Dr (TCM) Attilio D'Alberto - Fertility and High FSH Specialist

Chinese Herbal Medicine

Herbs are made up of leaves, stems, bark, roots or seeds. They each have a unique action. Cleverly combined together they perform a multitude of tasks and help bring a holistic balance back to the whole body.

In China, people use herbs first and acupuncture second. However, here in the UK, most people go for acupuncture first. All herbs are of the highest quality and are prescribed individually to meet each patient’s needs.

Herbs for Fertility

High FSH Levels

A growing number of woman over 35 have high FSH levels. There's not much western medicine can do for this and a lot of IVF clinics won't allow woman to enter their programs with a high FSH level.

Elevated FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) can be defined as a FSH value of over 10 mg/dl on day three of woman’s menstrual cycle. FSH is one of the two “gonadotropins” secreted from the pituitary gland to regulate the function of the ovary (LH or Luteinizing Hormone being the other). FSH stimulates the ovaries’ production of estrogen and promotes development of the follicles. The estradiol produced by the ovaries signals the brain to decrease the production of FSH. When there is not enough estrogen produced by the ovary, the brain doesn’t receive the signal and FSH production remains elevated. FSH levels predict low fertility when they are abnormal but they do not accurately predict high fertility when they are normal. Also, the cut off values are very laboratory dependent and your FSH can vary from cycle to cycle. In general, the following numbers predict:

  • Less than 9: A good level and you should expect an adequate response to ovarian stimulation
  • 9-10: Fair and response is between completely normal and somewhat reduced
  • 10-12: Reduced ovarian reserve with a reduced response to stimulation and possibly some reduction in egg and embryo quality
  • 12-17: Marked reduction in response to stimulation and more reduction in egg and embryo quality
  • Over 17: Very poor response or no response to stimulation
  • Over 30-40: Menopause suspected and menstrual cycles will tend to stop

Dr (TCM) D'Alberto has developed a successful Chinese herbal formula that can reduce high FSH levels after a period of treatment. This herbal formula has helped many woman not only reduce their high FSH levels but go onto fall pregnant naturally and maintain a healthy pregnancy.

Contact Dr (TCM) Attilio D'Alberto to discuss your condition.

Herbs Twice as Effective as IVF

The management of female infertility with Chinese Herbal Medicine can improve pregnancy rates 2-fold within a 4 month period compared with Western Medical fertility drug therapy or IVF. Assessment of the quality of the menstrual cycle, integral to TCM diagnosis, appears to be fundamental to successful treatment of female infertility. Meta-analysis of RCTs suggested a 3.5 greater likelihood of achieving a pregnancy with CHM therapy over a 4-month period compared with WM drug therapy alone. Meta-analysis of selected cohort studies (n = 616 women) suggested a mean clinical pregnancy rate of 50% using CHM compared with IVF (30%) (p < 0.0001). (Complementary Therapies in Medicine Volume 19, Issue 6 , Pages 319-331, December 2011).

Acupuncture and Herbs Increase Fertility

In the first study that measures the effectiveness of both herbs and acupuncture in combination with IUI infertility treatment, Dr. Shahar Lev-Ari and Keren Sela of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Tel Aviv Medical Center say that the results, which have been published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine, show a significant increase in fertility when the therapies are administered side-by-side. In terms of both conception and take-home baby rates, the test group fared far better than the control group. Out of the 29 women in the test group, 65.5 percent conceived, and 41.4 percent delivered healthy babies. In the control group, only 39.4 percent conceived and 26.9 percent delivered. The vast difference in success rates is even more surprising when the age of the average participant was taken into account, Dr. Lev-Ari and Sela note. "The average age of the women in the study group was 39.4, while that of the control group was 37.1. Normally, the older the mother, the lower the pregnancy and delivery rates," they explain.