Master’s degree in Chinese Medicine from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine as well as a Diplomate in Chinese Medicine from the NCCAOM. He has studied under many Master Herbalists including Dr. Guohui Liu, Dr. Jimmy Wei-Yin Chang, Dr. Fang Zhang, Dr. Greg Livingston, and Dr. Darren Huckle. Sean’s herbal medicine practice draws from both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Classical Chinese Medicine treatment methods, with a focus on clinical efficacy above all. He has been treating patients with Chinese Herbal Medicine since 2013. 

Sean works with clients all over the US through the Folkwise Herbal Clinic. In-person appointments are available at our Boise, Idaho clinic.