SISTER NOTE
By Meghan Lewis
Assisted Reproductive Technology Resource Guide MeghanLewisPhD.com
Greetings, Sisters,
Here in Northern California we recently experienced a lovely and long-overdue dousing of rain. The heavy torrents quickly turned what had been browned by the scorching summer sun into bright, well-refreshed scatterings of green. Grass shoots sprouting and old foliage unfurling into the new can easily trick the mind into thinking it’s springtime again, an odd perception in the shortening days of mid-October.
In a similar vein, believing that they are in the fall of their fertility, many people who wait until their early 40s to conceive become easily influenced by the frequently espoused statistics of the medical establishment. The statistics warn that egg quality after age 35 irreversibly and rapidly plummets. Because of concern about failing fertility, hopeful feeling-pinched-for-time parents-to-be tend to move fairly quickly into more advanced reproductive technologies, often trying to conceive by attempting only a few cycles of simple intrauterine insemination and then turning to more invasive and expensive in vitro fertilization treatments.
Fortunately, many reproductive wellness practitioners are showing us clinical ways to refresh our fertility over age 40. Acupuncture, herbs, chiropractic care, tui na bodywork, and homeopathic remedies are among the many holistic health treatments turning eggs, weathered by the “agents of age,” into potential buds of new life. Other holistic modalities that reign significant in the lives of many whose so-called aged eggs have radically transformed include the use of nutritional supplements, probiotics, organic diets, Ayurveda treatments, deep detoxification, and ovarian peptide bioregulators, all of which help to easily build and radically repair reproductive tissue.
Many of my preconception clients also have found sound healing, creative expression, ritual, and nature meditations help to enhance their fertility after age 40. One client created a mixed-media piece including a photo montage, papier mâché, and found fabrics to portray the cycle of follicular growth through the release of the ovum. She developed the piece concurrent with her body’s processes as a way to externalize the internal, depict the depths of her desire, and artfully intend a solely individual outcome. Her holistic representation also helped her release fictitious fears of a failing fertility, realign with her inherent cycle, and actively move toward realizing her dream of solo parenthood.
For those of you over age 40, what holistic fertility supports and enhancements do you use regularly? How have you sought to dial back your ticking egg timer? Please feel free to share your fertility-enhancing experiences and experiments, offering understanding and support to other ESME Sisters, via ESME Chat or the ART Facebook page. We are here for one another in the solo and hopeful quest for conception.
In support,
Meghan
