Practically Fertile

Episode 12 - What is your Fertility Archetype...No more guessing why you're not getting pregnant

• Dr. Adrienne Wei, DACM, FABORM, CFN, L.Ac.

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Are you frustrated that you're doing everything possible but not seeing results?  Chances are, you might not be making the right types of changes.  

Here is what to expect in this episode:

• Three layers of the fertility iceberg
• Explanation of the five major organs involved in reproductive health 
• Discussion of the five elements and their connections to the five major organs

FREEBIE ALERT: to discover YOUR fertility archetype, go to www.adriennewei.com/archetype.

You'll get a free gift from me after you discover your archetype.

Follow me on instagram @dradriennewei

Website: www.adriennewei.com

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Practically Fertile Podcast. I'm Adrienne Wee, doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, functional Medicine Practitioner and Functional Nutritionist. I specialize in using an evidence-based method, blending principles of East Asian medicine and modern functional medicine to help women optimize fertility and get pregnant. I believe in a world where every woman who wants to be a mother becomes one. If you're tired of being told that you're infertile and you want to take the right steps to get pregnant naturally and quickly, this podcast is for you. I'm really excited for today, because today I'm going to help you figure out where the inflammation is in your body and the exact obstacles standing in your way of getting pregnant. How do we do that? Through discovering what your fertility archetype is. I have been looking forward to this episode. Fertility archetyping is what makes the practically fertile methodology so different and so effective. All right, to get started, I want you to picture an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg is what's happening right now on the surface the hormonal imbalances, infertility, pcos, endometriosis, whatever you're dealing with and this is typically what conventional medicine would view as the root cause. But we know that that's not correct. It's what's happening below the iceberg that are the true root causes. You probably already know that and you might be thinking okay, so what's below the surface is the usual diet, lifestyle, stress, environmental factors. But these are actually at the very bottom of the iceberg. There's one more layer in the middle. Let me ask you this how many times have you gotten so frustrated over the fact that you've worked really hard to change your diet, change your lifestyle? You're managing your stress, minimizing toxins these are all the things that everyone's talking about will help to boost your fertility, but you're still not seeing results. And the reason you're not seeing results is because you can't truly improve your lifestyle, improve your diet, if you didn't understand how they were affecting you in the first place and without knowing that you might not be making the right types of changes. This middle layer is where Chinese medicine comes in, and I've talked so much on this podcast already.

Speaker 1:

Chinese medicine can identify the patterns of imbalances that are affecting your health and fertility. Here's another way to look at the relationships between these three layers External factors lead to inflammation, which affects your overall health, and then these unresolved imbalances lead to hormone imbalances, infertility, pcos, low ovarian reserve, etc. Etc. So this is how everything fits together in this fertility iceberg theory and Chinese medicine groups these signs of imbalances caused by inflammation into patterns, and that's why a pattern of imbalance doesn't just describe one symptom. It describes a group of symptoms or a syndrome, and these patterns will affect us all differently, and that's what makes all of us unique.

Speaker 1:

You might be wondering how many patterns are there. I've mentioned several common ones, but in reality there are actually many, many, many patterns, and you can have a combination of patterns. So how do you know which one is really causing the problem? Well, turns out, majority of these patterns can be traced back to imbalances stemming from the four substances and the five major organs that they influence. The four substances, just for review, are qi, blood, yin and yang, and these five organs are heart, spleen, liver, kidneys and lung. These five organs are pretty much the most important organs responsible for maintaining optimal health. Any imbalances between them will cause problems and they fit into a larger system called the five elements fire, earth, water, metal and wood. The five elements demonstrate the interconnectedness of the systems in the body and also how they're related and affected by the external environment. And what I mean by that is each element pairs with one of the five organs and one of the four vital substances also an emotion, a physiological function, a taste of a food, a type of sound, a season and many, many, many more, including your predominant personality. So let's look at these elements in detail.

Speaker 1:

First of all, here are the organ and elemental pairings. Fire element pairs with a heart, wood and liver, earth and spleen, water and kidneys and metal and lung. Let's get started with a fire element. The corresponding vital substance for fire and heart is blood. That means a very common imbalance that affects a fire element is blood deficiency. A very common imbalance that affects the fire element is blood deficiency. The lack of blood production leads to overall blood flow becoming sluggish and can cause poor circulation, light menstrual bleeding, lack of periods altogether. The emotion that's associated with the fire element is joy, which doesn't sound like an imbalance, but in reality when the fire element is overstimulated it can have the opposite effect and creates anxiety instead. A lot of fire types also tend to overanalyze. That adds to the anxiety Because the fire element corresponds to blood and blood is red. This element type will respond well to foods that are red. Red foods help to produce blood. The corresponding vital substance that affects earth, wood and metal elements is qi, but in three different ways.

Speaker 1:

The earth element pairs with the spleen organ, which is the digestive system of the body, and when spleen is overwhelmed it becomes sluggish, causing qi deficiency. This type of deficiency can show up as a lot of GI issues, bloating, loose stools, fatigue, after meals especially, and water retention, low energy throughout the day and mid-cycle spotting is also a very common symptom. The emotion of the earth element is worry, so overwarring depletes the spleen energy and causes it to become more deficient. The spleen loves bland foods and foods that are considered neutral in temperature. A lot of earth types will crave carbohydrates because of this. Personality-wise, the earth types are the harmonizers and peacekeepers. They're often the glue that holds the group together and they really try to avoid conflicts. Hopefully you're nodding your head. Yes, if you identify with the earth element.

Speaker 1:

Wood element pairs with the liver organ and this element is most affected by qi stagnation. Anger is the emotion of the wood element, so wood types are typically easily frustrated, easily become irritable and they often feel this frequent need to sigh Because when that liver energy gets blocked and gets stuck it really pushes up on your diaphragm and you often feel like you need to take a deep breath to relieve the stuffiness. The wood types are typically the achievers and the perfectionists. So when the wood and liver energy gets really stuck, it causes the blood flow to other places in the body to become more sluggish as well. This causes things like late ovulation, painful periods, depression, headaches, ibs, constipation. Green is the color of the wood element, which means this type will respond well to leafy green vegetables and foods that are a little bit cooling. It does not respond well to spicy foods because those are too warming.

Speaker 1:

Okay, moving on to water, in the kidneys, the water types tend to be the introverts. The color of water is black, which means foods that are black would benefit the kidneys. Black sesame seeds, for example, is traditionally used to help with slowing down the graying of hair. Black chicken, chicken with black skin and bones you can usually find them in the Asian markets. They are especially nourishing for the kidneys. The kidney system is one of the most important organ systems when it comes to fertility system is one of the most important organ systems when it comes to fertility. They're basically the reproductive system. If you are a water type, you have to be especially careful not to drain the kidney energy too much, because this energy cannot be replenished. We can only slow down the drain.

Speaker 1:

Kidneys are affected by the imbalances of the yin and the yang energy because we have two of them. The left kidney houses the yin energy and the right houses the yang energy. Within the kidney system there's another small ecosystem where the yin and yang have to balance each other. If one side becomes weak, it will start to draw from the other side. So yin deficiency left kidney weakness typically causes symptoms related to dryness and what's similar to estrogen deficiency, like no egg white, cervical mucus, vaginal dryness, low AMH, high FSH, restless sleep, night sweats. Young deficiency is very rare and I know opinions really differ, even among Chinese medicine doctors, but I'm trained old school and I don't believe young deficiency affects people who are less than 70 years old. The young energy is the last energy source to deplete in the body in a natural process of aging. When that energy depletes, then there is death. So that is why I don't believe anybody in the reproductive age is going to have any type of significant young energy deficiency.

Speaker 1:

The water types tend to get burnt out very easily and that's why they like to spend a lot of time introspection, and that's another reason why the water types have to be especially careful not to drain the kidney energies too much, all right. The last element is the metal, and it pairs with the lung. Lung is also affected by qi, but its deficiency does not manifest as digestive issues but rather immune function-related problems. The metal types typically get sick very easily and very frequently. The metal types typically get sick very easily and very frequently. There can also be a lot of allergy issues, skin disorders, autoimmune disorders, respiratory issues. The emotion of the lung is sadness. Extreme sadness depletes the immune system. Metal types are the logical types who thrive on structure and they're incredibly self-disciplined.

Speaker 1:

When the five elements are balanced, they mutually enhance each other and mutually checks and balances each other. When one element is off balance, as you can imagine, everything will be thrown off balance. Now, as I'm reading off some of these symptoms, you might be quick to identify yourself with an element. Not so fast. You will have no doubt some signs and symptoms of imbalance in each of the elements and the pairing organs. But each of us usually will identify with one dominant element and this dominant element is responsible for causing imbalances in the other elements. So the system that I have developed is the fertility archetyping system that helps you identify what element you belong to and what the pattern of imbalance that's associated with that element.

Speaker 1:

And going back to what we were talking about in the beginning associated with that element. And going back to what we were talking about in the beginning, when you know your archetype, you'll be able to create a personalized diet and lifestyle plan based on the unique characteristics of your archetype. So if you've been frustrated that your friend drank beet juice every day and got pregnant but it didn't work for you, don't feel bad. Beet juices don't work for everyone. If you're an earth type, beet juice will actually cause more deficiency. If you're a fire type, beet juice might help you. That's just one example of how every one of us truly is different, so one-size-fits-all approaches just don't work.

Speaker 1:

Now to find out what fertility archetype you are, please go to adrienneweecom slash archetype. It's a simple quiz. It will take you five minutes to complete and in the end, you will know what archetype is, what your archetype is, and you'll get a free gift from me From this point forward on the podcast. I hope that when I mention the fertility archetypes, you'll know exactly what your type is so that the tips that I will give you will make sense. All right, that's all I have for today. Short and sweet episode, but hopefully impactful. If you like what you're hearing, please give me a five-star review. I really appreciate it. It's going to help get this podcast out there and reach the people that really need my help. All right, take care of yourself. You're just one fertile cycle away from getting pregnant. Bye.