Sam

PCOS Part One:  Follicle growth PCOS is one tough cook to crack.  Women with PCOS have a difficult time conceiving and some cases involve scar tissue from cyst formation.  I have treated several women in my practice with this problem.  Treatment time is long, but acupuncture and herbs are successful in decreasing the amount of cysts and promoting ovulation.  I thought it would be interesting to understand why cysts form and how it correlates with Chinese medicine.  The first part of post will focus on how a follicle grows. To start with here are some definitions: Aromatized – an enzyme […]

In the confusing world of fertility, where do hot flashes and night sweats belong?  From a Western medical point of view, these problems have no influence on the success of conception.

From a Chinese medicine view, hot flashing/night sweats indicate an imbalance of a women’s energy.  Balanced energy is important and can be thought as hormones.  An example of balanced hormones would be low estrodiol in the follicular phase, which encourages the pituitary to secrete more FSH to stimulate the ovaries.  An example of an imbalance would be low estrodiol and high FSH on day 20 of the cycle, indicating that […]

January 3, 2008

Interesting – if GnRH antagonist can block cellular division and decrease the secretion of E2 from the ovaries, could this be a part of the mechanism of increasing the follicular phase in the preceding article?  Often we only think drugs have a singular effect, GnRH antagonist should only effect pituitary, yet GnRH receptors exist in the ovaries/follicles and play an important role in embryonic growth.  If GnRH has a role in cellular replacement/growth, then could some problems with embryonic quality be related to drugs blocking important hormonal receptors? 

From a Chinese perspective GnRH would be considered a qi mover.  […]

This article was of interest to me. I work with poor responders and they are not just “older” women. I have treated women in their early 30’s with “poor responder” diagnosis. They have normal FSH, E2 and regular cycles, but respond very poorly to fertility drugs and produce limited follicles. The article rethinks the traditional IVF stimulation cycle for poor responders and raises some interesting thoughts about how hormones can effect more than one part of the cycle.

The authors developed a protocol to lengthen the follicular phase of the IVF cycle. By increasing the number of days during the follicular […]