The recent Dutch study revealing a possible link between IVF and borderline ovarian tumors has caused some panic amongst our patients. I’d like to set everyone’s mind at ease. This was a large and long term study comparing ovarian cancer rates in nearly 20,000 women who received IVF with about 6,000 infertile women who had [...]
Ovarian cysts are small fluid-filled sacs that develop in a woman’s ovaries. Most cysts are harmless, but some may cause problems such as rupturing, bleeding, or pain; and surgery may be required to remove the cyst(s). In Traditional Chinese Medicine cysts are considered an accumulation of phlegm and/or blood stagnation. This is predominantly a Yin [...]
“Do I really have to give up coffee now that I’m trying to get pregnant?” Patients ask me this question a lot and here’s how I usually answer it. If you’re trying to get your body healthy in order to conceive it makes sense to limit your coffee intake to one cup a day. However [...]
Endometriosis is one of the leading causes of pelvic pain we see here at the YinOva Center. It can seriously affect a woman’s ability to conceive and can also cause uncomfortable, heavy or irregular periods. Sometimes there are no symptoms associated with endometriosis and it is only discovered when a woman seeks treatment for [...]
Patient’s often ask me what the early signs of pregnancy are. It is useful to look out for them even though they can be a little confusing. Realistically, the only conclusive way of knowing that you are pregnant is a positive pregnancy test however the signs outlined below may give you a hint. Our book [...]
Women with a common blood type could be twice as likely to suffer from fertility problems, say scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and Yale University. Women with blood group O are at a higher risk of running out of healthy eggs according to research presented this week at the American [...]
Anne had been a strict dieter since college. Maggie is a yoga teacher and considers herself a healthy eater. Sherrie prides herself on her macrobiotic diet and low body fat. All of these women have something in common. All of them came to the YinOva Center because they were having trouble getting pregnant. Each of [...]
Overnight one of my patients “facebooked” me to let me know she’d had her baby – a happy reminder of all the reasons I love my job. Helping couples to conceive is rewarding and interesting work. When a patient first consults me I ask lots of questions, some of which may seem off-topic, but together [...]
Men make new sperm every day and those sperm come to fruition withing 72 days. This is good news for men who want to give their fertility a boost, because it means that within three months they can make a big difference to the reproductive health. For more detailed information it is worth checking out [...]
Once considered an unusual treatment, acupuncture has become a valued and more mainstream method of enhancing an IVF cycle. As successive studies point to it’s efficacy, couples are more comfortable about adding a course of acupuncture to their IVF protocol. You can read more about how we, at the YinOva Center, treat women who [...]
Today on the YinOva Blog I asked Fertility Coach, Dania Sander to write about her practice and how she works to support women while they are trying to conceive. Dania does not work at our center but I am big fan of her work. Her coaching can be a great help in moving forward when [...]
Whilst moderate exercise helps relieve stress and prepare a body for a healthy pregnancy, spending too much time in the gym can impair a woman’s fertility, according to a new study of 3,000 women published in last month’s edition of Human Reproduction. In our book, Making Babies, we suggest that women who are trying to [...]
Several recent studies have explored the use of acupuncture to treat polycystic ovary syndrome with encouraging results. We see quite a number of women who are suffering from PCOS at the YinOva Center and have found that a combination of acupuncture and Chinese herbs can be really helpful. PCOS is a complex endocrine and metabolic [...]
Recently I blogged about how we at The YinOva Center help couples going through IVF. Some of you emailed or called and asked if we would offer a discount for people who are scheduling an assisted reproductive technique and need to book a series of appointments. We hadn’t thought of this and are grateful for [...]
Patients who have been diagnosed with unexplained infertility often find it a great relief that their seemingly random collection of symptoms make sense from a Chinese medicine perspective. They have usually undertaken a battery of tests by the time they visit us at the YinOva Center and their first question is, “If nothing is wrong, [...]
I recently wrote a blog entry that was all about influencing the sex of your baby. All that talk about X and Y chromosomes prompted one of my patients to ask me about Fragile X syndrome. She had just been diagnosed as a carrier for this disorder and wanted me to help her sort through [...]
I enjoyed this video by Alice Eve Jones performing an extract from her book, What I Thought I Knew. In it she describes how, after a long struggle with infertility, she was told she was in menopause, only to find out that she was pregnant. Recently Dr. David and I were consulted by a patient [...]
Kathryn, one of our lovely YinOva patients was reading our book Making Babies: A Proven 3-Month Program for Maximum Fertility when she had a thought. She facebooked me to suggest that we start collecting fertility-friendly recipes and publishing them here on the blog. I loved the idea and thought her first two recipe suggestions were [...]
Jill Blakeway is the Clinic Director of the YinOva Center. She is an acupuncturist, author and speaker who makes regular media appearances to talk about natural health care for women. Here she writes about how acupuncture can help women undergoing IVF. For the past 12 years here at the YinOva Center we have used traditional [...]
In our book Making Babies: A Proven 3-Month Program for Maximum Fertility Dr. David and I recommend abdominal self massage as a way of helping to enhance fertility by increasing blood flow to the uterus. In the book there are detailed diagrams of different self-massage techniques for every phase of your cycle. This massage is [...]
“Is there anything I can do to make it more likely that my baby is a girl?”. This was a question that one of my patients asked me a couple of weeks ago. She already has a little boy and, although she’d be happy with another boy, she would dearly love a baby girl. She [...]
Recently I blogged about a study that showed that chemical exposure could lead to male infertility. The article provoked a lot of discussion in the YinOva waiting room and many of our patients commented about it and asked for advice about avoiding household chemicals. One of our patients, a 5 year cancer survivor, offered to [...]
