Are your symptoms really causing your delay?

But through it I learned a valuable lesson to share with you.

During my early Chinese medicine studies 25+ years ago, I was working hard but keeping a healthy daily routine as most people do. 

Until I got a simple cold.

I couldn’t breathe properly with my congested nose, but felt OK otherwise. So to try and treat the situation more quickly, I bought a decongestant.

It worked well, and I continued with my normal activities for the rest of the day.

However, the next day I was in bed with a fever and a bad cough. And then of course, I couldn’t work for nearly a week!

It turned out the cold was not so simple after all. 

And I discovered that treating a symptom like congestion does not count as treating the real root cause.

So, what does this have to do with your fertility health?

Simply that, you can save yourself a lot of time by knowing when you’re dealing with a symptom or the real root cause.

In the fertility world, many symptoms get wrongly blamed as being the root cause of delaying or preventing conception or a healthy pregnancy. 

When this happens you spend weeks or months focusing on an aspect of your health that isn’t the real root cause of your situation.

The result?

No real change in your health, and typically more feelings of overwhelm and confusion appear as nothing seems to work properly – and still no pregnancy.

The key to be able to change or improve your fertility health lies in treating the real root cause and not the symptom.

Whether something is a symptom or a root cause can be confusing, so I’ve listed some of the most common fertility issues and what I’ve learned about them through my clinical experience.

It may help you save time – and be able to treat the real root issue.

All of the following issues can cause a delay with getting or staying pregnant, and where there is evidence that it could be a symptom, I’ll list it with “Symptom: yes”.

OK? 

Here goes:

Hormone Imbalance – such as high FSH, high or low Estradiol, low Progesterone etc: 

Symptom: yes  

Note: Hormone imbalance is a symptom of a deeper health imbalance. 

Hormones are created from a variety of your body’s systems and if these systems don’t work efficiently it results in an imbalance of one or more hormones. Treating the hormone directly is not effective to reach permanent balance as the hormone imbalance is just a symptom of deeper issues.

For example: Low Progesterone typically indicates a reduced level of energy and function. 

When you ovulate, the follicle that ruptured becomes a corpus luteum and its sole purpose is to release Progesterone to support the luteal phase and possible implantation of an embryo.

To make Progesterone it needs to function properly and for this it needs a good supply of energy.

If your energy level is low, the corpus luteum doesn’t get sufficient energy to work properly, and so it can’t produce the optimum level of Progesterone – and this causes a Progesterone deficiency.

So when we see a Progesterone level that is lower than ideal we know that this is just a symptom of the body not having enough energy to support the process of making the Progesterone. The Progesterone is therefore not the issue – the low energy is – and this is the actual root cause.

Treating only Progesterone, with a supplement, does not deal with this underlying root issue of energy deficiency, which impacts many aspects relating to healthy implantation and pregnancy.

All hormones are made in your body and the systems that make them need energy and nutrients to manufacture and balance your hormones properly. 

Poor Egg Quality: 

Symptom: yes 

Note: Eggs are living cells that need nourishment in the form of energy (Qi) and nutrients. 

When they receive the right level of nourishment they thrive, but when they don’t receive it their quality declines and this may also affect their genetic material.

Your blood circulation delivers Qi and nutrients to all your cells, including your egg cells. 

Poor egg quality is therefore a symptom of a deeper imbalance of some aspect of nourishment.

If you have poor egg quality there will be an underlying health imbalance relating to one or more of the following: 

1. reduced level of Qi (energy)
2. reduced level of nutrients
3. poor circulation of blood to the ovaries where the eggs are stored = lower delivery of Qi and nutrients to the eggs.

One or more of the above are involved in most people’s egg quality issues.

Sometimes, more rarely, there may be a genetic condition that decreases egg quality but this is not the case for the majority of people – from my clinical experience.

Treatment of egg quality relies on helping your body deliver a good flow of Qi and nutrients, through good quality blood flow.

“Old Eggs”: 

Symptom: yes 

Note: This is the same as with “Poor Egg Quality”. Ageing does impact egg quality to some degree, but as long as there are eggs present it may be possible to enhance the activity and quality of them.

Stress, Anxiety or Other Difficult Emotions: 

Symptom: yes 

Note: Whether or not we feel stressed or anxious from something relates directly to the internal balance of our mind and body.

The way we perceive something can change, depending on what we think about it. 

Our healthy and balanced thought processes rely on a good strong physical health where we feel happy and well. If we are not in this place of happiness or wellness it affects our perception, usually negatively, and we begin to experience varying levels of anxiety or stress from situations in our life.

The presentation of anxiety, worry, stress and fear is therefore not the root cause. 

Instead our experiences of stress relate to our internal perception (our mindset at that time) of the outside world or situation. 

Stress, anxiety, worry, grief and fear are important emotions for us to experience – but they have a negative side too. 

When we experience them for too long, or too intensely, they typically cause a physical response in the body that causes a variety of imbalances. This can over time have a negative impact on general and fertility health as we lose our central place of feeling strong and happy.

The good news is that we can “change our mind” (our perception and beliefs of the outside world or situations) in an instant – and thereby reduce these intensely uncomfortable emotions and feelings.

It’s not always easy to do, but even on this difficult journey there is a way to experience it from a lighter emotional place internally.

PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome): 

Symptom: yes 

Note: The most common underlying cause of PCOS relates to an accumulation and congestion of fluids within the ovaries. Polycystic Ovaries simply means that there are many (poly) cysts (cystic) within the ovaries.

All cysts are caused by an accumulation of fluid that accumulates within tissue in the body. In the ovaries cysts are formed by the follicles, which are hollow, filling up with congested and accumulated fluids.

This accumulation of fluids has a deeper root cause, which is usually related to a lack of Qi (energy), which is responsible for proper blood flow to and from the ovaries and efficient waste and fluid removal from the ovaries.

If the Qi is low the blood can’t flow properly and so your body can’t circulate the fluids through the ovaries properly – and it also can’t detoxify excessive fluids and so they congest and collect in the nearest hollow areas – the follicles.

Treating PCOS is not usually difficult, but may take time. The key is to establish which of the mechanisms is out of balance and treat the root directly.

Blocked Fallopian tubes: 

Symptom: yes 

Note: Whether caused by an infection or an ectopic pregnancy that has produced scar tissue, or a blockage due to accumulated fluids or blood in the tube – the issue of blocked tubes has a deeper root cause. The blockage or damage itself is just a symptom.

In the case of scar tissue, it can be related to an infection or an ectopic pregnancy.

In the case of blockage by blood or fluid, it will relate to another internal function of your body that is out of balance. This would typically involve some level of insufficient blood flow to the tubes, which causes fluids and blood to accumulate there.

This accumulation is very similar in its presentation to that of PCOS as I mentioned above. 

Scar tissue or structural damage may be treated in rarer cases by surgery – but many cases are not treatable and so IVF is recommended.

Where there is blockage, there are possibilities with proper diagnosis and monitoring to free the blockage naturally. This will always depend on the severity and the individual situation and this cannot usually be achieved with self-prescribed treatment. This requires an experienced natural medicine practitioner.

Fibroids, Polyps and Adenomyosis: 

Symptom: yes 

Note: Similar to blocked tubes and PCOS above, these issues are caused by a lack of healthy circulation of blood and fluids – and in this case it’s specifically through the uterus.

With poor circulation the blood and fluids accumulate in body tissue and form small non-cancerous tumours, or thickening of the endometrium, within the structure of the uterus. Fibroids can misshape the uterus making it bulky, and this can obstruct or reduce implantation. 

In all 3 of these conditions there is an accumulation of blood in the local area. 

This may impact general healthy blood flow throughout the uterus, which may either stop implantation of an embryo, or interfere with early pregnancy – both of which rely on good blood flow.

Treatment needs to focus on the underlying causes of reduced blood flow and accumulation of fluids in the local area – all of which are related to the root cause.

Surgery is sometimes the best call of action but it does not treat the root. It only removes or corrects the symptom. Proper treatment also requires treatment of the root cause that is disrupting circulation and causing the accumulation of blood and fluids and hormonal issues often seen alongside these presentations.

Genetic issues: 

Symptom: no 

Note: Genetic issues are currently mostly thought to be inherited and are not generally regarded as a symptom of something deeper. Epi-genetics however, now confirms that genes can change depending on the environment they are exposed to.

Interestingly the ancient Chinese medicine physicians talked about inherited conditions, and told us that some of them can be treated – but the timeframe is long and it doesn’t apply to all conditions. 

Endometriosis: 

Symptom: yes 

Note: Another symptom of poor blood flow but this time caused by endometrial cells (from the uterine lining) that don’t leave the uterus at the correct speed and accumulate internally. 

In some cases these cells flow backwards, up the fallopian tubes, and then spill out into the open cavity where they can move around and make contact with other organs. 

They attach and connect to other body tissue, and begin to grow and respond cyclically to the fluctuations of estrogen, which is the main hormone that controls endometrial cell activity. 

Treating the root cause involves addressing blood flow, blood quality, and Qi levels to support strong circulation through the uterus.

Unexplained Infertility: 

Symptom: yes

Note: This is not a proper diagnosis in medicine, as it is just a category that physicians can group people into when they can’t find anything that’s physically wrong.

If you have absolutely no physical presentations of the above listed issues, then your problems will not lie in the physical balance of your health – but rather in the way its systems are working. This is called the function or activity of the body. 

Being told you have Unexplained Infertility is therefore neither a diagnosis nor a disease. 

If you have any one of the above listed diagnoses then you should not be put into this category, as all of the above are physically measurable and visible in the body.

Unexplained Infertility is exactly what it described – there is no explanation, which also means there is no physical situation that has been seen.

The root cause of an unexplained infertility presentation will lie in one or more aspects of your deeper health balance that relates to the function of your body and not physical issues.

Western medicine cannot currently diagnose this type of functional health issue due to its philosophy being based solely on the physical aspects of the body. 

This is where Classical Chinese Medicine (not TCM) can be used to establish the real root cause of your delay in getting or staying pregnant.

… And, there you go.

If you are treating any one of these marked with “symptom: yes”, and you’re directly trying to treat it without addressing the underlying cause – then you may be wasting time and energy that could be put to better use on the root of your fertility health balance.

As you can see, it can get complicated and you shouldn’t have to study medicine to have a baby!

So in the next post in this series, I’ll show you…

One guiding principle for making your own fertility decisions easily.

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