Fertility
For many couples, the road to parenthood is slower than expected. The journey can be long and confusing and can certainly take a toll on your emotional well being. Recently, infertility specialists have been focusing on factors outside of the reproductive system in order to solve the puzzle of infertility. More and more centers for infertility are partnering with acupuncturists, yoga centers and other stress reduction or lifestyle maximization programs. Our fertility program is not meant to diagnose or treat infertility in the medical sense. Rather, we uniquely combine several modalities in a team setting to improve the overall function of your mind and body and thereby put you in a more fertile state. Our doctors and therapists spend a great deal of time thoroughly discussing and reviewing your immediate and past medical history and lifestyle, and develop a personalized course of care that is right for you. Modalities may include acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, nutrition, mind-body medicine, chiropractic, massage therapy and counseling. We work with couples through all stages of the fertility journey and provide complimentary care to medical diagnosis and treatment. You don't have to have one or the other. We work closely with several reproductive endocrinologists in the Los Angeles area.
This recent magazine article that I authored provides a basic explaination of our approach to natural fertility care.
| Damn Near Threshold
by Dr. Elliot Berlin |
| Some men hate this, but I will never get tired of those phone calls from women claiming that I got them pregnant. I especially love the men who call and thank me for getting their wives pregnant. In fact, I’ve been actively trying to get as many women as possible pregnant for four years now and, as a doctor, I have learned some really neat tricks along the way.
At last count, the National Center for Health Statistics, reported approximately 6.1 million women ages 15-44 with impaired ability to have children in the United States; a number that appears to be growing quickly. In many cases, the cause of infertility is readily apparent or can be isolated with advanced medical testing. Such causes may include age, diseased fallopian tubes, pelvic adhesions, fibroids, polyps, ovulatory dysfunction and exposure to radiation or chemicals. However, in up to 15% of all cases no known cause is found, and the couple is diagnosed with Unexplained Infertility. In other words, the male is producing large quantities of healthy good swimming sperm and the female is relatively young, ovulating normally, has open, healthy fallopian tubes, appropriate hormone levels, no pelvic adhesions, no endometriosis, and very hospitable cervical mucus. By now you might be wondering what a Chiropractor can do to help overcome infertility (crack the eggs?). Chiropractors are Holistic doctors, meaning we don’t focus on the specific areas of sign or symptom; rather we view those symptoms within the context of the function of the entire organism. Over my years in practice I have targeted a specific dysfunction of the nervous system that contributes to conditions such as unexplained infertility, migraine headaches, constant fatigue, panic attacks and chronic muscle pain and spasm in otherwise healthy young people. Once the dysfunction is identified and treated, noticeable improvement of these symptoms tends to follow. To explain this particular dysfunction in everyday terms, it is helpful to compare people who suffer with it to a dam near threshold. Picture a reservoir built with an artificial damn to hold back water for a city. There is a natural capacity that the reservoir can comfortably handle. Once that capacity is exceeded the dam will no longer be able to hold back its contents. That point is called threshold. When a dam is filled close to the point of threshold, but not quite at threshold, the water on the surface of the reservoir remains calm and peaceful. But at the core there is overwhelming pressure mounting and waiting to explode. At this point adding just a few drops of additional water instantly sends that calm peaceful surface into a violent and destructive eruption, which, at the same time relieves the pressure that had been building in the depths of the reservoir. People are the same way. There is only a certain amount of ‘junk’ that we can handle. When we hold on to too much our reservoir fills up and we become the dam near threshold. One minute we may look calm, peaceful and happy, and the next moment, the smallest provocation causes us to either implode or explode. If we explode, we tend to yell or lash out, usually at the people we are closest to. In a less familiar setting we implode which translates into symptoms such as migraines, panic attacks or any of the others listed above. There is a technical scientific explanation to the damn near threshold analogy. A portion of the nervous system acts automatically in response to stimuli around us to keep us alive and well. This is called the autonomic nervous system or ANS. The ANS constantly regulates our breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, many of our hormones, our digestive and reproductive systems and more. The ANS has two divisions, a relaxation division and an urgency division. When stimulated, the urgency division triggers the fight or flight response, during which your heart will automatically beat faster and stronger, your body will break down stored up energy and deliver it to your muscles so that you can run for your life or fight to survive, and your digestive and reproductive systems, those non-essential for survival during this emergency, will virtually shut down. Simply put, when you are running from a tiger, the last two things you want to do are eat a donut or have a baby. People who are living the dam near threshold lifestyle typically show signs of a mild to moderate imbalance of the ANS where the body is preparing for or an urgency or acting in response to one even when none exists. In additional to other signs and symptoms, these young women often have a hard time conceiving. I refer to this imbalance, together with the collection of symptoms, as Sympathetic Dominance Syndrome (SDS). In most cases SDS can be reversed by draining the reservoir. Two years ago, Jill, a 31 year old mother of two, came into our office complaining of debilitating migraines. At first glance you wouldn’t suspect that Jill had a worry in the world. She was smiley and friendly, well put together and quick with a joke. Minutes into the interview and exam I discovered several signs of SDS. I simply asked Jill if she had to work hard to maintain the discrepancy between how she looks and how she feels inside. She immediately broke down into tears. Clearly she was damn near threshold. Jill had never suffered from migraines until her second child was born. The first migraine came a week after the baby and now, at four months, they were happening three to four times per week. Doctors tested everything and could not find the source of the problem. They had given her powerful medication to take in the event of a debilitating migraine, but the medicine itself knocked her out and rendered her useless for six to twelve hours. I suggested that we start slow with Jill. I taught her simple breathing exercises and slowly moved into basic meditation. Jill worked hard, practicing her meditation at home daily. Meditation has been proven clinically to counter the fight-or-flight response and it had just that effect on Jill. After three weeks of treatment Jill was down to one migraine a week. She was feeling so good about herself that she felt strong enough to explore the contents of her reservoir searching for the source of her pain. Just a few weeks later, we had the answer. Jill was exhausted from caring for both her infant and her toddler all day. At the end of the day she finally got everyone fed and sleeping and would have the chance to snuggle into bed and get some rest herself. Often times, just as Jill was falling into a deep sleep, the newborn would wake up screaming for a meal. For an instant, she would feel angry at her newborn. That feeling was scary and unacceptable to Jill, so she would quickly push it down into her subconscious, much like sweeping dirt under a rug so that nobody will see it. Given the opportunity to explore these feelings, Jill realized that her reaction was normal and that she was not upset at her baby, just frustrated with the situation. Jill has not had a migraine in over a year. For the women with SDS who cannot conceive or maintain pregnancy, conventional medical tests often find nothing wrong and the patient will end up with the diagnosis of Unexplained Infertility. Often times the ensuing invasive medical treatment will make the SDS worse and may actually worsen the chances of conception. By draining the reservoir we move a safe distance from threshold and that sends a relaxed message to the ANS. Using this method alone, we regularly help people overcome migraines, chronic pain and spasm, constant fatigue, mild to moderate anxiety, digestive dysfunction and unexplained infertility. Each holiday season I take out all of my season’s greeting cards from the past couple of years and remind myself why I stay up nights researching and developing new techniques to help my patients naturally overcome SDS. The stories behind each card are enough to make a grown man cry. This morning, I was that grown man, as I read a card reminisced over the story of Alexis and Justin. At just 33 years of age, Alexis, a pediatric oncology nurse, had been trying to conceive for four years. After being diagnosed with unexplained infertility, she and Justin went through three unsuccessful medicated fertility cycles, followed by three unsuccessful IVF cycles. When she first came to my office, Alexis had nearly given up hope. Over the past two years she had been through physical, financial and emotional hell and it showed. On our very first visit, a very thorough review of the five previous years of her life showed that Alexis never really gave her body a chance. I suggested, at her age, that she immediately stop all fertility testing and treatment and give her mind and body a chance to recover for a little while. Recharging Alexis’ batteries wasn’t easy, but she put in the time and the effort. After eight months Alexis had gone through a major change for the better and she felt great, despite not being pregnant. In addition to being able to sleep, and wake up refreshed, Alexis got her sense of humor back, took control over things that were within her power to control such as diet and exercise, and most importantly, drained her reservoir so that she was no longer living near threshold. This had a profound strengthening impact on their marriage and shortly thereafter Alexis conceived. Her bundle of Joy was born healthy and right on time, December 25th, last year. This year so many more couples will experience the Holidays for the first time finally having realized the dream of pregnancy or parenthood for the first time, after long roads traveled. To those who are struggling with infertility, I encourage you to stay strong and keep healthy, and know that in the end you will realize your dream. For those of us fortunate enough to have children, let’s appreciate them with a renewed understanding of what a truly miraculous gift they are; even when they flush all of the contents of the medicine cabinet down the toilet. |
Feel free to browse through our fertility pages or call our office (323) 549-0070 for more information. We look forward to helping you.
*Sensitivity note: As you can see from the rest of our website, we focus heavily on prenatal, postpartum, and pediatric care. As a result, you are likely to run into pregnant women and babies in the office. It might lift your spirits to know that many of those women and babies are graduates of our fertility program.
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