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.
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.
In my practice, I have worked with thousands of men and women on their journey towards parenthood. Infertility is defined as the biological inability of a man or a woman to contribute to conception, but very few men or women are truly infertile. Most who have been given a diagnosis of “infertility” are merely out of balance.
Fertility challenges may be due to a female factor in one-third of the cases, male factor in another one-third, and in the remaining one-third of cases the cause may be due to both partners or fall under unexplained infertility. TCM can aid natural fertility in women and men, as well as provide complementary support to assisted reproductive cycles.
