It's All About the Eggs!
Some of the women that we counsel at Tao of Wellness are having difficulty conceiving, or are considering freezing their eggs for an IVF procedure or for the future. In either case, it is important for a woman to know more about how their reproductive system functions and what they can do to improve their chances of producing high-quality eggs.
Within each of a woman’s ovaries are follicles, small fluid-filled sacs that shelter one unfertilized egg. Every woman is born with a set number of follicles and eggs, somewhere between one and two million, but their number declines sharply with age. By the time a woman enters puberty, only 25 percent or about 300,000 of these follicles are intact and by menopause, fewer than 1,000 follicles may remain.
Ovarian follicles go through many stages of development as they prepare themselves for ovulation. It takes up to 290 days for a recruited primordial follicle to grow into a fully grown follicle, and another 60 days for it to pass through the final stage to maturity, to rupture, and to release an egg.
Follicles and the eggs they shelter are limited and precious and that is why it is important to keep them as healthy as possible. Women cannot produce more follicles than they were born with, but they certainly can prevent wasting the ones that they have.
A woman needs to have at least two months (60 days) to improve the quality and quantity of the eggs that she has available for fertilizing or freezing. For example, to improve her chances of producing healthy, viable eggs a woman needs to get an adequate amount of deep, restful sleep since interrupted sleep facilitates the premature aging of eggs.
She needs to moderate her level of stress because when a woman works too many hours or endures too much pressure and stress, her body goes into fight-or-flight mode that produces hormones that can reduce fertility.
She absolutely must stop smoking and should not imbibe alcohol or use recreational drugs such as marijuana. She should do her best to avoid sweets, icy cold foods, and cold liquids. A woman needs three nutritious meals a day and should try to gain weight if she is too thin or reduces slowly if she is overweight.
Of course, a healthy woman needs exercise, but strenuous over-exercising must be avoided; this is not the time to run a marathon. A woman’s health will be at its best if she checks up on her feelings and makes certain that her emotions are as stable as possible. Meditation, qi gong, and regular acupuncture can be very helpful, and so can powerful Chinese herbs.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is natural medicine. It is holistic. The first principle of TCM and that every system must work together. If one system breaks down, it affects all the others. Our body is more than a collection of parts; it is an organic entity. When we treat one part, such as the reproductive system, we must keep all the other systems in mind.
We are also creatures of nature, so natural disasters, wars, or pandemics can directly or indirectly affect our bodies and our health. We are also social animals, and our emotions —whether anxiety, joy, sadness, anger, grief, or fear—can create imbalances in our body that in turn can cause imbalances in our organ systems.
Chinese medicine is all about teaching women to consider taking a natural approach to maintaining their health. The potential for success begins with making certain that her body, her emotions, and her spirit is as healthy as possible. Every day in my practice I work closely with Western fertility experts, and the impact of this technology is far-reaching and profound.
At Tao of Wellness, we gladly and lovingly provide women with treatments and the tools they will need to enhance their reproductive health; we share in their journey and act as their guide, but ultimately it is up to each of our patients to embrace the changes they must make in order to enhance their own wellbeing.