Most endocrinologists and other conventional medical reproductive specialists fail to appreciate the grand plan of human reproduction and survival because their focus is narrowed on a biological model of the human, on the reproductive glands and hormones. Even medical experts who take into account the relationship between mind and body rarely explore how infertility rates and your fertility issues could fit into this broader evolutionary picture. They do not consider how the deepest part of the human mind that we refer to as innate wisdom -- or the collective unconscious -- may impact not only on our physical beings, but also on our individual abilities to reproduce. Yet even modern-day science knows that we are all connected through a deep level of human consciousness. We know, for example, that the forebrain and cortex -- the parts of the brain associated with conscious thought -- function independently of the deepest level of consciousness that ties all human beings together.
Traditional Chinese medicine, however, considers many possible factors -- from the obvious and mechanical to the subtle and hidden -- as influences on your ability to reproduce. It understands that the challenge of infertility requires not only restoring balance within yourself and between you and your partner, but also recognizing how your deep evolutionary programming, which has been in place ever since the first humans walked the earth, may not be in synchrony with your conscious, personal wishes.
Daily Stress and Your "Fertilistat"
If there was such a thing as a thermostat controlling reproduction, a "fertilistat," if you will - then stressful or threatening environments would cue your "fertilistat" downward in order to help you adjust to your environment and optimize survival of the race. So let's take a look at how the stresses of your daily life can interact with the primeval and collective evolutionary drive that dictates how, when, and if you reproduce. War may not be at your doorstep, but you can witness its sounds and sights every night on your television screen. Your refrigerator may be full of food, but you may be monitoring your diet to make sure you stay fashionably slim. Or you may live in a city that signals to your reproductive "fertilistat" that your environment is overcrowded.
Your deepest consciousness is literal -- whether the war is conducted right before your eyes or you take in its images from a TV screen, your deepest consciousness interprets this information to mean you are living in a time of unprecedented perceived danger, stress, and anxiety. This perception of danger, stress, and anxiety can override even your deepest desire to conceive and bear a child.
So you, the individual, may think this is a great time for you to reproduce, but your deepest level of consciousness is taking in information about war, terrorism, danger, starvation, and overcrowding and sensing that, as a race, we should not reproduce more. There won't be enough food, water, security, or enough of anything else we need to survive. Even the stress of exercise -- running or jogging, for example -- can cue your "fertilistat" to lower, because running evokes a deep and old instinct of how we escape imminent danger.
What can you, the individual, do? I assure my patients that they don't need to relocate to a deserted island. Instead, I advise them on how to outsmart these powerful and intelligent forces that are telling your body this is not a good time for you to reproduce. You will be able to assure your mind-body system that the right time for you to have a baby is now.
© 2007 , Raymond Chang, M.D. with Elena Oumano, Ph.D.
from What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Getting Pregnant: Boost Your Fertility with the Best of Traditional and Alternative Therapies, Warner Wellness, an imprint of Warner Books, Inc., 2007