 One of the things that traditional Chinese medicine is world famous for is dealing with infertility and dysmenorrhea. Now Chinese medicine has a very long history of treating infertility, dysmenorrhea, all very successfully and it has one of the longest histories of treating these kinds of conditions. Now when you think about it, compared to in vitro, when I worked for an acupuncturist we had many female patients in their later 30s and they'd spent upwards of six figures on in vitro, multiple rounds of in vitro. And honestly the success rate compared to a lot of the studies done on Chinese medicine is much lower, which is very surprising to me because if that were the case wouldn't this be front page news? Now in this video I want to share some of the key patterns we typically see that show up in infertility. So maybe if this is something on your mind you can begin saying yeah that really resonates or that is that's exactly what I have going on or it isn't. Hey guys I'm Alex Hine author of the book Master of the Day, current doctoral student in classical or traditional Chinese medicine. Now in this video I want to share a couple of these key patterns that we tend to see in infertility. So there's not just one infertility in Chinese medicine and that's really what I think the hallmark of traditional Chinese medicine is, that this is the original functional or individualized medicine. So there can be four women, five women, all with infertility and yet the physician will diagnose them each as having a different unique cause of their infertility and their inability to conceive. So I'm going to break down some of these patterns now. So generally there are four or five key patterns that tend to show up with infertility. The first one is what's called a kidney deficiency pattern. The second one is what's called a blood deficiency pattern. The third is called retention of cold in the uterus pattern. And the fourth is called a phlegm or blood stagnation pattern. Now in the kidney deficiency pattern the key symptoms that are different are generally that there's irregular or scant menstruation with dark color, soreness of the back, weak legs or your knee pain, dizziness, tinnitus and the pulse is going to be very different from what you'd expect in other patterns as well. So if the kidney pattern is going to be most likely more urinary symptoms, more lower body symptoms including pain, more sexual or discharge related issues, so that's going to be a very distinct pattern of infertility. Now another one is what's called blood deficiency. And in this one there's very scant and light menstruation. The menstrual cycle is delayed, the complexion is very pale, overall pale, brittle nails, dry skin, dry hair, very weak brittle hair that breaks easily, overall weakness and fatigue, difficulty thinking or remembering things, dizziness and possibly palpitations. And this one again is more of like, it looks like a very classic thyroid picture in one sense. The third pattern is what's called retention of cold in the uterus. And this pattern shows delayed menstruation with very scanty and dark menses, cold pain in the lower abdomen, so it's called cold pain in Chinese medicine, but essentially pain in the abdomen, especially around the menstrual cycle. Cold body and limbs and overall preference for warmth, sometimes there's also soreness of the back and weakness of the legs. And generally urination is clear as opposed to being strong and being yellow. And the fourth pattern that's come in here is what's called phlegm and blood stagnation. Now what this looks like is having a late period with lots of clots and lots of mucus, that's very different from the other patterns, fullness in the chest and the hypochondrium, so around the ribs in the chest, fullness, stuffiness, symptoms like that, restlessness and irritability, even obesity, dizziness, palpation, thick lucaria, so thick sticky discharge. Again, this is a very different pattern from some of the other ones. And this is more related to phlegm or damp as well as a blood stagnation pattern. So all of these patterns are going to have very different treatment approaches. So for example, with the kidney deficiency pattern, you're probably going to be giving an herbal formula more related to treating that kidney deficiency as it's termed in Chinese medicine. With the blood deficiency pattern, there's going to be a lot more done to strengthen what's called your essence as well as the blood. In the cold pattern, there's going to be lots of herbs that are warming and help the blood flow as well. And then in the final phlegm and blood pattern, there's going to be a lot more dealt with dealing with that phlegm. So each of these are very distinct and they all may result in infertility and there's obviously enumerous variations of these patterns. These are like the big picture overall patterns we tend to see quite a lot. So I hope that helps provide a little bit of insight on how infertility occurs in Chinese medicine. It's very different for each woman and that's not something you typically get from your normal physician. So depending on the skill and the training of the acupuncturist or Chinese medicine practitioner, they'd be able to parse out these symptoms for you and hopefully ask the right questions to figure out, okay, which of these patterns is it? And maybe it's a mixed pattern or there's something else going on. So I hope that helps. Before you go, I want you to leave a comment there below. Let me know for you, as far as if you currently are a woman experiencing infertility, what have been some of the things you've tried to be more fertile and conceive a child? Comment there below. Now the best way to stay in touch is to grab my free guide on my website alexhine.com.com. It's how to add 10 years to your life with classical or traditional Chinese medicine. So if you want to learn more about herbs and natural healing and that kind of thing, that is the best way to stay in touch and you can also check out my last two videos right here and right here.