Speak with Elizabeth about Your Fertility Issues

Oprah is such a “force.”  Oprah.com featured an article on Maya Abdominal Massage (MAM) last year, and it continues to help women find out about this  women’s health and fertility Super-Secret! Not that it’s just for women. Maya Abdominal Massage boosts men’s fertility as well and can also address a great variety of other health concerns such as digestive problems and prostate health.

At Oriens, we place MAM in almost every Fertility, Women’s Health or Digestive Health care plan. I personally love to receive MAM, as I know I am not just having a relaxing and delicious massage, but am building my long term health with every session. It took me over a year to find an extraordinary Maya Abdominal Massage practitioner capable of handling the complex fertility issues and the complex health issues Oriens specializes in working with. Simone is a gift! You will feel blessed and welcomed, heard and helped. She is masterful and completely approachable all at the same time.

I thought the Oprah article did a great job of talking about what MAM is and what to expect in a session.

For those interested in MAM for fertility enhancement, read this blog posted at CNY Fertility in Rochester NY  by Erin McCullough—the MAM therapist there—that beautifully outlined how MAM enhances fertility, and gets very specific. So I thought I’d share her gems with you here!

“[Maya Abdominal Massage] is a modern adaptation of ancient Mayan healing techniques that adds modern knowledge of anatomy, physiology and herbology. Through noninvasive massage, this technique gently manipulates the muscles and connective tissue that hold the pelvic organs in place. The intention is to reposition the pelvic organs so that any blockages and congestion are removed. When blockages and congestion are resolved, the body can self-regulate, heal and regenerate. In addition, physiologically, there is increased blood flow, the functioning of the lymphatic system and nervous system are optimized, and life creating energy is maximized. Both female and male fertility can be enhanced by applying these massage techniques.
Specifically, Arvigo Maya Massage benefits fertility in the following ways:
FOR WOMEN:
1. Increases blood flow to the reproductive organs
2. Nourishes follicles with fresh blood supply and oxygen
3. Helps to break down scar tissue and adhesions
4. Helps cysts to dissolve
5. Helps to resolve blockages in the fallopian tubes
6. Re-aligns uterus, as in the case of a prolapsed or “tilted” uterus
7. Relieves stress and anxiety, releasing emotional blockages
8. Improves digestion and absorption of nutrients
9. Helps to regulate the menstrual cycle (addresses cramps, heavy bleeding, irregular cycles, reduces clotting)
10. Restores healthy menstrual flow in amenorrhea
11. Improves, tones and cleanses the uterine lining
12. Helps to prepare body to carry a healthy pregnancy, a key ingredient in the case of frequent miscarriage
FOR MEN:
1. Increases blood flow to the reproductive organs
2. Regulates enlarged prostate
3. Improves sperm (count, motility and morphology)
4. Improves digestion and absorption of nutrients

So just how do our pelvic organs become blocked and/or congested? Arvigo says 90% of women will have a misplaced or tipped uterus at some point in their lives. The causes include difficult labor and delivery with prolonged periods of pushing; poor professional care during pregnancy, labor and delivery; repeated pregnancies close together; falls to the sacrum; a career in aerobics or high impact sports and dancing; wearing high heel shoes; poor alignment of the pelvic bones with the spinal column; chronic muscle spasms around the hips, low back and sacrum; carrying young children on the hip for prolonged periods of time; rape, sexual abuse or incest at any time in life; chronic constipation; running or working on cement surfaces with improper foot support; and errors committed during surgery that cut through uterine ligaments. Any of these can damage, tear or overstretch uterine ligaments, thereby prohibiting them from properly supporting the uterus and causing it to eventually fall down (inferior), backward (retro), forward (antero), or causing it to shift either to the left or right side of the pelvic floor.”

When reproductive organs shift out of proper position, they can constrict normal flow of blood, lymph and nerve connections. Just a few extra ounces sitting on delicate blood and lymph vessels can cause havoc throughout the different systems of the body. For women, by gently shifting the uterus back into place, homeostasis (or the natural internal balance of the body) is brought back to the pelvic area and surrounding organs. Toxins are flushed and nutrients that help to tone tissue and balance hormones are restored to normal order. This is essential for conception. Old adhesions from invasive treatments to the pelvic and abdominal area, are diminished gradually and safely when addressed by uterine massage.

For men, the massage also addresses and prevents a congested or swollen prostate by maintaining proper blood supply and fluid drainage, thereby preventing swelling and inflammation.

When to Receive Arvigo Maya Abdominal Massage:
For best results, start ATMAM 90 days before beginning ART and commit to a minimum of one treatment per month from ATMAM practitioner in conjunction with a self-care routine at home. Men can receive ATMAM anytime but women have special considerations depending on the time of the cycle, ART treatments and contraceptives.

Special instructions for women:
Receive MAM after period and before ovulation, trigger shot or retrieval. If you are in the process of doing a donor cycle then you can have an abdominal massage anytime before transfer. In the case where you are taking birth control pills due to cysts, you can receive ATMAM anytime, which may help to resolve your cysts very quickly.”

To Schedule Maya Abdominal Massage:  212.213.5785 or info@oriensliving.com to gain advice on whether MAM would help you.

I often wondered as a child growing up in a vitally Christian home, why a Super Bunny cooked, painted and delivered chicken eggs along with chocolate images of himself...all on the holiest day in the Christian calendar.  We always had an Easter egg hunt and built a bunny hutch out of pine tree sprigs for him to rest and restore himself in...complete with carrots--tops on.  I was one of those children that was particularly devastated to learn that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny were fictions.  I had totally bought in and clung on as long as I could.  Today I find Easter's stories moving, meaningful and inspiring:  death and resurrection, fertility and new life.

Easter is named for the Anglo-Saxon lunar goddess, Eostre--also the root of the female hormone estrogen.  She was celebrated on the first full moon after the Spring Equinox (March 22).  Fertility festivals and rites celebrated the fecundity of the earth, its ability to give forth life.  Animals were in estrus (heat) or bearing offspring.  Myth has Eostre mating with the sun god to conceive a child that would be born 13 moons later, at the Yule, or winter solstice (December 21).

Eostre was symbolized by the egg (potential for new life) and the hare (fecund breeder) that appeared in the full moon. 

Other parts of the Easter story hark to death and resurrection of a hero, child or lover (Osiris, Dionysis, etc.) and other principals of the mystery cults that were popular competitors in Christianity's early years.

Like the Christmas tree and Santa, the integration of Easter's pagan and other symbols is not particularly well explained.  And many rail against it.  But I find it wonderful.

To me these juxtapositions and layers are great call to experiencing meaning in our lives.  I find the invitation to align ourselves with the energy of spring quite compelling.  Spring is very much a heightening of our fertility whether that be conceiving children, beginning a new life chapter, birthing a project, climbing out of the restful introspective energy of winter or any other progression or metamorphosis.

The idea of resurrection is strong in the 5 Phase cycle of Chinese cosmology, one of the founding theories of Chinese medicine.  The winter season of water represents death and descent into the depth.  Unseen activities, deep nourishment of internal waters, make the pushing through, birth-into-being energy of spring possible. Spring arrives as a miracle, seemingly out of nowhere, a radiant infusion of new life.

I am also energized by the celebration of intervention. The notion that something greater than ourselves--the moon, nature, God, The Great Mother, Universe, Source... whatever one's spiritual alignment is--is active in our lives, plotting a rhythm we are wise to fall in with. I find this both challenging and reassuring.  Everyday as I observe my own life and the lives of those that trust me with their health, I notice that fertility and well-being lie in aligning ourselves with these greater processes and forces. The cycles of our bodies, the cycles of growth and aging, the cycles of relationships, the cycles of nature.  The opportunity to let situations and parts of ourselves die only to give birth to something better, more of who we are, more of what we are capable of, more of who we are called to be in this precious short time on earth we call "our life."

I don't really eat those marshmallow chicks anymore, with the yellow #5 dye, but I always look forward to the homemade chocolate peanut butter eggs and if a dark chocolate bunny appears, I won't say no.

Did you happen to see this Time article last year on increased miscarriage rates associated with the use of antidepressant drugs?  I was struck not by the findings or the data around the drugs – after all, most pharmacologic agents are discouraged during pregnancy – but I was struck by a comment specifically referring to the data collection and the elevated rates of miscarriage in women suffering from depression:

“…the study was an observational one that looked retrospectively at data already collected, which means that it's possible that some part of the miscarriage risk picked up by Bérard can be ascribed to depression itself rather than the drugs used to treat it. Indeed, the authors acknowledge that some past research has shown that women who are depressed during pregnancy are at increased risk of spontaneous abortion.”

What leaped off the page to me was the straightforward fact that depressed women have an elevated miscarriage risk.  The article did not dive into depression itself, which is obviously a multi-layered, complex human health risk. 

What my own mind immediately jumped to however, is something I see repeatedly in my practice as a fertility specialist—that women suppressing their fears or ambivalence around having children often have the longest and most difficult time achieving pregnancy.  It’s almost like their efforts are on one track and their spirit/emotion is on another, and perhaps, her body is confused.

I can’t count how many times I’ve seen a woman be courageous enough to admit and wrestle with her fears around parenting, or around her body changing, only to fall pregnant once she gets that honest and lets herself off the hook for being ….for being, well, human!

With children, and even in pregnancy, almost everything about life changes. Why wouldn’t this cause self-doubt? Don’t we humans often “want things both ways?”  It’s normal!  A woman can deeply want a child and be terrified she won’t know what to do, or be bad at parenting, or afraid she’ll resent not having control of her time anymore. This is only the beginning of a very long list of mental crimes she can convict herself of.

Many women facing fertility struggles have somehow drunk the KoolAid that you have to stay positive and be doubt-free in order to conceive. My experience as a fertility specialist is just the opposite.  When women open their hearts to ALL of who they are and ALL of their feelings, somehow the body relaxes into a higher state of fertility.  After all, she is birthing—herself!  Life begets life.  Somehow, when she permits herself all of herself, things start to change.  Always for the better.

Depression is painful and complex, and the treatment of it is often complicated as well. I do not pretend otherwise. This article is not about that.  I simply share with you all a moment of mental leapfrog I had while reading the article in Time, and my experience helping women bring forth their children. 

And it represents a wish for all on the fertility journey -- for the abundance and peace that comes from making room for ALL of who you are.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1992988,00.html#ixzz0rzCYHgFm

Elizabeth Carpenter, MS, L.Ac., CEFP, Founder and Director of Oriens

  Speak privately with Elizabeth about your fertility journey.

“Looks like science may show that women with POF aren’t ‘running out of eggs’ after all…” That was the opening line in my colleague’s email. The next person on the thread wrote, “I love when science proves Chinese Medicine right!” This volley comes from The Clinical Excellence in Fertility Professionals group brought together by Dr. Randine Lewis’ (author, The Infertility Cure: The Ancient Chinese Wellness Program for Getting Pregnant and Having Healthy Babies).

So we now find that not only are the “best” eggs not going first, in youth—nature’s mechanism for egg selection remains a mystery—but that even in extreme situations such as POF (Premature Ovarian Failure, sometimes called Primary Ovarian Insufficiency) the possibility of conception often still exists.

“The researchers were surprised to find that 73% of 97 women with primary ovarian insufficiency had ovarian follicles. In addition, they found that the follicles could produce reproductive hormones.”

This exciting new research revelation points us toward what we often find true in Chinese medicine when treating POF. The woman may be experiencing the signs (hormone profiles, lack of menstruation) and symptoms (dryness, night sweats, heat flushing, brain fog) of menopause, but the reproductive life can be revived!

Often with the right herbs and nutrition to nourish those follicles along with acupuncture and Maya abdominal massage to correct structural and energetic imbalances undermining how energy is used in the body and driving it to the reproductive system, the menstrual cycle is restored and conception is achieved. Pregnancy often occurs naturally in these cases!

I find the language of this diagnosis particularly devastating: “Failure,” “Insufficiency.” As if experiencing infertility wasn’t painful enough! Isn’t it time we come up with a naming system that doesn’t blame the patient? Especially in medicine--a “science” that is more of an art, a service profession, a refuge for those in need.

Speak privately with Elizabeth about your personal fertility journey.

Check out this Israeli study of 219 IVF procedures....36% of women visited by a medical clown got pregnant, versus only 20% in the control group! 

Read about Oriens Fertility Enhancement Programs

 Speak with Elizabeth about your health  212-213-5785.

Thyroid issues are underlying so many women’s health concerns in peri-menopause (the decade leading up to menopause) and over 35. 

In my practice, it’s now my routine to send almost every woman straight back to her GYN or RE for FULL labs on thyroid – not just TSH!  It’s impossible to know what’s going on by looking at TSH in isolation.  More times than not it needs support in order to get traction in the more obvious issues showing up:  the symptoms she is complaining of (such as constipation, stubborn weight, wired-tired and insomnia), or for fertility patients, an embryo (natural conception or assisted reproduction) progressing to become a healthy pregnancy.  Thyroid is a key player in many systems, so eventually thyroid imbalance will most likely lead to other problems as well.

This link takes you to an abstract of some research indicating women in the highest 25 percentile range of having the chemical PFFOA (Perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFFOS (perfluoroctane sulphonate) in their bodies were TWICE as likely as other women to have thyroid disease at the time of testing.  This stuff is found in the industrial compound used in non-stick cookware! (among other places)

What to do….

• Check out the new Thyroid Book In the Oriens waiting room (or click the book icon below) by one of my favorite teachers—Dr. Datis Kharrazian—whose courses in functional endocrinology, thyroid and more have revolutionized the east-west/natural-traditional integrative practice model. 
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• Have your GYN or RE run FULL labs on your thyroid—including thyroid antibodies check.  If you have values out of line in any panel, before you jump on synthetic replacement hormones, come see Sharon  or me to review options and discuss whether a natural support strategy makes sense for you or if indeed you’d be better served by the straight western route.

 

  Call (212.213.5785) or email Elizabeth to talk about your fertility challenge.

I have the special privilege of working closely, every day,  with the most incredible SuperWomen seeking to conceive a child in the midst of their SuperWoman lives.   Their challenge is not easy.  Among other things, they must re-direct some of their energy away from the behaviors that make them super successful in the world, toward behaviors that make them more fertile.  The hardest one is getting a handle on worry and control.  To enhance fertility, we want to induce the Relaxation Response. 

As mammals, we are biologically set up to not go into heat or reproduce when there is danger.  That's a hard wired safety mechanism Nature has brilliantly installed.  If your senses are reporting to your brain that you are safe, it sets the chemistry and messaging signals in play that permit reproduction.  If it receives input that you are in danger (i.e. on a daily basis you are telling yourself the story that things are not right--stressed out), it favors the chemistry of the stress response...ultimately competing with reproduction both by restricting blood flow to the reproductive organs and by allowing stress hormones to dock where reproductive hormones would.  Yikes.

You can imagine this is a snowball downhill. The more trouble you have with fertility, the more you want to control the situation and do everything you can and do it perfectly.  Yet, that worry-control-fear factor sends the internal message you are in danger, putting your goal further out of reach.

Below is an email response I sent to a SuperWoman worried and angry at herself today...because she unwittingly made a mistake. She went in for an IUI and found out she hadn't ovulated yet...meanwhile, she had taken the post-ovulation herb formula I prescribed, for just one day:

"Hi [Superwoman],

First, there is rarely a reason to be mad at oneself. Did you do your best? Did you use your very best reasoning to make your decision? Did you have your own and others' best interests at heart when you performed the action or decision? Would you be angry at someone else if they did the same thing? Treat yourself with the respect and kindness you accord others.

Second, you have nothing to worry about. Natural medicine is powerful, yet its intervention works differently than the way drugs work. Herbs are not pharmaceuticals, even though pharmaceuticals are often derived from herbs. Rather, herbs are invitations to the body to perform at a higher level. While each prescription is targeted to enhance the goals of that half of the cycle, they will not harm the other half. Simply use the follicular herbs until you clearly have ovulated.

Third, do your breathing. Find something to laugh at. Enjoy your weekend. And know that you are doing everything you need to be doing. Nothing more is required or possible....except to give your body the leg up it gets when you relax.

Fourth, buy this short, quick read of a book: The Four Agreements. That's your homework."

Enjoy Maya Abdominal Massage, PreNatal massage and more with Simone!


Ever since an early age I was drawn to water. A beautiful abundant river ran on the back of our house and we daily splash on the water and people wash their clothes, women did dishes and so I lived in the semi-paradise small town where everything was so abundant and organic, no plastic bottles, no worries with tomorrow just freely leaving daily what life brought to us.

Later on in my life, while in high-school in the big city, I would reflect on this state of beauty and nature and tears would come out of my eyes, for the river I knew no longer existed and it was being polluted with a tire company and pesticides for farmers and cattle farming.

I have been thinking a lot about the amount of synthetic estrogen that has been thrown in our waters and consequently our bodies, and my question is how are we going to be able to maintain a balance in progesterone to be able to create, a fertile body --- will avoiding these chemicals, once infertility is diagnosed, make much difference? Who can say?

Let’s raise our consciousness to the fact that the cause is not only one problem, there are several. I have been meditating on clean water this week, and when I say clean I mean not plastic bottled water which contains bisphenol A or BPA’s which are suspected of causing breast and prostrate cancer, diabetes, hyperactivity and other serious disorders in laboratory animals.

If you want to avoid these chemicals in your plastic water bottles, look for and avoid the number 7, usually found within the recycle symbol. The "number 7" plastics contain BPA. This chemical mimics estrogen in the human body, scientists say.

An article in the British Telegraph newspaper, Infertility: Handle With Care, implies that these chemicals are the cause of a number of health problems, including infertility. While the article itself makes clear that the scientists are "suspicious" but can't prove its effect, the chart at the end of the article makes it seem like there's no doubt these chemicals are to blame to a number of heath problems, including infertility and miscarriage, in mice... mice -- not people. Genetically mice are actually very close to people, which is why researchers use them. Our intake of these chemicals is far below what the mice were purposely fed, in large quantities.
www.keepitorganic.org/category/packaging-concerns/bisphenol-a-bpa.

As a preventive matter lets keep our bodies and planet clean from so many pollutants. Eat live, pesticide-free food, grown with clean water.

With love,
Simone


World Water Day The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

“There is enough water for human need, but not for human greed.”
– Mahatama Ghandi