The question of fertility
The conversation around fertility rates is often very negative. There is world wide reporting on both men and women increasingly coming up against difficulties conceiving, with micro plastics to electronics to changes in diet being labelled as the source of the issue. And it is true, the statistics reflect this.
Of course, the age at which couples are trying to get pregnant is a factor. The Huangdi neijing, (the classics on internal medicine) states that the kidneys, which are responsible for fertility in Chinese theory, are at their full strength when a woman is 21. However, this text also states that, as long as a woman bleeds, she is able to conceive. My teacher and fertility expert Gerad Kite, echoes this point and speaks with absolute optimism.
The way western medicine approaches infertility is to explore physical blockers to conception. The sad reality is, often couples are told they have unexplained infertility, when fertility testing hasn't found a cause to explain a person or couples difficulty in conceiving.
What five element acupuncture offers is an alternative approach. Of course there is an explanation to infertility!
The mind - body connection is starting to gain more and more recognition in modern thought, with an increasing number of scientific studies offering empirical evidence in support of it, such as those done by teams of researchers at Harvard and Johns Hopkins, and thought leaders such as Dr Gabor Maté helping to popularise it. This being said, it hasn’t yet infiltrated Western Medicine in a way that is particularly impactful yet. The Western medical community separates the body into silos, treating each organ as if it is an island, despite all evidence proving the system to be inextricably interdependent.
In five element theory we are diagnosing imbalance across three levels; body, mind and spirit, with the knowledge that each the health of one is mirrored by the health of the other. So much of the imbalance in today’s culture is perpetuated on the spiritual level; and physical symptoms are often a response to the spiritual sickness of society.
Five Element offers a solution to those who have been told there is none. Through treating the cause of the imbalance in the system, we see that historic physical symptoms drop away like leaves from a tree. We see a general brightening in person and a vigour and excitement for life return. The job of a five element practitioner is to bring you back to yourself. To the natural state of health and wellbeing. This of course, includes reintroducing the healthy ability to procreate.
