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Traditional Chinese Medicine conditioning and IVF success stories

Male & Female Treatment

Dr. Yu Chuan Chen
TCM Helps Couple Beat Recurrent Miscarriage
At 31 years old, Star (alias) experienced a normal pregnancy, but at 7 months, she tragically faced the sudden loss of her baby due to "no fetal heartbeat." In the years following this loss, she became pregnant again several times, yet each time, after hearing the fetal heartbeat, the embryo would stop developing.

After four miscarriages, the couple worked together and successfully conceived naturally.
Over six years passed, and the couple had undergone all the necessary tests, including chromosomal and immune system screenings, but they still couldn't pinpoint the problem.

In mid-2020, after the fourth miscarriage due to the embryo's heartbeat stopping, they came to the clinic and both partners began a treatment regimen. After six months of effort, in March of this year, they were thrilled to see the positive result—two lines on the pregnancy test!

Cautiously, we supported her through the first 16 weeks, and I advised her to return to the clinic around 28 weeks. However, with the onset of the pandemic and her busy work schedule, time flew by, and she was already 29 weeks along! She suddenly felt discomfort in her hips and thighs, suspecting it was pubic pain. I asked her to return for an evaluation, and after two weeks of treatment, her mobility improved significantly, allowing her to get through the most challenging period. She is now 32 weeks pregnant.

From now on, her checkups will be around every 2-3 weeks, similar to prenatal appointments. We are looking forward to meeting her baby, expected to arrive in mid-November!
Hong Shang Gwo Director
Menopausal Needle to the Rescue! No More Pills
If there’s a negative reaction with ovulation induction, maybe menopausal shots could help!
“Doctor, I have PCOS, and the last two IUI treatments I’ve only managed to acquire one or two eggs, can I still do IUI?”

PCOS? Negative reaction with ovulation pills?

I did an ultrasound and made sure her ovaries still had a decent amount of eggs, around 20 each. I told this 30-something-year-old, “Let’s try needle injections. If the effects are negative, then the success rates won’t be ideal either; we’ll at most do IUI, not IVF.”

Due to an irregular cycle, I prescribed her an aphrodisiac to do injections during her period. And unfortunately, there were only 1 to 2 follicles, leading to an unsuccessful IUI treatment. In other cases, increasing the needle injections results in a better outcome, yet for this patient, her follicles remained at 1 to 2 each time, and repeatedly failed IUI treatments.

What do we do?

There’s little to close to nothing in terms of medical papers on negative reactions from PCOS. For two months, I racked my brain for solutions, even while driving.

The weird thing is, there’s a lot of basal follicle counts in her ovaries, but they were unable to grow even under medication and injections, so if we do the opposite and give her menopausal injections, will that help? I decided to work the opposite way, and told her I wanted to give her menopausal injections for 3 months, then do ovulation injections. After two months, she told me she wanted to try ovulation induction. I thought, technically it’s worked already, and if the reaction is still negative, we’d at most do IUI, not IVF.
But this time, it was a completely different outcome, we got over 10 follicles, and proceeded with IVF.
She thought it was unbelievable! Why didn’t anyone else think of this sooner?

After two months, we defrosted 2 blastocysts, and successfully conceived with two embryos!
These two embryos were a bit close, with a thin film less than 2 mm between them.
They’re identical twins!

Although, there’s still a 30-40% chance that identical twins could develop a condition called “Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome,” or TTTS that could potentially hinder their growth, specifically neurological aftereffects. To prevent this from happening and potentially catch it earlier, I transferred to the medical center. Yet, there were no risks, and out came a set of adorable twins. Twins who often do the same thing at the same time.

Conclusion:
Not all PCOS symptoms respond well to ovulation injections. Clinically, there are no studies yet as to why there is near zero response. There’s currently 2 possibilities: that AMH inhibits the follicles response of FSH, or that the follicles’ FSH receptors are insufficient.
When ovarian function is sufficient (AMH & AGFC), yet unable to retrieve 6 follicles, we won’t suggest IVF since the success rate is low.
Whether the reaction is positive or negative, we can only find out through needle injections, not blood tests or ultrasounds.
To have a successful pregnancy, sometimes we need to think outside the box.
Cindy Chan Director
As Little Medication As Possible
Baby on the way!??

Ms.W is 39 years old and her first-born is already 2 years old. Her first pregnancy was done by IVF and she had lots of Day 3 embryos waiting for her in the freezer.

This year the couple decided to try for a second child by transferring some of the remaining embryos. But because she was still breastfeeding once in awhile, she wished for a treatment with the least amount of medications.

She underwent a natural cycle (less medications but more blood tests) transfer earlier this year and transferred four Day 3 embryos, but unfortunately there was no pregnancy.?

After the IVF subsidy came out, she came to visit me at Nuwa, and we decided to try a natural cycle again. The first month we tried did not go so well. Despite normal hormone levels, her follicles grew very very slowly and we decided to cancel.

The following month, she was ovulating normally and we could finally arrange the transfer! But to fulfill the subsidy requirements, we could only transfer two embryos, and she had a total of six remaining Day 3 embryos. After a long discussion, with input from our professional embryologists, we cultured the four best Day 3 embryos to Day 5 and let nature take its course, allowing only the strongest to survive.

After careful timing of ovulation and the embryo thawing and culturing, we were able to transfer the two best embryos (one blastocyst, one morula).

Two weeks later, two little lines showed up!??
And now she is on her way to prenatal exams at the OB.

Each patient's situation is different and we do our best to accomodate each patient's different needs. Let us find what is best for you!!

Dr. Cindy's IVF Diary：https://bit.ly/3Ki7jgN
Cindy Chan Director
Congratulations Admist COVID
Good news in this time of COVID...
Mrs. H got her pregnancy test results back yesterady and it was positive! In my next post, we will continue to explore the lab's secret weapons used to help our patients, including the time-lapse system incubator.
Mrs. H's embryos were placed into the time-lapse system and one actually reached a hatching blastocyst stage at Day 4 , a day earlier than usual.
P.S. This would only have been seen by using the time lapse system!
Such a beautiful little embryo finding its home really is some much needed good news in these times

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