C suffered from Amenorrhea (absence of periods) and after trying to conceive for six months, she and her husband were told by her doctor that she had Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). A second opinion then diagnosed her as having ovaries which were still active enough to produce follicles and she was given a 40% chance of conceiving with medical help.
When C first went to see Naava she had been treated for infertility and had been trying to conceive for 16 months. She had been taking Clomid and was having scans twice a week. The whole process had exhausted her and initially she and her husband saw acupuncture as a chance to take a break from treatment and focus on regaining her strength for the next round.
“When I first met Naava she was very straight with me and very confident in her ability to help me,” explains C. “Based on the blood tests she saw and the scans I had had, she didn’t think that it was the PCOS per se which was stopping me conceiving. It was the fact that I was not ovulating and was not having any periods that concerned her most. I took all my test results with me and her diagnosis was that my body was ‘dormant’.”
Naava treated C weekly for the first six weeks and asked her to change her diet and take her basal temperature daily. C’s diet was healthy but her temperature was very low and her monthly chart was flat – not demonstrating the fluctuations expected in a normal cycle – so Naava prescribed specific Chinese herbal formulas to be taken on specific days of the month.
“In Traditional Chinese Medical terms, C’s body was simply not producing enough blood to make periods, so it needed a bit of outside help. It had also forgotten how to make the right hormones work in the right way and so, more importantly, she wasn’t ovulating,” explains Naava. “You can get pregnant without having periods, but you do need to be ovulating to be in with a chance! Bringing back C’s periods would get hormone production off to a good start, so I started by treating her weekly and used the time to begin to give her body the correct messages at the correct points in her cycle – thereby reminding it of what it needed to do.
“After C’s first period, I was able to review her temperature chart and see where things were going awry. I was then able to arrange to treat her on specific days and provide her body with that extra bit of encouragement to help to induce ovulation,” continues Naava.
“The condition upon which I treat most cases, including C’s, was that I have a minimum of three months in which to do what I need to do. During this time, I asked her not to try to conceive, as I felt that she needed a break to recover her emotional equilibrium and I needed to be free to work on boosting her Qi (energy) up enough to enable her to conceive a baby successfully.
“It was not only important to make sure that she had enough energy to cope with the process of being pregnant, but it was also vital to ensure that she did not loose a baby to miscarriage,” she concludes.
C threw herself into the treatment whole-heartedly and had a period in the first month. But after two periods, she had acute appendicitis and was rushed to hospital to have her appendix removed. Had her appendix burst, she was told that it would have reduced her fertility yet further. As soon as she was able to return to Naava, C carried on with her treatment.
“The next month, I thought I’d ovulated for the third time in a row and that I could now try for a baby” says C. “Naava had told me that I needed to look for three elevated points on my temperature chart and I thought I had them but I had got it the wrong way round. I was so disappointed, I was beside myself. But a week later I ovulated without actually realising it and fell pregnant.”
C’s system had been thrown out of kilter by the appendectomy causing her to ovulate a week later than expected and she gave birth to her daughter 9 months later. “I never thought in a million years that I would get pregnant so quickly. Naava had told me it might well take six to 12 months, but I first saw her in January and was pregnant by April!”
C continued to see Naava through her pregnancy. She looked after herself, ate well, took vitamin supplements and did yoga. “Naava gave me Chinese herbs to quell the nausea and I went to her if I had a cold or felt ill,” explains C. “I had a fantastic pregnancy; I slept every night, felt well and always knew that Naava was there if I didn’t. I even got permission from the hospital for Naava to give me acupuncture for pain relief during labour – I knew that if she was there, I could get through it.”
C had to have an emergency caesarian when she arrived at the hospital, as upon examination the baby was discovered to be breech. At the time, she was six centimeters dilated, with no pain relief and ready for the birthing pool. Naava was present to support her and her husband throughout the labour as her Doula.
“I was so desperate for the treatment to work but when it worked so quickly, I was really shocked and absolutely over the moon,” she says. “I absolutely adore Naava and really don’t believe I would have had my daugher if it wasn’t for her.”