Recurrent Pregnancy Loss and Chinese Medicine
In my practice, I get women coming to me with a history RPL. In general I get two groups of women coming to me for help:
Trying to conceive naturally and experiencing miscarriage with each pregnancy.
Women who have completed IVf and have genetically tested embryos (euploidy) which:
do not implant
or lead to chemical pregnancy
or end in 6 to 8 week miscarriage
Women are told genetic issues with either egg or embryo quality are the primary cause. What’s frustrating (for women and myself) is the lack of steps taken to investigate the assumption.
The research article (in my previous video), is clearly a proponent of genetic testing on several levels to bring clarity to recurrent loss. Here’s where the problem exists - Doctors are not actively taking these steps and clumping women in the genetic group with no evidence to back up the label of “genetic issues”.
Especially for women who completed 3 to 5 rounds of FET (frozen embryo transfers) of euploid embryos with no result. Yes, genetic testing can’t test for every genetic component, but how many times can you blame genetics on “healthy embryos”. If women/couples are paying sizable chunks of money for testing and getting no result, when does Western medicine start to look for other complications?
The research article indicated there was an 8% of recurrent pregnancy loss which falls into the unexplained category. For these women, western medicine has no solutions other than surrogacy and experimental therapies.
I believe the women who find their way to me, mostly fall into the unexplained category. They come to me frustrated and worn down, feeling no closer to a solution. The emotional toll of repetitively losing a pregnancy AND having no solution in sight chips away at the quality of their life. Where does a woman go from this point? How do you trust your euploid embryos to another potential failed transfer?
Western medicine is only starting to acknowledge the complicated environment of the uterus and how it communicates with an embryo. In Western medicine, beyond genetics there is little a woman can do to help with implantation.
In Chinese medicine we see a lot of layers to a woman's ability to maintain a pregnancy.
Here’s a synopsis. REMEMBER THIS IS CHINESE MEDICINE. This is not researched.
In Chinese medicine we explore the health of the woman, her overall energy, wellbeing, and how her menstruation presents on a monthly basis. Then dive in about her uterine health and the quality of the blood in the uterus. All these elements weave together to create a cohesive living ecosystem.
In Chinese medicine we wanna look at 3 key elements in a woman's ability to help to become pregnant and maintain a pregnancy.
First we have the environment. Ideally an environment that’s like a rainforest floor. It’s moist, warm. There’s some sunshine coming through the trees. The leaves block aggressive sunshine, moderating the intensity of the heat. For the uterine energetics - the environment will be more moist, damp than a tropical vacation stop. Yet, if you remember that perfect vacation stop laying in a hammock, the atmosphere is relaxing. There’s no push to move on. You just want to lay there. The temperature is enjoyable. You could have laid in that hammock for days.
Second (continuing with the analogy of) a hammock being held up by two sturdy trees. The hammock is the uterus. The two sturdy trees represent the energetic tension for the hammock to contain an embryo. It has a comfy holding action. It’s easy to get into it and sway.
Let’s talk about scenarios where the energies might need tweaking.
Scenario #1: The trees are weak, the hammock will droop to the ground. You find your butt scraping on the ground. If it’s so lax you’re laying on the ground. The tucking in and holding action cant happened. There’s too much laxness.
Physical signs which might indicate this energetic pattern:
Fatigue which makes you want to lay down.
Never feeling rested.
Chronic low grade vaginal drip.
Spotting before periods.
Fertile mucus which is watery.
Scenario #2: the trees are too rigid, too upright, the hammock will become too tight and can’t cradle you. The hammock may be so tight that you can’t even lay in it. The tightness stops you from getting comfy and instead you roll out of it.
Physical signs which might indicate this energetic pattern:
Lots of sighing.
Getting angry and “popping a cork” especially premenstrually.
Tight twisting menstrual cramps
Unable to sit and unwind. The feeling of doing something all the time.
Pain with intercourse.
Scenario #3: The hammock is out in the blazing sun. There’s no protection from the heat and laying in a hammock feels like being in an oven.
Physical signs which might indicate this energetic pattern:
Heavy menstrual blood that is bright glossy red.
Spotting before or after a period which is bright red.
Vaginal dryness or no fertile mucus.
General dryness - skin, hair and nails.
Lots of sweating
Scenario 4: A hammock out in the winter. It’s hard to snuggle in and relax when there’s no protection from the bitter cold wind and snow.
Physical signs which might indicate this energetic pattern:
Menstrual cramps which are better with heat.
Clots in the blood.
Pale watery menstrual blood.
No libido.
Clumpy, cloudy fertile mucus.
Cold butt or belly.
As we can see from the above symptoms list, the menstrual cycle and libido are physical components we explore to understand how the whole reproductive system is functioning. Crampy periods, blood that is brown, or purplish, short periods, clots, lack of fertile mucus and so on are indicators to help us look at the situation from a different perspective.
Let me use an example that I commonly see in my practice - tight achy menstrual cramps. Looking at the analogy of the hammock, if we were laying in a hammock with too many twisted bits of rope, making it too tight to lay in.
In the TCM world, we would want to untwist some of the rope, relax the weave so it could hold you comfortably. We are constantly going back to the analogy of the hammock.
In the 20+ years that I have been treating fertility, I’ve seen a lot. The success of IVF greatly improved with genetic testing. It is a powerful tool, which has helped many couples.
Infertility, fertility, miscarriage, TTCover40, Egg quality, Acupuncture and infertility, Chinese herbs and infertility, Conceiving with IVF, Conceiving with acupuncture.