Zen and the Art of Fertility : Part 2

What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Getting Pregnant: Boost Your Fertility with the Best of Traditional and Alternative Therapies
by Raymond Chang, M.D., Elena Oumano, Ph.D.

(Page 4 of 5)

They came to our clinic, and I still remember how I could actually feel the stress and frenetic pace of their lives as I listened to their story. My first piece of advice to this couple was to lie back, take a deep breath, and try to relax. When we started Zena on acupuncture, she would doze off during every session because she was so exhausted from lack of sleep and from worry. In fact, she told us it almost felt that the acupuncture sessions were the only times she could relax fully. We referred Zena to our therapist, who taught her visualization and other relaxation techniques you will learn in chapter 11. Gradually, Zena came to recognize that certain material aspects of her life such as her job, her position, her salary, and her advancement should not take priority in her life. Despite the fact that she and Roberto badly wanted a child, with therapy Zena also learned how to give up control and become receptive to a "whatever will be will be" attitude or the mantra you hear repeated over and over in our clinic, "Do your best and God will do the rest." After six months of therapy, the quality of Zena's life changed from tense, hurried, and hectic to evenly paced and composed. Even her relationship with Roberto improved, as did her general health because she was eating better, sleeping more, practicing yoga and visualizations, as well as getting regular acupuncture at our clinic. We also encouraged Zena to indulge herself with manicures, pedicures, and facials and whatever other pampering she enjoyed, especially if they relaxed her. By that time, she and Roberto had settled in their apartment, and Zena had become fond of New York. Roberto reported that Zena had not only mellowed out, but their sex life had improved. In the fall of 2001, they had decided to take a Caribbean vacation. Around Thanksgiving, Zena called the clinic, ecstatic. She was pregnant, apparently without even trying!

When you practice "Zen and the Art of Fertility," you are not only more likely to become pregnant, you also will be better able to accept any outcome. You'll be freer to let go of expectations and move on to explore other options, such as adoption, if you do not wind up with a successful pregnancy. Let's compare fertility to a lottery: you don't buy a lottery ticket with the expectation that you'll definitely win. If you do happen to win, you are happy because you've received an unexpected gift - which is the same attitude you need to cultivate toward fertility. Optimize every possible factor for conception and a full-time pregnancy. Then, step back, be receptive, and allow nature to take its course.

We also can compare the fertility process to applying to college. An applicant puts together the best possible application package - optimal grades and test scores, extracurricular activities, glowing recommendation letters - and tries to have an excellent interview. The applicant with the best chances has not only good test scores and a superior grade point average, but also proof that he or she is a well-rounded person. The first prerequisite is the basics - the test scores and grades. Those basics can be compared to making sure you are cleared for any potential medical fertility issues. If there are problems, you take care of these basics. For example, if there's a large fibroid in your uterus, no matter how balanced your bodily energy is, your chances of becoming pregnant will be reduced, and so you'll probably undergo a surgical procedure to remove the fibroid. The fertility basics involve making sure "the pipes," "the drains," and other reproductive parts are clean and working so everything can flow normally.

Back to applying to college: Let's say the basics - the scores and grades - are great but the applicant is still not granted admission because subtler factors such as extracurricular activities are weak. This situation is like a fertility workup in which everything - sperm quality and count, hormonal profile, anatomy and physiology - checks out as normal. The basics are fine. The couple is apparently healthy, but there is no pregnancy. This is when functional, or non-physical, factors should be explored, including subtle problems, such as weak energy flow, that can't be revealed through scans or blood tests. It's as if everything is working mechanically, but functionally the energy is dim or slow, or the impulse just isn't there. Subtle elements may not be acknowledged as major issues? like grades and recommendation letters or hormonal and structural issues - but they can make or break the success of the application or the pregnancy.

This is why it's sometimes advisable to integrate conventional medicine with alternative approaches in order to put together the most "well-rounded" application possible and give yourself the best possible chance for success.

The Evolutionary View of Conception

Now, let's explore how your ties to ever-changing nature and your evolutionary past can impact on your ability to conceive and bear a child.

It is simply not enough to address issues of fertility on the level of hormones or such mechanical obstructions as endometriosis, or even from a view of a person as an integrated mind-body system. We must approach fertility from an even broader, more profound perspective that also takes into account a primal drive that tells you when to reproduce and when not to reproduce in order to ensure the survival of our species.

Fertility and the Drive to Survive

Reproduction is an extremely primitive urge, a built-in evolutionary drive we can trace back even to primordial life forms such as algae and bacteria. It has been going on for billions of years. Reproduction could even serve as the definition of life itself - life is that which seeks to replicate itself in the struggle to survive.

As Peter T. Ellison notes in On Fertile Ground: A Natural History of Human Reproduction, we "see in the details of our reproductive physiology the imprint of natural selection and the trace of our evolution."

How does this affect your own ability to conceive and bear a healthy child? The study of ecology and Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest tell us that the species that survive are best able to adapt to their specific environments. We know human physiology is not fixed, and that our major survival tactic is the ability to adjust our bodies continually in response to changes in the environment.

Copyright © 2007 by Raymond Chang, M.D. and Elena Oumano, Ph.D.

About the Author

Raymond Chang, M.D., is an internist, master herbalist, and licensed acupuncturist who attends at New York Presbyterian and Beth Israel hospitals, and specializes in complementary and alternative treatments for infertility. He has been featured in national magazines and interviewed on the Today show.