Fertility Treatment Program | Charlotte NC

Fertility vs. Infertility

Every year, we are approached by hundreds of women struggling with infertility.  It is very rare that our clinic is the first stop on a woman’s quest to become pregnant.  In fact, if you are like most of the women who turn to us for help, you have probably tried several other infertility clinics before considering the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine.  It is not uncommon to hear from our fertility patients that we are their “last hope,” or that they have already “tried absolutely everything.”  We have treated women who have tried just about anything and everything to try to become pregnant.  We have treated older women who, on the very cusp of menopause, decided that they want to have a family.  We have treated young women who have struggled with menstrual irregularities and endometriosis.  Most of our patients are “fertility savvy” women.  They have read the research papers, they have learned the lingo, and they have scoured the internet to better understand the process of fertility.  Some have even consulted with “infertility support groups.”  We see woman who, despite having tried many approaches to become pregnant, remain steadfast and optimistic.  We have also worked with women who struggle to stave off despair, guilt and shame.

Despite the tremendous diversity that we see in the women who come to our fertility clinic for help, the one thing that most of our new patients have in common is that they tend to relate with themselves as “being” infertile.  In the sub-culture of fertility treatment, people tend to get labeled (or to label themselves) infertile.  INFERTILITY is the very term used to describe woman who struggle to become pregnant.  The first premise of our Fertility Wellness Program cuts to the very core of this idea of INFERTILITY, and that is this: Women of child bearing age should be physiologically capable of having children.

In other words, unless there is something structurally wrong with a woman’s reproductive anatomy, or she is either too old or too young to be physiologically capable of conceiving a baby, a woman, by definition, is fertile.

Our approach to fertility treatment holds the assumption that the women who enter into our program are fertile.  It is really absurd to think otherwise.  If women seeking our help to have a baby were actually “infertile,” there would be absolutely no point in even trying to help them to get pregnant.  If a woman was truly “infertile,” by definition she could not become pregnant, and so there would be no point in undergoing any treatment of any kind.  It is for this reason that we refer to our program as a FERTILITY program (as opposed to an infertility program) and we eschew the notion that we treat infertility.  It is our sound and sincere belief that the women that we accept into our program are, in fact, fertile.

If I am fertile, why can’t I become pregnant?

Even though a woman’s basic state is one of fertility, there are a number of factors that can impede or obstruct her ability to become pregnant.  In other words, your body is essentially fertile, but there is some kind of interference that makes it difficult for you to become pregnant.  If a woman’s body is truly infertile, no amount of treatment can change that condition.  If, on the other hand, a woman’s body is basically fertile, but there are interfering factors that inhibit her ability to become pregnant, then those factors can be identified and treated.

The value of using Traditional Chinese Medicine to enhance fertility is that it has a particular genius for identifying and differentiating the various types of interference that inhibit the ability to become pregnant.  At Blue Root Acupuncture & Wellness Center, our approach to fertility treatment hinges on the assumption that our patients are fertile and that there are interfering factors obstructing or inhibiting pregnancy.  Our job is to figure out what those specific factors are fore each individual and to remove them .  When the interference is removed, fertility (which is a woman’s basic, underlying state) is once again restored.

Consider the following analogy.  Suppose that you had $5,000 in your checking account.  Everyday, you access the funds in your account by writing checks, and making charges on your ATM/Check Card.  Now imagine what would happen if you lost your purse, and you couldn’t find your checkbook or your ATM card.  Suppose also that it was a Sunday or a banking holiday.  The banks are closed, and you now have no way to access your account.  The fact that you cannot access your account in no way affects your $5,000 balance.  Technically, you still have the money, but you have temporarily lost your access to it.

You could consider your state of fertility in the same way.  Your fertility is like that $5,000 . It is there, and it has been there all along.  Losing your checkbook and your ATM card would be a kind of interfering factor.  The fact that it is Sunday and the bank is closed would be another kind of interfering factor.  But neither of those factors change the fact that you have $5,000 sitting in your account.  In the same way, there are probably a number of physiological factors that are inhibiting access to your body’s fertility.  But, just like in the banking analogy, the fact that there are inhibiting factors in no way changes your body’s fundamental condition of fertility.  You are fertile in the same way that you have that $5,000 in your checking account.  The role of your acupuncturist is to clearly identify each of the interfering factors, and to remove each cause of interference so that your body regains access to its fertility.

Wellness and Fertility

Another integral concept at the foundation of our program holds that wellness, like fertility, is also our underlying foundational state.  Fundamentally, our bodies are well, vital, and healthy, and yet, there are interfering factors that limit or inhibit our access to that dynamic state of wellness.  It is based on this idea, that we have named our protocol the Fertility Wellness Program.

In order to get the most out of this program it is essential that you understand the relationship between wellness and fertility.  In contrast to the dominant western view of fertility, Traditional Chinese Medicine does not attempt to affect a woman’s reproductive system in isolation.  By contrast, the Eastern approach to fertility takes as axiomatic that the female reproductive system is integrally connected to all of the other vital systems of the body.  According to this view, an imbalance, or a malfunction in some seemingly unrelated area of the body could create serious implications for the reproductive system.  At Blue Root Acupuncture & Wellness Center, our approach to re-activating fertility is fundamentally holistic.  We believe that women’s bodies are fertile by their very nature, and that restoring fertility is a matter of returning the body to its essential nature, which is wellness.

Our Fertility Wellness Program is about restoring your overall health to its fullest potential because we believe that the state of the body’s fertility is a reflection of a woman’s overall health.  This is not to say that women who have fertility issues are intrinsically unhealthy.  You may have difficulty in the area of fertility, but consider yourself to be a healthy person overall.  What this does mean is that fertility problems indicate some underlying disharmony or malfunction in the body.  This may be hormonal, it may be physiological, and it could even have its root in the emotions. All of these factors can lead to subtle imbalances, which in turn can affect fertility.  We hope that you and your family will choose a holistic approach to your healthcare, and work with us to return the whole of your system to optimal functioning as an avenue to improved fertility.