The 3 Steps to Pregnancy Path

You won’t be surprised to read that the 3-steps start with finding the root cause! 

The biggest issue I see when I talk to people around the world is that too many are trying to treat their fertility without knowing what exactly is wrong, and what they need to treat.

Fertility is a ‘by-product’ of our good health.

There is no one thing in our body that makes up our fertility.

Every organ and system in our body interacts with our reproductive system, and there is no ‘one-size fits all’ approach when trying to restore it.

Using supplements, diet, lifestyle changes, and other treatments is risky if you don’t know what is out of balance in the first place.

Typically, this type of approach mostly results in years of struggle and stress, with no pregnancy.

By the time my clients find me they’ve usually been on this type of roller-coaster journey for 3 or more years – and some as many as 15 years!

My approach with them is simple.

We use my 3-Steps Path to:

1. Find the root cause that’s creating the delay in getting or staying pregnant
2. Create an action plan of how and when to use The 5 Fertility Foundations to restore health balance
3. Apply and monitor The 5 Fertility Foundations to prepare for, and support during, your natural or IVF pregnancy.

There’s no guesswork or ‘let’s try it and see’ approach – it’s a step-by-step process that produces answers that are unique to your general and fertility health needs.

As you can see from the image there are 3 main steps, starting from point A in the bottom left corner.

Each step contains 3 sub-sections, which allows you to divide the overall 3-steps into 9 easier to complete smaller actions.

You start at Step 1 with the first action (medical testing), and then complete each action in order until you have completed all 3 steps.

Let’s look at each step in more detail:

STEP 1:  DIAGNOSE

Finding the root cause of your delay in getting or staying pregnant is not a luxury – it’s an absolute necessity and the key to success.

Your health diagnosis forms the foundation for every action you need to take throughout the rest of the 3-Steps, so it is the most vital part of your journey!

You need a complete diagnosis so you can see the root balance of your health, along with how it’s presenting physically.

The best way to do this is to combine two different health systems:

1. Western medicine
2. Classical Chinese Medicine (not TCM – Traditional Chinese Medicine)

Western medicine (WM) is great at finding physical issues, such as hormone, or blood imbalance, or other physical issues such as PCOS, Endometriosis, Fibroids etc – but it’s not designed to identify the root cause of the issue.

Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM) is great at finding the root cause. If your WM Dr finds a low progesterone level through a blood test, they can’t tell you why it’s low. CCM can tell you why and will highlight the deeper root imbalance that’s causing it.

When these two systems are combined, we get to see: 

– the physical issue (WM) – such as low Progesterone

– the root cause (CCM) – the reason why it’s low, such as: having reduced levels of energy that are unable to support the ovaries, to produce enough Progesterone.

How to Use Step 1:

Step 1 is made up of the following 3 smaller actions:

1.1 Medical Testing (WM)
1.2 Health Analysis (CCM)
1.3 Complete Diagnosis

For best results, work through each one in order.

1.1   Medical Testing

Find a Western Medicine Dr to review your (and your partner’s) health through a series of key tests.

There are lots of medical tests available, so I’ve listed the most important ones in two previous posts: Medical Testing for Women, Medical Testing for Men.

If you already have up to date medical test results or a diagnosis from your Doctor, then that’s a great start.

The following health issues are recognised by western medicine as causing a delay in getting pregnant, or having a healthy pregnancy:

•     Fibroids
•     Cysts
•     PCOS
•     Endometriosis
•     Polyps
•     Adenomyosis
•     Recurrent miscarriage
•     Hashimotos Thyroiditis
•     Elevated Immune Presentation
•     Elevated Blood Pressure
•     Low Blood Pressure
•     Low Iron or other blood levels such as vitamin B12
•     Poor egg quality
•     Poor sperm quality
•     Thin endometrium
•     Irregular cycle
•     Unexplained infertility

Each of the above are a diagnosis in western medicine, but the root cause of most of these are not known in western medicine.

This means that any treatment used (such as surgery for Endometriosis or Fibroids etc) does not resolve the underlying root cause. The root cause can only effectively be treated when we identify it first. This is why these conditions usually return several years later.

To effectively treat a health condition, you must get to the root.

1.2   Health Analysis – to Find the Root

Start by finding a Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM) fertility specialist to help you.

CCM is different to TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) and I do not recommend using TCM for fertility treatment .

Your CCM practitioner will review your health through 4 key methods of diagnosis:

1.  Questioning you about your daily symptoms
2.  Reviewing your tongue
3.  Checking your pulse – unless you’re working online
4.  Observing your body posture, skin tone, and other visual aspects

Through these 4 key areas your practitioner can establish a clear CCM diagnosis for you.

1.3 Root Cause – Complete Diagnosis

Once the two above sections are complete your CCM practitioner will review everything together and present you with a complete diagnosis.

Medical tests, along with other data such as BBT charts should also be built into this complete diagnosis to help connect the different areas together for you.

Now you have the foundation in place and can move to Step 2.

STEP 2:  DECIDE

Now you know your root health balance, it’s time to decide on The 5 Fertility Foundations and create your action plan.

Treatment should never be a ‘let’s try it and see if it works’ approach.

Every health imbalance needs a specific method to correct it.

There are just 5 key areas that I use to treat health, and I have put them all together into a system that I call The 5 Fertility Foundations.

How to Use Step 2:

There are 3 actions in Step 2:

2.1 – Natural support options
2.2 – Assisted support options (IUI, IVF, Egg Donation)
2.3 – Your Action Plan

For best results, work through each one in order.

2.1 Natural Support Options – The 5 Fertility Foundations

You can read more detail on The 5 Fertility Foundations in this earlier post, but here’s an overview of them.

The 5 Fertility Foundations:

As you can see, each of the Foundations surrounds ‘you’ in the centre.

The ‘you’ part is your diagnosis/root health balance.

Each of the foundations surround you and can be used to support you and treat your underlying root health balance.

The foundations include the following:

1.Treatment – Everything you use to direct your body including: Herbal medicine, Supplements, Massage, IVF, medical treatments, Acupuncture
2. Diet – Everything you eat and drink
3. Lifestyle – Everything you choose to do in your life (Sleep, Activity, Exercise, Work etc)
4. Environment – Everything and everyone around you.
5. Mindset – Everything you think.

Over the past 26 years of using Classical Chinese Medicine I have identified that these are the only 5 categories of things that affect our health.

If used incorrectly they can damage our health, but if used correctly they support and enhance our health, fertility, and longevity.

At this stage of the 3-Steps Path you choose one or more of The 5 Fertility Foundations that need support, based on your root health diagnosis.

This may require the help of your CCM fertility specialist to do properly.

My clients trying naturally on my program have shown a pregnancy rate between 63-71% for ages of 37-44 years old, when using The 5 Fertility Foundations with me.


2.2 Assisted Support Options (IUI, IVF, Egg/Sperm Donation)

This is a specialist area of western medicine and requires guidance from either a Gynaecologist or an IVF Consultant.

Depending on a variety of factors such as age, hormone balance, egg and sperm numbers and health, a treatment will be chosen for you that involves using either your own eggs or sperm, or donor options.

Although IVF falls under the Treatment foundation of The 5 Fertility Foundations, it does not treat the root of your health to help you to get pregnant.

To increase the chances of IVF working, I recommend preparing with The 5 Foundations for a minimum of 3-months before starting IVF.

I use this approach with my clients in their personalised programs to prepare them for their upcoming IVF cycles.

This allows them to be in good health before they get pregnant.

This has consistently produced a success rate in excess of 71.8% for my clients doing IVF with their own eggs – between ages 37-45 years.

For my clients that prepare before an Egg Donor cycle we consistently see a success rate in excess of 85% between the ages of 44-51 years old.


2.3 Your Action Plan

When you have decided on the best of The 5 Fertility Foundations to use, and how long to use them for, it’s a good idea to put this into a physical time plan.

This will allow you to have a plan to visually come back to, so that you know what the next steps are and where your focus should be.

Tip: your plan can change at any stage you would like it to. A plan is never set in stone, and some flexibility is good to have.

This completes Step 2, which means it’s time to look at applying the treatments and transforming your health.

STEP 3:  DELIVER

It’s now time to deliver and apply the support that your body needs to optimise your health.

Step 3 is about applying the right treatment, support, and guidance to help you to optimise your health.

Step 3 is divided into the following 3 actions:

3.1 The 5 Fertility Foundations

3.2 Fertility Tracking

3.3 Nurture to Pregnancy For best results, work through each one in order.

3.1 Applying The 5 Fertility Foundations

Now that you have everything in place it’s time to start optimising or correcting your root health balance.

This is the point where you work with your practitioner to apply the best and most appropriate Fertility Foundations that you need.

I use personalised Herbal Medicine as a leading Treatment Foundation, and then add in the other Foundations over a time period as worked out in my client’s fertility plan.

3.2 Fertility Tracking

Applying support and treatment is great, but progress also needs to be tracked.

I recommend methods of tracking such as BBT charting, reviews of medical tests, along with regular monitoring meetings.

This way you keep on track with your plan but also track the positive changes to ensure you’re moving in the right direction.

3.3 Nurture to Pregnancy

This is the final part of the 9 sub-sections of the 3 Steps to Pregnancy and it’s also an important one!

Nurture to pregnancy means to support yourself on a continuing basis using The 5 Fertility Foundations, with regular health reviews and tracking.

When you take this approach, you build a momentum that gains more power to change and support the root balance of your health and fertility.

Once you’re pregnant I highly recommend continued support through your First Trimester using The 5 Foundations.

Once you reach weeks 16-20 you can usually reduce or stop support and continue to look after yourself at home.

The 3-Steps to Pregnancy in Action

To illustrate how this works in the clinic I’ll explain how I would use my 3-steps and 5 Foundations if I was working with you in my online 1-2-1 program.

To start with, I divide the 3 steps into 2 key parts:

Part 1. An Online Health Assessment

Combining steps 1+2 together.

In this 3-hour online session we start with Step 1 and review your medical tests, assess your health with Classical Chinese Medicine, and I provide you with your complete diagnosis.

Within this same session we then move to Step 2, and create your action plan so that you know which of The 5 Fertility Foundations to use, and when and how long to use them for.

By the end of the 3-hour session you will have completed the first 6 sub-sections of Steps 1 + 2.

If you then decide to join my program and work with me, you move to Part 2, which delivers Step 3 for you.

Part 2: Your Personalised 5 Foundations Program

Using Step 3.

This second part incorporates Step 3 where you choose a 3, 6, or 9-month online support program to work one-to-one with me.

During this time, you receive:

• prescribed herbal medicine made for your unique health balance
• regular fertility tracking and monitoring sessions
• personalised guidance on all of The 5 Fertility Foundations (Diet, Lifestyle, Treatments, Environment, and Mindset) for your root health balance
• and lots of other program support including a members group, mastermind sessions, and online resources including recipes, meal planners, and more.

To read more about how I can help you CLICK HERE 

References:

(1) The Annals of Lu Buwei, 3rd Century BCE (Stanford University Press – translated by K, K and Riegel – 2000)
(2) World Health Organisation 2012 statistics infertility
(3) Journal Human Reproduction Update – Temporal trends in sperm count: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis
(4) Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority United Kingdom
(5) Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was created in the 1950’s and is not actually ‘traditional’ in China. It is a westernised system that has picked elements of Chinese medicine and attempted to align them to western medicine thinking. Unfortunately, this has created a diluted and confused system that is ineffective at finding the true root cause of a health problem. Classical Chinese Medicine is the original experienced and documented form of medicine used in China for over 2500 years.

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