Garden Acupuncture in Park Slope, Brooklyn has been creating and producing informational videos over the past year explaining Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

The latest of the videos explains the importance of women keeping track of their Basal Body Temperature, BBT, throughout their menstrual cycle. This is paramount information for individuals trying to conceive because it shows their most fertile days of the month.

Information learned from a basal body temperature chart:
1. When ovulation occurs.
2. The most fertile days of the month.
3. Length of the two phases of the cycle.
4. Possible irregularities.
5. If acupuncture, herbal therapy or another form of intervention could be beneficial.



In the video, Alexander Goldberg LAc, Dipl OM, a fertility specialist, gives an easy description of how to take your temperature to get accurate results. This resting body temperature is an indication of hormone levels and processes that are occurring in the body. So, keeping track of this will give provide a clear picture of your fertility health.

Dr. Goldberg has studied directly under Dr. Randine Lews, Ph.D. author of The Infertility Cure, and The Way of the Fertile Soul. Dr. Lewis is a well-recognized authority in the field of fertility medicine and Alex is the only practitioner in Brooklyn, NY who has the esteemed privilege to study with her.

Garden Acupuncture is a family-run, small business in the heart of Park Slope. They pride themselves on individualized, affordable treatments and are committed to offering the best holistic care to the local community.

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
The Way of the Fertile Soul:
Ten Ancient Chinese Secrets to Tap into a Woman's Creative Potential
by Randine Lewis

Being fertile and fruitful can mean giving birth to a child -- but to have a fertile soul means to give birth to the true self a woman wants to be: to live a life filled with passion, strength, joy, and adventure.

In The Way of the Fertile Soul, Dr. Randine Lewis outlines ten ancient Chinese medical and Taoist secrets that hold the little-known key to successfully conceiving babies, new dreams, and fulfilling life for women at any phase in their lives.

The Way of the Fertile Soul encourages women to strive toward health, abundance, and a fruitful, joyous approach to life.

By using diagnostic questionnaires, qigong exercises, and guided meditations to help the reader understand how the elements of nature express themselves in her body, mind, and spirit, The Way of the Fertile Soul provides the tools to greatly increase a woman's chance of conceiving, identify imbalances, reduce stress, increase energy, and uncover her intrinsic creativity and express it fully.

Paperback: 240 pages
Click to order/for more info: The Way of the Fertile Soul

Start reading The Way of the Fertile Soul on your Kindle in under a minute!

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Dr. Kenneth Snell holds a baby conceived with the help of his acupuncture and herbal fertility treatment

Women who put off having children in their younger years, then seem unable to fall pregnant in their 40s, are finding new hope with Australian fertility specialist Dr. Kenneth Snell.

One such woman is Linda P, aged 44, of Sydney, a patient of his who has become pregnant after being told by three in vitro fertility doctors she is too old.

Dr. Snell, a fertility specialist practicing at his Acupuncture IVF and Fertility Clinic in Sydney, has recorded much better results than most in vitro fertilization (IVF) specialists around the world - even with patients aged over 40.

He says he believes his treatment rejuvenates the aging eggs of women over 40.

Dr. Snell says, In these times of economic uncertainty when people work longer hours for less pay, lose their jobs, study for years, go into debt and pay more for housing and almost everything else, many women and their partners cannot afford to get married, buy a home and raise a family.

Sadly, many young couples, even though both of them are working, just cannot afford children.

He says, Many find, through no fault of their own, they are well into their 30s before they can afford to have their own home and family.

Some wives then find they cannot seem to fall pregnant, he says. Some reach their 40s with their hopes dashed of ever raising a family.

I offer them new hope, with results to prove it.

In the 2007-2008 financial year, 24 female patients completed his study program, and 21 of them became pregnant and gave live birth.

Of the 21 patients who became pregnant and gave birth, 81 percent became pregnant from natural conceptions, without IVF intervention, and 19 percent from conceptions using IVF.

Of the same 21 patients, 9 percent were younger than 30 years, 48 percent were from 30 to 34 years old, 24 percent were from 35 to 40, and 19 percent were 40 or older.

Dr. Snell says he has helped achieve an 87 percent success rate for live births with his treatment program, compared with typical rates of less than about 40 percent for most IVF programs.

He tells how several patients aged in their 40s (their real names and locations withheld for privacy), had almost given up hope of becoming pregnant and giving birth until they came to him for treatment.

One is Linda P, aged 44, of Sydney. Three fertility specialists in Sydney had refused to let her into their IVF programs.

She visited one of these leading specialists three times only to be told bluntly her eggs were too old, and she had no chance of falling pregnant with her own eggs, he says.

She approached me feeling deflated and depressed in December 2008, asking if there was anything I could do to reduce the age of her eggs.

Within four weeks of receiving my unique fertility acupuncture treatment and my special fertility herbal medicine, Linda was positively pregnant.

She could not believe it when I felt her pulse and said, ‘You are pregnant. You had better confirm this with a pregnancy test.’

Linda's pregnancy was confirmed, firstly by Chinese pulse diagnosis then by a hormone test.

Dr. Snell then promptly prepared and applied further acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine to increase her hormone levels. She is visiting him three times a week for acupuncture and is taking his medicine to prevent any miscarriage due to her age.

She is now in her ninth week, and all her hormones are at their correct levels and the seventh-week scan was good, he says.

Dr. Snell says his treatment principle has been to increase progesterone production in the body, reduce the age of the eggs, affect the uterine lining and hold the embryo.

Another of his patients is Hilary U, aged 41, of Sydney. Hilary failed to become pregnant although she tried for more than a year. During that time she miscarried.

Then she tried IVF and acupuncture with herbal medicine for three months with other doctors before she approached Dr. Snell.

He treated her with his acupuncture and Chinese medicine until she eventually fell pregnant naturally. This pregnancy resulted in her giving birth.

Julie K, aged 43, of Sydney, had failed to become pregnant after completing IVF 16 times with other doctors.

Dr. Snell says, With each IVF attempt, her egg quality became worse due to overly strong IVF drugs with their side effects and her advanced age.

Then Dr. Snell began treating her with acupuncture and herbal medicine, and she became pregnant on the seventeenth IVF treatment.

On the seventeenth IVF attempt, the IVF scientist was so very surprised at the positive difference in egg quality and follicle size, he called the patient to tell her, says Dr. Snell.

Andrea L, aged 40, of Sydney, had failed to become pregnant after she and her husband had been trying for 18 months.

In that time, she also tried intrauterine insemination (IUI) twice, but unsuccessfully.

Yet after being treated by Dr. Snell, she finally fell pregnant and is now 20 weeks pregnant.

Paula C, aged 39, of Sydney, first presented to Dr. Snell with endometriosis, cysts, bleeding while ovulating, and a heavy, yellow vaginal discharge.

After taking Dr. Snell's acupuncture and Chinese medicine for 12 weeks, her health improved and she fell pregnant.

She has already given birth to her baby girl.

Dr. Snell says, Women are leaving pregnancy to very late in life due to study, work and other commitments.

Unfortunately leaving pregnancy late reduces the chances of conceiving, as the reproductive and hormonal systems do not function as well in women over 40.

Women of this age are discouraged from entering IVF programs as the statistics do not offer hope for them in an IVF program, he says.

He says his fertility treatments yield a much higher success rate than those of other doctors because his acupuncture treatment is vastly different from other acupuncturists and his herbal medicine is more potent.

Dr. Snell is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. He is a member of the Fertility Society of Australia, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association.

He says, I achieve outstanding results when my patients use the two treatments together, natural Chinese medicine and acupuncture, with or without IVF. Most women who have been through multiple IVF procedures usually fall pregnant naturally after being on my program for approximately five months.

Patients using only IVF drugs are much less successful than those using the two treatments together, he says.

I have proven with my studies which I have conducted with the cooperation of patients at my clinic over recent years, these natural medicines are not only safe but facilitate a much higher success rate for in vitro fertilization.

Results of Dr. Snell's studies were published in several online medical and health publications in 2008.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a medical process in which a woman's egg cells are fertilized by sperm outside of her womb. This process involves hormonally controlling ovulation, removing eggs from the woman's ovaries and letting sperm fertilize them in a fluid. A fertilized egg is then transferred to the uterus in an attempt to achieve pregnancy.

With intrauterine insemination (IUI), fresh or frozen and thawed sperm is artificially placed in a woman's uterus.

More information is available at Acupuncture IVF and Fertility Clinic

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:

Acupuncture and IVF: Increase IVF Success by 40-60%
by Lifang Liang

-- The information in this book can increase your success rate with in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other assisted reproductive technologies (ART) by as much as 60%.

Research has shown acupuncture alone can increase the success rate of IVF by 35%.

By also adding Chinese herbal medicine, it is Dr. Lifang Liangs experience you can almost double that increase.

In this book, Dr. Liang describes her extremely successful step-by-step protocols for combining acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine with IVF.

Whether you are a Western MD specializing in infertility, a Chinese medical practitioner, or a couple experiencing difficulties in conceiving, this book is sure to give you new hope and a new approach to dealing with this all too common and difficult condition.

Paperback: 224 pages
Click to order/for more info: Acupuncture and IVF

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“In school, I wasn’t the one saying ‘I want to be a teacher or a doctor,’ ” Dana Murphy says, tickling her eight-month-old daughter.  

“I wanted to be a mom. It was always the most important thing to me.”

Murphy’s motherhood dreams have been realized, despite the odds, and she firmly believes Chinese medicine deserves the credit.

The 35-year-old was diagnosed in her teens with polycystic ovary syndrome, a common endocrine disorder among women which can cause infertility and a host of other unfortunate symptoms, among them obesity, facial hair, thinning hair and acne.

Murphy knew PCOS would make it difficult, maybe even impossible, for her to have children.

She and her husband, Chris, were up for the fertility challenges when they decided to become parents in 2008.

Little did they know how frustrated they would get with conventional medicine, how desperate they would become.

Read more

Photo credit: Shaughn Butts
All rights reserved

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
The Fertility Guide: A Couples Handbook for When You Want to Have a Baby (More Than Anything Else)
by John C., II Jarrett and Deidra T. Rausch

-- This Fertility Guide provides a concise, sensible, appropriately scientific, but yet easily understood approach to modern fertility diagnosis and treatment.

Dr. Jarrett and Dr. Rausch have translated their vast and highly successful clinical experience into a "must" for the couple who want to have a baby more than anything else.

The most important contribution of this book is that it translates the high tech into common sense and fills an important void in the specialty... -- E.P. Peterson, MD, Past President of American Society of Reproductive Medicine, Clinical Professor Dept OB/GYN University of Michigan.

Paperback: 200 pages
Click to order/for more info: The Fertility Guide

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Traditional Chinese medicine makes fertility treatments far more effective, Tel Aviv University researchers discover

Traditional Chinese medicine has long been used to ease pain, treat disease, boost fertility, and prevent miscarriage. Known in the Western medical community by its acronym TCM, these traditional remedies include herbal preparations and acupuncture. Now Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered that a combination of TCM therapy and intrauterine insemination (IUI) is a winning solution for hopeful mommies who are having trouble conceiving.

In the first study that measures the effectiveness of both herbs and acupuncture in combination with IUI in-fertility treatment, Dr. Shahar Lev-Ari and Keren Sela of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Tel Aviv Medical Center say that the results, which have been published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine, show a significant increase in fertility when the therapies are administered side-by-side.

When combining IUI with TCM treatments, 65.5 percent of the test group were able to conceive, compared with 39.4 percent of the control group, who received no herbal or acupuncture therapy. The method is as "close to nature" as possible and can be used by women employing sperm donors, or after a partner's sperm is centrifuged to enhance its motility in the uterus.

Age-old therapies, contemporary medicine

Dr. Lev-Ari, a cellular biologist and head of the integrative medicine unit, works with both medical doctors and TCM practitioners at Tel Aviv Medical Center's Fertility Research Institute. He and Sela, a TCM practitioner specializing in women's health, have long been interested in how Chinese herbal and acupuncture therapies could work to boost Western-style fertility treatments, contributing to an increase in conception and take-home baby rates.

In a retrospective study, Dr. Lev-Ari and Sela followed the progress of 29 women between the ages of 30 and 45 who were receiving IUI treatment combined with TCM therapy, and compared their results to a control group of 94 women between the ages of 28 and 46 who were undergoing IUI treatment alone. In addition to their IUI treatments, the 29 women in the first group received weekly sessions of acupuncture and a regime of Chinese medicinals, which consisted of powdered or raw Chinese herbs such as PeoniaAlbae and Chuanxiong, designed to meet each woman's specific needs. All herbal preparations were approved by the Israeli Health Ministry.

In terms of both conception and take-home baby rates, the test group fared far better than the control group. Out of the 29 women in the test group, 65.5 percent conceived, and 41.4 percent delivered healthy babies. In the control group, only 39.4 percent conceived and 26.9 percent delivered. The vast difference in success rates is even more surprising when the age of the average participant was taken into account, Dr. Lev-Ari and Sela note. "The average age of the women in the study group was 39.4, while that of the control group was 37.1. Normally, the older the mother, the lower the pregnancy and delivery rates," they explain.

Promoting balance and harmony in the womb

According to the researchers, TCM is aimed at correcting imbalances in the body's natural energy flow, promoting an overall sense of well-being. There are several theories as to why Chinese medicine can be beneficial to fertility rates, including the possibility that herbal remedies and acupuncture can affect the ovulation and menstrual cycle, enhance blood flow to the uterus, and enhance endorphin production and secretion to inhibit the central nervous system and induce calm — all of which can contribute to successful conception.

Now that the researchers have established that TCM can have a major impact on the success of fertility treatments, they plan to design randomized clinical trials, including placebos, to further validate their initial findings.

###

Stock Photo credit: yenhoon
All rights reserved

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Natural Remedies for Pregnant Women - Pregnant and not feeling so well? Check out these helpful natural remedies.

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Budgeting for In-fertility: How to Bring Home a Baby Without Breaking the Bank
-- Having a baby can be one of the most wonderful times of your life -- but if you need help to conceive, it can swiftly become a staggeringly expensive undertaking. 

With the average cost of in-fertility treatments ranging from $35,000 to $85,000 in the United States (most of which is not covered by insurance companies), many women and couples find themselves having to make difficult choices about building their families.

Getting a grip on your finances is one of the few things you can do to regain control of this process.

In-fertility experts Evelina Weidman Sterling and Angie Best-Boss have created the ultimate guide to ensuring the most cost-effective care with the highest chances for success. 

With anecdotes, interviews, and advice from both doctors and patients, you can easily apply these specific money-saving strategies to your own unique situation.

Click to read more

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Can alternative medicine help you get pregnant?

Maybe. But some therapies are a lot more promising than others. Here, the lowdown on five complementary treatments.

By the time Suzanne Dubrow, 40, turned to alternative medicine to help her get pregnant, she felt she’d hit a seemingly unscaleable wall in her efforts to become a mother.

After several rounds of intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) and two miscarriages, the California journalist had been told that her “old eggs” meant she’d have to turn to donor eggs. But Dubrow didn’t agree.

She started searching the Internet for a different approach, eventually finding Randine Lewis and her Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) program for treating infertility. 

“I knew that I’d found someone special and different in this horrible world [of infertility treatments],” recalls Dubrow. “Right off the bat she gave me four or five things I could do myself, which was incredibly empowering. I was just desperate to find some way to help myself to regain my fertility.”

Read more...

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
The Infertility Cure: The Ancient Chinese Wellness Program for Getting Pregnant and Having Healthy Babies
by Randine Lewis

-- Infertility affects one out of six couples today.

Dr. Lewis presents a groundbreaking alternative approach to infertility, explaining how she used traditional Chinese medicine to treat her own infertility, successfully conceiving and giving birth to two children.

In Lewis's experience, women who have undergone three to six months of the dietary changes, herbs and acupuncture treatments become pregnant with no further effort.

Lewis intersperses her somewhat technical examination of the program with anecdotes about her patients, weaving in discussions on diet, herbal supplements, acupuncture, older women and problems related to infertility.

Paperback: 320 pages
Click to order/for more info: The Infertility Cure

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SOME couples struggle to conceive, especially when infertility might be an underlying problem.

And besides undergoing Western fertility treatments, some are turning to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for help.

TCM treatments include herbal remedies and acupuncture, which are meant to bring the body into balance and thus facilitate conception.

But those who turn to TCM should know that TCM isn't a quick fix, said physician Loh Kim Gek, 55.

Read more...



Recent Keyword Searches: latest age to get pregnant, fertility at 48 years of age, how to get pregnant over 45, can menopausal women get pregnant via fertility clinics, is 43 too old to get pregnant

Chinese medicine practitioner Andrew Orr of Jamboree Heights has helped to create a lot of little miracles.

Mr Orr, who has run Shen Therapies and ConceptShen with his wife Nicole since 1995, uses a combination of techniques modern and ancient to help couples
conceive.

Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, diet, lifestyle management, fertility formulas and nutritional supplements are all put to work in Mr Orr’s program.

Shen Therapies and ConceptShen is at 31 Horizon Drive, Jamboree Heights. http://www.shentherapies.com.au or phone 3279 5697.

Read more...



Recent Keyword Searches: ıs it possible to get pregnant at an old age?, high fsh success stories, pregnant over 40, ovulation in your 40's, pregnancy in woman with high fsh and low estrogen

During this free seminar, Dr. Perloe explores issues the diagnosis and treatment of infertility with ovulation induction, insemination and surgery as well as in vitro fertilization. You will learn about age related infertility, fallopian tube obstruction, male infertility, PCOS, endometriosis and use of donor sperm or donor eggs. Mind-Body issues will be discussed by holistic health counselor, nutrition expert and yoga teacher Wendy Brown as well as by Mark Schwartz, L.Ac, who is trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture. Learn how you can take a more active role in the fertility process.

Learn how you can afford fertility treatment. Although infertility treatment is not always covered by insurance, GRS offers many unique financial programs including ”Shared-Risk IVF” with a money-back option and the “No-Hidden-Fees IVF” which includes all frozen embryo transfer cycles and a second IVF cycle if necessary.

You will also have the opportunity to tour our state-of-the-art medical facilities, ask any questions you may have related to infertility and IVF and schedule a free, meet & greet with any of the GRS physicians.

Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Time: 7:00 pm.
Location: 5445 Meridian Mark Road, Suite 270, Atlanta, GA 30342

Register online or tmitchell@ivf.com or 404-843-2229 x 154

For more information about:
Mark Perloe, M.D. - Wendy Brown - Mark Schwartz, L.Ac. 

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
INFERTILITY Road to Hell and Back
by Azelene Williams

-- I love being a woman. To me it is a privilege and there is nothing more satisfying.

I appreciate being honoured and cherished for my femininity - for after all, I am the potential mother of the next generation.

I value my fertility, value the gift of being able to carry a child and become a mother. To me this is the very essence of being a women.

The children we bring into the world are small replicas of ourselves and our husbands; the pride and joy of grandfathers and grandmothers. We dream of being mothers and for most of us these dreams are realized naturally. For this is the Miracle of Life.

But - what about when that longed for baby never happens? When you realize that something is wrong and turn to professionals for help. Tests are done; treatments tried without success.

You traipse from one doctor to the next; resulting in more disappointment and fading hope. Your dream is shattered and the heartache is painful; almost unbearable. What is wrong with you? Is it your fault?

How are you lacking? Why? The questions are still desperately being asked.............but there are no answers. Slowly your conviction grows that your entirety as a woman is incomplete.

I am a woman and this is my story..............

Paperback: 228 pages
Click to order/for more info: INFERTILITY Road to Hell and Back

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They say lightning never strikes twice. The fact that it ever struck at all in my case was a miracle.

Having spent three years at the frontline of fertility treatment undergoing every medical procedure known to modern man — including more than 1,000 injections and a total change of white blood cells — I managed by some fluke to get pregnant on my own (although I was on Chinese herbs at the time).

The doctors were shocked. My husband was stunned and I was totally delighted.

And now four years on, with our miracle baby Allegra now at school and all the odds still firmly stacked against me (aged 41, I am very much in the “maternal crone” category), I have somehow managed to do it again.

Read more: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/health/article-23705882-details/Second+miracle+baby+for+infertile+mum/article.do

Fertility therapy via acupuncture has been practiced for over 2,000 years by the Chinese, and can be used to treat both men and women. It is usually combined with herbal therapy, and has been shown in scientific studies to boost IVF (in-vitro fertilization) and ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection) by as much as 40% (enlightenedbody.com/fertility).

The Berkeley Center for Reproductive Wellness reports that a combination of acupuncture, traditional medicines and herbs provide for the best chance at pregnancy for struggling couples (American Pregnancy Association).

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/x-10674-SF-Wellness-Examiner~y2009m6d2-Fertility-treatment-doesnt-have-to-be-risky-and-painful



Recent Keyword Searches: pregnant at 40years, pregnancy success at 42, acupuncture aiding pregnancy women over 45, can i get pregnant at 47, getting pregnantover 40 with accpuncture

Norwalk, CT (PRWEB) May 28, 2009 -- Reproductive Medicine Associates of Connecticut (RMACT) announced today the results of a recently conducted survey that showed the use of laser acupuncture performed both before and after embryo transfer during an in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle, improves a women's chances of implantation by up to 15%.

The good news is that there is so much a couple can do to enhance fertility naturally. The greatest success we have had with assisting couples to become pregnant revolves around enhancing liver detoxification. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the liver is considered the gland of hormone harmonization (among other things). The mere fact that we live in an ever accumulating toxic world is at the core of infertility.

For more info: http://www.drramsey.com/

Read more:

http://www.empowher.com/news/herarticle/2009/04/29/naturally-increase-your-baby-making-chances

Life Begins...
Miscarriage stories of loss, hope & help
http://born2luv.blogspot.com/

Stories of Pregnancy & Birth over 44y
- Daily blog of hope & inspiration!
http://pregnancyover44y.blogspot.com/

5,100 Stories of Pregnancy & Birth over 44y
Daily blog of hope & inspiration!
http://pregnancyover44y.blogspot.com/

Helena Bonham Carter, alternative therapy devotee, tells Andrea Manzi-Davies how she resorted to fertility drugs in her quest to conceive a second child at 41

Pregnancy at 41 certainly agrees with Helena Bonham Carter. Seven months into carrying her second child, vibrant and beaming, she is licking big globules of Marmite – her latest craving – off her fingers.

She knows she is lucky. Not because of her successful acting career maintained over 25 years but because, after trying for two long years, she finally managed to conceive naturally.

Bonham Carter already has one son, Billy Ray, four, with her partner, the cult film director Tim Burton, best known for the Gothic Edward Scissorhands and two of the Batman films.

But she was desperate to have a second child and, while more women are becoming mothers over the age of 40 – there has been a 50 per cent increase in the past 10 years – she was well aware that only 7.8 per cent of women over the age of 42 are able to conceive with their own eggs.

So, like many women in her position, the actress, whose career has moved from playing Merchant Ivory heroines to the evil Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter movies, was open to considering all options.

And while Bonham Carter is renowned for her interest in alternative therapies, after trying and failing to get pregnant she decided to try conventional fertility medicine. The experience was not a happy one.

She took a fertility drug called Clomid, which stimulates egg production, after being told that she might not have been ovulating. The drug, which was also taken by Jools Oliver, wife of the chef Jamie Oliver, and is prescribed on the NHS, tells the brain that not enough oestrogen is being produced. But Bonham Carter is angry that she was not warned about potential side-effects.

"I had a terrible reaction to it. Many people think it is the only thing that's going to make them ovulate, but as it turned out I was ovulating anyway. It stressed me out beyond belief. Hormonally, I was all over the shop and I got really low emotionally. Lots of people don't have that reaction, but on the internet I found a Clomid Club, with people who react to the stuff discussing it online."

Reassured that she was not the only one to suffer this way, she stopped using it and concentrated on alternative therapies. "I tried acupuncture two years ago," she says. "I went to the Chinese acupuncturist in Belsize Park. Dr Deng, who practices there, is brilliant, and has helped so many local people. She kept saying that I was 'too weak, too weak', and gave me several types of tea to help build my strength up."

She also tried Tui Na (literally "push and grasp"), a form of Chinese massage that follows the same pattern as acupuncture and is an alternative for patients anxious about needles.

But she still wasn't pregnant and the next option was to try IVF. "I think we probably would have, yes," she says now. "Obviously, you don't know what you'd do unless you were actually in that situation. I think we might have gone for a round of IVF, but that would have been that. There was an argument for just having one child, because we thought if that's the way it's meant to be, so be it."

Ironically, however, she finally became pregnant naturally, just when she was under intense pressure at work. Immersed in a demanding role as Mrs Lovett in the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd (with Johnny Depp in the title role and directed by Burton), Bonham Carter was putting in long days with little sleep, singing for hours on end.

"I was working so hard at the time," she recalls. "The first three months being pregnant while filming, I felt totally spaced out. You do need to multi-task with acting. You've got to remember your marks, your lines, singing, everything, and actually – you have no brain! Suddenly your own brain is growing another person's brain, so yours goes defunct. It wasn't ideal, but then I was so happy to be pregnant."

At that time, she also returned to Listening Therapy, where patients listen to Mozart and Gregorian chants to help them unwind. The theory is that by exposing the muscles of the middle ear to different frequencies, concentration improves and stress decreases.

The therapy, based on the work of the French neurologist Alfred Tomatis, has been used to help children with learning difficulties but it is also offered to pregnant women to help them relax before giving birth.

Years ago, Bonham Carter used the therapy to learn a language for an acting role, and revisited it when she was expecting Billy Ray.

During pregnancy, the technique is supposed to produce an alert, relaxed, and physically toned baby, and an easy delivery because it calms the mother. "That was absolutely the case for me with Billy," she says. "Billy was able to hold his head up at a very early stage, he was very laid-back, and although I love chubby babies, Billy has always been physically toned. I really think listening therapy might have helped a lot. The birth wasn't drama-free, but I felt very relaxed."

Despite their reputation for unconventionality – they live in separate houses connected by a hallway – both she and Burton attended antenatal classes before Billy was born. A fan of homoeopathy, she would have preferred a natural birth but "when it came to it, I just went for an epidural", she says. "Although arnica and camomile were really helpful afterwards, what I'd like to know is if there is anything for new fathers." In fact there is; homoeopaths recommend Arg Nit (silver nitrate) or aconite, which can be used for shock and panic, as well as vitamin-B complex and Rescue Remedy.

This time Bonham Carter is, she says, more relaxed about her pregnancy although she has had to give up some treats. "One of my favourite dishes is carpaccio and I love sushi but I've avoided them during this pregnancy," she says. "Obviously anything with raw eggs is forbidden, too. I don't drink caffeine as much as I would normally and try to restrict myself to one cup of coffee a day."

Instead she has become a glutton for peppermint tea and is also snacking on goji berries, hailed as the latest superfood – they are said to have more betacarotene than carrots, more vitamin C than oranges and more iron than steak. As we speak, she wolfs down slices of soda bread with a generous layer of butter and large dollops of Marmite (enriched with Guinness).

She will be giving birth in a hospital again – although she does not reveal which hospital nor will she give details of her birth plan. Is it safe to assume that the hospital will run the show? Or will Burton revert to type and suggest a Gothic birth? There are gales of unrestrained laughter. "Oh no! The hospital I hope…"

HELENA RECOMMENDS…

Listening Therapy
Listening therapy was developed by Alfred Tomatis, a French neurologist who now has 200 centres around the world. Patients are "taught" by listening to a series of music tapes over six months. This is said to re-educate the middle-ear muscles and aid concentration. It is used to help children with problems such as attention deficit disorder and autism, and is also offered to pregnant women to make them feel more relaxed. www.tuneyourears.com

Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese treatment, based on the premise that illness is due to an imbalance of "vital energy" (qi) said to flow through the body along 12 "meridians". Needles are stuck into these meridians to restore the energy. With lower back pain some studies have shown acupuncture achieves better results than conventional treatment, and it is also used for fertility problems, stress, addiction and pain relief. The British Acupuncture Council regulates acupuncturists. www.acupuncture.org.uk

Traditional Chinese medicine
TCM is a range of medical practices developed in China over several thousand years. Treatment is usually a combination of herbal remedies — either taken in tablet form or as a "tea" of barks, roots and herbs — acupuncture and Tui Na massage. There has been concern about unregistered and poorly trained practitioners working in the UK; registered TCM doctors can be found through the Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine. www.atcm.co.uk

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/health/2007/10/15/hhelena115.xml

Advanced female age is an important factor in low pregnancy outcomes. As a woman progresses through her reproductive years, her ovarian reserve diminishes, with an approximately 50% decrease in fertility rates in women attempting pregnancy at the age of 40 onwards, and a two to-three-fold increased risk of miscarriage3,4.

Most ART attempts in a woman aged 45+ using her own eggs results in no life births, with spontaneous pregnancies mostly seen in grandmultiparas or greatgrandmultiparas (6-11 previous deliveries).

Common causes for a much reduced conception rate in women aged 40+ with her own eggs are: diminished egg quality and quantity with poor endocrine readings such as high FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) or low oestrogen levels and less frequent monthly ovulations or reduced cervical mucus secretions; and reduced blood perfusion to the ovaries and uterus.

A common reason for an increased miscarriage rate is high chromosomal abnormalities in the embryos due to poor egg quality.

Female age, IVF procedures and pregnancy outcome

Whilst FSH readings can predict ovarian reserve to a certain extent (with FSH levels often raised in older women), the negative influence of age is relevant even in women with normal FSH readings. In assisted reproduction such as in IVF, women with low FSH levels can still have a poor ovarian response to stimulation. The response of the ovaries when the woman takes injectable FSH for stimulation is often predictive of the egg quantity and egg quality - and therefore also predictive of the relative chances for success with assisted reproductive treatment.

Women aged 40-42 have a very poor outcome if less than five eggs are produced, thus most IVF cycles are cancelled if the stimulation does not result in a minimum of three mature or close to mature (16-20mm) follicles, as in the case discussed below.

As some research shows that the age of the egg rather than the age of the uterine environment determines the pregnancy outcome, older women undergoing assisted reproduction are often advised to consider an IVF cycle using donor eggs. Uterine receptivity is however also important in pregnancy outcomes, and a poor uterine receptivity may lower the success rates of donor egg cycles in women aged 45+.

Chinese medicine and reproduction

Chinese medicine can effectively improve ovarian and uterine function and other fertility markers, and thus optimise the chances of conception and pregnancy. Whilst it cannot turn back time and improve egg quality in an older woman, it may - by improving the growth of the dominant follicle within an ovary that functions more effectively through treatment - improve the environment an egg matures in, and thus indirectly influence its maturity and quality.

Chinese medicine also improves the thickness of the endometrial lining (and thus the endometrial receptivity to an embryo), increasing the chances of a successful conception and pregnancy15.

Research as well as clinical experience has shown that both Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture can improve ovarian and uterine blood flow, regulate the endocrine hormones FSH & LH (luteinising hormone), increase oestrogen and progesterone and normalise both the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle.

Full article: http://www.jcm.co.uk/media/cms/File/Inga.pdf

"There is an infertility epidemic in our country. Over the years I have seen or heard of more and more cases of women, who seem to be in otherwise great health and even good reproductive health, but who are struggling with getting pregnant. As a result, there has been a rise in the number of fertility clinics and procedures as physicians try to meet a need and determine why this is happening," says Dr. Martha Lucas, a licensed practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicineís acupuncture treatment protocols at the Colorado Center of Traditional Medicine in Denver. "I have different thoughts about the causes of infertility and what treatment course is best and most likely to lead to a successful conception."

Your Healthy Fertility Choice - A New Treatment Program

To encourage women/couples to use Chinese Medicine FIRST and to conceive naturally, Dr. Lucas has created the new Your Healthy Fertility Choice program. This program uses acupuncture, herbal prescriptions, nutritional recommendations, and potentially other therapies in Chinese Medicine to:

* Improve you overall health
* Increase blood and positive Qi energy flow to the reproductive organs; the uterus especially needs a healthy blood flow to assure implantation
* Improve the function of the ovaries to produce better quality eggs
* Regulate the menstrual cycle
* Reduce stress by relaxing the patients and improving energetic and emotional balance
* Affect the autonomic nervous system which can make the lining of the uterus more receptive to receiving an embryo
* Balance hormones

Traditional Chinese Medicine should be your healthy and first choice for fertility success, according to Dr. Lucas. It replaces hormone therapy and invasive procedures that can be painful and are well known for creating mood swings, weight gain and other uncomfortable and potentially unhealthy side effects. She would like couples to use the healthy safe fertility opportunity that Chinese Medicine offers FIRST when trying to conceive.

ìIn my private acupuncture practice located in the Capitol Hill area of Denver, I use a standard fertility protocol for both partners. This protocol has led to a higher pregnancy success rate than other combinations of acupuncture and herbs. It is so effective that I want to use it on more and more couples to gather data. Convincing data will allow women to feel comfortable choosing Chinese Medicine as a viable fertility treatment option.

"Additionally, it is very gratifying for me to see more and more women get pregnant in a manner that benefits their general health and results in a natural, healthy pregnancy. Natural is a key word here: getting pregnant using Chinese Medicine is a natural alternative to hormones, IUIs, IVFs, and other invasive options. And in fact, since I treat the couple, both members receive health benefits," explains Dr. Lucas.

In Denver, fertility treatments (IUI and IVF) cost tens of thousands of dollars and that cost is not covered by many health insurance plans. The success rate is around 35%.

Your Healthy Fertility Choice Treatment Plan

This is a six to eight month treatment plan. Both partners are treated two times a week for 3 months; then one time a week for 3 months. If you are not pregnant by the end of 6 months, there will be 2 additional months of treatment.

Treatment includes acupuncture, herbs, nutritional recommendations, and may include other therapies like moxabustion. The charge is currently $7,500 for this program. The fee is payable at the beginning of the treatments, when scheduling your appointments. The cost for Dr. Lucas's program is about 1/3 of the cost of the modern medicine treatments that are only 30 to 40% successful. And, if you donít get pregnant with this program, you will be receiving a substantial refund.

Refund Policy: If, at the end of 9 months (8 months of treatment plus one month) you are not pregnant, you will be given a 50% refund ($3750).

Note, this refund applies to those couples who comply with the entire treatment protocol including taking herbal prescriptions and following relaxation or meditation and nutritional recommendations. At any time a couple may discontinue treatment. In that case you will be charged a per treatment cost of $100 plus the cost of herbal prescriptions used to that point. After those costs are paid, the remainder of your fee will be refunded.

Source: http://denver.yourhub.com/Longmont/Stories/Health-Fitness/Resources/Story~347917.aspx