Treating infertility with Chinese herbal medicine.

Infertility is a major problem in the Western world and particularly among women in their third and fourth decade of life. Maximum fertility occurs between the ages of 18 and 28 (Office for National Statistics, 2005). Since many women delay starting a family until they are in their 30s or even 40s, infertility has become a common and growing condition. However, ageing is not the only cause of infertility today; the most common non-age-related causes are: abnormal ovulation, blocked or damaged fallopian tubes, endometriosis, unexplained infertility and male factor infertility is also a major cause of couple infertility. Conventional medical treatment to try to rectify female infertility utilizes two approaches. First, treating the abnormality using either surgical or drug treatments. Second, circumnavigating the difficult-to-treat abnormalities (such as blocked fallopian tubes). The most common conventional medicine infertility treatments used today in the West to address pathological conditions are: ovulation induction treatment, intrauterine insemination (IUI), in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). While Western conventional medicine has developed these treatment techniques over the last 40 years, other more traditional approaches to fertility treatment have been widely and successfully used in the East for thousands of years. The dilemma of integrating two divergent medical philosophies - metaphysics, the foundation philosophy of all conventional medicine, and epistemology, the foundation philosophy of all Eastern medicine - is at the centre of this separation. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a complete traditional medical healthcare system and can be used to treat infertility with or without integration of conventional medicine fertility treatment. It has been established by numerous previous research studies that blood supply to the uterus and ovaries and particularly uterine artery haemodynamics are associated with natural and assisted pregnancy rates. TCM infertility treatment uses botanical medicinals, which enhance a woman's ability to conceive. When botanical medicine treatment is combined with basal body temperature (BBT) charting to aid an individual patient's diagnosis, botanical medicinals can dramatically increase a woman's chances of not only conception but also implantation rates, and also minimize early miscarriage rates.