Fertility

Nourishing Bone Broth

Nourishing Bone Broth

Bone broth has been used for centuries in many traditional cultures as a healing, and fertility-enhancing food. Drinking a cup of bone broth daily will have a tremendous impact on your fertility, pregnancy and postnatal health. 

When you cook down the bones of an animal into a broth, the bone marrow and its nutrients—namely fat, protein and trace minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon and sulfur—seep out into the broth making it a rich, nutrient dense, fertility boosting concoction. These nutrients are vital for creating healthy new life.

LGBTQIA+ Family Building

LGBTQIA+ Family Building

June is LGBTQ Pride Month!  Blue Ova joins the LGBTQ community in celebrating gay pride in San Francisco and throughout the country. We love supporting LGBTQ families on their family building journeys. We support with the fertility and conception process and throughout pregnancy and postpartum through acupuncture, massage and nutrition. 

The Fertility Learning Gap

The Fertility Learning Gap

Acknowledging and promoting fertility awareness is a critical part of reproductive health education and expanding beyond pregnancy prevention is important. The cultural narrative of pregnancy centers around surprise, ease and magic. We have set a cultural expectation that as soon as one stops preventing pregnancy, they get pregnant. But many of our Blue Ova patients share that they are disappointed and rocked by the challenge of getting pregnant.

PCOS Awareness

PCOS Awareness

September is PCOS Awareness Month. PCOS stands for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and it affects 5-10% of women of reproductive age. Part of cultivating our awareness of PCOS is understanding what PCOS is, how it affects different parts of our lives, and how we can respond to a diagnosis. With many of our patients focusing on fertility, we hope to offer a few ways that Chinese Medicine can support optimizing women’s fertility goals to reach their most conceivable cycle and fertile potential.

Seed Cycling for Fertility

Seed Cycling for Fertility

Seeds are a wonderful, easy, and a delicious way to support the body in finding its natural composure. Seed cycling is designed to support hormone production, regulate menstrual cycles, and can even help reduce PMS symptoms. Incorporating seeds into our diet helps promote hormone balance which guide our cycles. 

Coping with Infertility During the Holidays

Coping with Infertility During the Holidays

The holiday season is kicking into full swing, and it can be stressful, even in the best of circumstances. For those enduring fertility challenges, you may not be feeling the holiday cheer.  Not getting pregnant is hard at any time of the year, but it can be worse during the holidays. It’s okay to feel sad about feeling sad. Having these feelings does not make you ungrateful for the blessings you do have. Those feelings are real, they are valid, and you are entitled to them.

Hormone Testing for a Deeper Look at your Reproductive Health

Hormone Testing for a Deeper Look at your Reproductive Health

This National Infertility Awareness Week, we’d like to re-introduce you to your hormones. Whether you are years away from kids, thinking about them soon, currently trying to conceive, or planning for your next one, understanding your hormones is important for your reproductive health and overall wellbeing. 

Foods for your Cycle

Foods for your Cycle

Syncing the food you eat with your cycle is a excellent way to bring mindful eating and supportive nourishment to your body while focusing on fertility.  A healthier cycle is the prerequisite for improving fertility and a healthy pregnancy. Supporting each phase helps you to maintain a regular healthy menstrual cycle, balance your hormones and sustain the health of your eggs and lining.

Steak Fajita Bowls

Steak Fajita Bowls

This nutrition for fertility recipe is a delicious bowl of steak fajitas. This nutritious bowl is sure to restore your essence and warm the body. In Chinese Medicine, steak has a naturally warming nature and is known to build blood and Qi—the vital energy that runs throughout our bodies and often is in need of nourishment

Guide to Sunscreens: Choosing the safest sunscreen (and avoiding the most toxic)

Guide to Sunscreens: Choosing the safest sunscreen (and avoiding the most toxic)

As the summer heat intensifies, many of us are lathering up with sunscreen in order to protect our skin and avoid getting burned. The reality is that many sunscreens out there do more harm than good, especially from a fertility perspective. Sunscreen protects our skin from sun damage in one of two ways; they produce either a chemical barrier or a mineral one. 

Fertility Boosting Watermelon Gazpacho

Fertility Boosting Watermelon Gazpacho

This week’s nutrition for fertility recipe is a wonderful bowl of Watermelon Gazpacho which can be enjoyed outside in the sun while soaking up some vitamin D. In Chinese medicine, watermelon is not only known to nourish the fluids of the body, but also has a calming effect on the spirit, which helps to ease frustration, restlessness and worry. 

Turmeric Golden Milk for Fertility

Turmeric Golden Milk for Fertility

Turmeric seems to be at the tip of many people’s tongue these days, and it should be! This little yellow-orange root is getting more and more recognized for its medicinal properties.  Turmeric has many health benefits including being a natural anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, and immune boosting herb.  We are highlighting this root because it can also encourage fertility.  Turmeric assists in hormone balancing and regulation.  It helps to increase blood flow and removes stagnant blood in the uterus and other reproductive organs.

Male Factor Infertility

Male Factor Infertility

When it comes to fertility challenges, both men and women are equally important to the fertile picture. Our clients are often surprised to find out that approximately one-third of infertility is attributed to the female partner, one-third attributed to the male partner, and one-third is caused by a combination of challenges in both partners or is unexplained.

Hickory Smoked Salmon Skewers

Hickory Smoked Salmon Skewers

This recipe is a great opportunity to enjoy some sunshine while lighting up the grill for some Hickory Smoked Salmon Skewers. In Chinese medicine, the kidneys are the basis for supporting the reproductive system, salmon enhances the kidney qi, which in turn nourishes all reproductive functions. 

Toxins Effect on Reproductive Health 

Toxins Effect on Reproductive Health 

Exposure to toxins can be a common but unnecessary occurrence.  Avoiding toxins during preconception, pregnancy and after birth is an important consideration in order to protect yourself and your child from health disorders or imbalances, and increase your ability to conceive. 

Beef, Barley & Root Veggie Stew

Beef, Barley & Root Veggie Stew

This month’s nutrition for fertility recipe is a nutritious, warming, bowl of beef, barley and root vegetable stew. On those dark and chilly nights, this bowl of stew is sure to make the kitchen cozy while warming up the heart and soul. In Chinese medicine, beef is known to tonify the Qi and strengthen the spleen and stomach, all of which become exhausted during the winter months. 

Maca

Maca

This week’s nutrition for fertility recipe introduces a few ways to get the super-food, Maca, into your body daily. As we begin the transition out of the summer months, our bodies begin to crave the nourishment and warmth of this wonderful fall snack. Maca originated high in the Peruvian mountains of South America, and according to ancient Incan history, has been used for its wonderful healing properties, which are believed to enhance energy and stamina. 

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