Name: Farrah

Age: 32

She was pretty young. She was only 32. She had been on birth control since age 17 and her periods had become very light over time. She switched to continuous birth control around age 28. So, she's already on birth control 11 years here and stopped five months ago, but her cycles didn't return.

Imagine that. It's so funny. People think that they can just take a pill and when it stops, everything goes back to normal and that's not how it works for a lot of the people.

Birth control pills and contraceptive are gonna keep us in business as a profession. So, overall, she was very healthy. She had a very healthy lifestyle. All organic, all really good supplements, except for she over-exercised, in my opinion. So, she was pretty fit. She wasn't like a bodybuilder, but she looked really good for 32.

She was really, really fit. She exercised at least 90 minutes to two hours every single day. So, what do you think that's doing? That's driving male hormones, right? That's driving the body to make more testosterone, which could be creating a problem here, but it's also driving her body to steal all the hormones for cortisol, right? Cortisol for energy, for working out, for sustaining that 90-minute to two-hour workout every day.

So, she had no period since going off birth control, no ovulation, but wanting to get pregnant. Imagine that. She had seen a doctor in town who actually referred her to me.

Her diagnosis was she needed to do less exercise. She had calmed down her exercise, but she had a FSH of 11 with low estrogen, right? So, the FSH of 11 is outside of our normal range, right? There was, she didn't do an AMH testing on her, but the fact that her pituitary is sending out even more estrogen, or more FSH, but her ovaries aren't responding with estrogen, there's a problem there.

There's a big red flag there for advanced maternal age. See, she did her protein shakes, her little baby aspirin, and her prenatals, she was really pretty healthy. She did have a car accident, hurt her lower back when she was 18. Did that contribute? I don't think so. I think it was more her birth control for such a long time, and her lifestyle. So, let's go to her symptoms.

She got her period in fifth grade, which I think is relatively normal, but that, remember, she didn't get her period for a long time. She also had had chlamydia.

I don't think that was causing this problem. If her immune system was really off, maybe so, but you'll see in a little bit. She's all about the pituitary being stuck in overdrive.

The ovary's not responding. So, she had to do Provera, which is a synthetic form of progesterone to get her period to start up. They did a ultrasound prior to prescribing that, and they found that her uterine lining was two millimeters, which is really thin, really, really thin. Her FSH was off at 11. Her thyroid looked good, but she definitely had thyroid referral areas, because there's so much, so much controversy about, does TSH really tell you if your thyroid's good? Okay, so let's look at her BBT charting. That's what's really interesting here. And we can talk about her treatments, too. And she came for baby number one and two, by the way. So, I got to work with her twice.

So, baby number one, we got lucky, and she got pregnant on the first treatment with the acupuncture. So, you can see here where I have the medications used to start the period. So, we're on case study, Farrah - baby number one

So, you can see, remember I said, if the ovaries aren't responding, you're gonna get that spike up when the period stops, because the FSH is having to work really hard, and the estrogens aren't kicking in. So, then she had her initial acupuncture on day six, and it's still a little bit bouncy, those first two weeks.

You can see on day 20, where the temps start to stabilize a little bit lower. Her estrogens are starting to build. And she's starting to get a little bit of cervical fluid too. And then, she's got her third acupuncture session, and she's got her temps starting to bounce a lot. So, then you're gonna think liver chi, liver or gallbladder issues. What's that famous combination, the heart-gallbladder timidity, the heart-gallbladder disharmony?

This might be liver or gallbladder causing this problem. And then, she has got a nice temp rise. So, she clearly has a good LH surge, right? And then, the second half of her cycle, she's got this dip down, which I think is the implantation dip.

So, when the body's implanting, a lot of people will get this dip in their temperature, and they call it an implantation dip. And I think that her body was trying to implant that day. Happened to be the same day I saw her for acupuncture. So, more like blood deficiency. She had excess in lung and large intestine, which could be some immune involvement. And deep in the heart, SI, slightly wiry, spleen, stomach, slippery in kidney yang, and slightly wiry and choppy in kidney yin, wiry in liver. Her pulse was kind of a little bit of a mess the first time I saw her, but her pulse responded really nicely actually. I diagnosed her, so I tend to work off of imbalances in the meridian system for my acupuncture, like pears. But when I do herbs, I always go back to your TCM patterns.

Why aren't you boosting the ovaries, right? She's advanced maternal age. Well, I can't boost the ovaries if the pituitary is not working right. If her pituitary is pathing everything to stress hormones because of the way she's worked out and she's had been on birth control for most of her life, until I fix that, the ovaries aren't gonna be able to accept the, you know, the energy is not gonna make it to the ovaries. It's just gonna keep going for more cortisol. So, we did a heart sedation treatment and she was here, oh yeah, today is day, new day six. It was the first time she had ever gotten acupuncture. She was really kind of skittish and nervous. So, I didn't wanna do too much the first time. So, you notice gallbladder 40s in there. We've got spleen six. Those are added points, CV12, yin-tang, kidney 12. That's kind of what I went with that first time. And she responded really well. Her pulse was a lot better the next time she came in. Again, another heart treatment though. Her spleen was a little bit inflamed that second time. Treatment number four, she has the positive pregnancy test. Isn't that great? And again, it's still a heart treatment. So, her heart pericardium is still in overdrive.

Remember the pericardium, or excuse me, the heart rules the receptor sites for implantation, which is why I think it was so critical. I had seen her on that day. And then she didn't come back again. She just like got pregnant. She was done.

For more such interesting cases, you need to train under the experts. Padma Shri Prof. Dr. Kamini A. Rao is one such icon in the field of Reproductive Medicine, who has established her experience and practice of 4 decades in the form of Medline Academics for infertility training courses in India. Today’s market demands not just expertise, but also advanced training for skills in ART that yield results not just in terms of money, but treatment and long lasting belief of not failing ART procedures. Medline Academics’ Fellowship in Infertility Course, equips the mentees with the latest knowledge in the field to stay ahead of their competitors and carry forward the legacy of Dr. Kamini A. Rao.

Not just the theoretical aspects, but also the practical training as required in ART is required in upskilling yourself. To bridge this gap, Dr. Kamini Rao Hospitals – the clinical unit of Medline Academics was built. This IVF hospital in Bangalore is the treatment and training zone for masses in India. When a student enrols for a Fellowship Program with Medline Academics, they don’t just learn and observe, but they are making a way to establish themselves as the best clinicians across the worlds.

The next batch registrations for Fellowship in Reproductive Medicine starts soon…