In your Forties and Trying-to-Conceive?

Advanced Maternal Age + Pregnancy

Many women are trying-to-conceive while in their forties. Chances for success are limited and

even if conception is achieved, the rate of miscarriage is high. The reason it is difficult to

conceive is because the woman in her forties has (generally speaking) diminished ovarian

reserve and a reduction in egg quality.

After several failed IVF cycles the usual next step is donor egg. Donor egg has between a 60 and

70 percent success rate.

Rate limiting factors may include but are not limited to poor uterine lining, poor sperm quality,

and disease (autoimmune attack of the embryo – or poor patency of blood flow not nourishing

the embryo or placenta).

Acupuncture and herbal medicine cannot increase ovarian reserve, but it can improve egg,

lining and sperm quality in many instances. The mechanism-of-action is improved blood flow-

to the ovaries and testes. A “perfect” 10 millimeter lining is not necessarily “perfect”. Many 10

millimeter linings do not have proper blood flow within the lining and this compromises the

ability of the lining to maintain an implantation. The eggs of a woman in her forties can always

stand to be improved. The sperm in a man in his mid to late forties is often sub-par and may

often be improved with acupuncture and herbs.

I don’t, for example, believe that acupuncture and herbal medicine can get one pregnant

The desired and often obtained end result of the inclusion of acupuncture and herbal medicine

when trying-to-conceive is an improvement in egg, lining and sperm quality. An IVF-embryo

transfer is a ‘mechanical’ procedure: eggs are retrieved, mixed with sperm, embryos develop,

and are placed in the uterus and the rest is pure luck.

IVF or IUI has no bearing on improving the chances of conception and an ongoing pregnancy via

the mechanism of improving the constituent components of an embryo – egg and sperm.

Acupuncture and herbs often fill in this gap. If egg and sperm and lining quality can be improved

even a little bit, this may significantly enhance pregnancy outcomes.

Our expectations are not unrealistic. I don’t, for example, believe that acupuncture and herbal

medicine can get one pregnant any more than an IVF can get one pregnant, even though

pregnancies do occur as a result of both interventions occasionally. Pregnancy occurs as a

result of the relative health of the woman who is housing the embryo in addition to the quality

of the embryo and uterine lining. Many things can go wrong resulting in failed cycles.

So, at the end of the day IUI, IVF, acupuncture and herbal medicine can help a woman conceive

but cannot guarantee success. The key is this: you have the power to use additive means which

today, more than ever, are at your disposal to help increase the odds of a healthy, ongoing

pregnancy. Acupuncture and herbs are just but two. Psychotherapy, diet, exercise, biofeedback,

yoga, taichi, and meditation can also be helpful.

Did you know that pregnant women who are highly stressed are more likely to give birth

prematurely? This is a fact. Acupuncture, besides it action on the testes and ovaries and lining

is also known to help reduce stress.

A Day of Peer Groups and Professionally Led Support, Education and Roundtable Discussions for the Third Party Reproduction and Parenting Community

The NYC Gathering November 14, 2010


Upper West Side, 12:30-5:30pm



~Considering and Creating Strong Families~

A Day of Peer Groups and Professionally Led Support, Education and Roundtable Discussions for the Third Party Reproduction and Parenting Community



Topics Include:

Disclosure for Ages and Stages of Development ~ Family Communications

Known and Unknown Donation ~ Acupuncture for Fertility ~

Traveling for Donor IVF~ART Patient as ART Legal Client

Children’s Book Review ~ Creating Your Own Photo-Story book

Choice Parenting and Donor Selection ~ Nature and Nurture

Attachment and Identity Formation in Family Building

~Disclosure for Blended Families~



Participation by Clinicians, RN’s, Doctors, Agencies, Attorneys, Parents Engaging Discussion Groups

Families Sharing Support, Education, and Resources



Registration ~12:15-12:30

Lunch & Introduction ~12:30-1:00

Q&A ~1:00-2:00

Roundtable I~2:00-3:00

Roundtable II~3:15-4:15

Q&A and Closing~4:15-5:15



Workshop $75 pp includes lunch, 2nd or more adults $50, Creative Sitters Childcare $45 for the day in the Discovery Gym (adjacent to workshop).

Contact Saxel95@aol.com for registration



~Considering and Creating Strong Families~



Roundtable Leaders and Topics:



Nancy Kaufman, LCSW-Introduction to Professsionally Led Support Group: The Third Party Parenting Network. Nancy is a Clinician in Private Practice in NYC with an expertise in Infertility, Family-building and Disclosure.

Patricia Mendell, LCSW and Co-Chair of The AFA-Disclosure and Professionally Led Support Group. Patricia is a Clinician in Private Practice and group practice with a focus on Disclosure as the founder of The Family Building Network.

Nancy Freeman-Carroll, PsyD-Childrens Book Review & Nature vs Nurture Nancy is a Clinician in NYC with Group and Private practice in Parenting and Infertility with a focus on Womens Health, Parenting After ART and Family Counseling. She has presented at ASRM and The NYC Gathering and is a DE Mom.

Mary Fusillo, RN, De Mom, The Donor Solution Agency Owner and Healthcare Professional Former Clinic Donor Program Coordinator, and Mom to 12 yo daughter who is also attending. Mary is a volunteer through Donormoms of Houston and has presented at ASRM and The NYC Gathering.

Dr Susan Treiser, MD,PHd (attending with Nursing Staff) Co-founder and Co-director of IVF NJ to introduce clinic and lead discussion on Donor Egg and Third Party Reproduction at IVFNJ, PVED.ORG Executive Board Member and Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist. Resolve Award Winner.

Rosalind Hoffman, MD- DE/DS/SMC-Decision-making and donor selection for Choice Moms and general SMC Support. Long Island Resolve Peer Group Member.

Amy Demma, JD. When an ART Patients is also an ART Law Client: a practical discussion about navigating collaborative reproduction from the “parentage” perspective. Amy is a New York State licensed attorney working in assisted family building, primarily third-party and donor collaboration. Amy is a Vice President on the Executive Committee of RESOLVE of New England and serves on the ARTs Law Committee of the American Bar Association.

Rev. Susy Nason-Child Development and Family Communication Expert to introduce and discuss the How To Talk So Kids Will Listen, and Listen So Kids Will Talk method.

Lisa Schuman, LCSW-General Support Group Lisa is on staff at RMA NY and in Private Practice in the field of Infertility,Third-party Reproduction and Parenting. She is an Adoption Consultant specializing in Disclosure, Decision-making, and Child Development and has presented at ASRM.

Mike Berkley-Acupuncture for Fertility- Mike Berkley is the Director of The Berkley Center for Reproductive Wellness, the first center of complimentary medicine to specialize in the treatment of infertility. He has been in practice for 13 years as a fertility practice.

Ingrid Maurer-Traveling for Donor IVF - Ingrid is a member of our community that has participated in numerous capacities in peer-support, as a guest speaker for Resolve, as a member of PVED.Org andTPPN and of course, The NYC Gathering.

Lori Goldkind-General Peer Support-Lori is a member of our on-going Womens DInner in Midtown and is a new mom via egg donation. Lori has been involved in The NYC Gathering and is a member of PVED.Org. Lori will be available to share her insights, support and experience with others who are considering or parenting via de.

Joann Paley Galst,Ph.D-Attachment, Identity Formation and Family Building: How and Why It Is Safe To Disclose. Joann is a clinician in private practice in NYC. Please see the June 2009 recap here on DONORGROUPSNYC about wonderful The AFA Teleconference that Joann led with Patricia Mendell.

Carolyn N. Berger, LCSW-Disclosure in Blended Families:When Children Come into the Family through Adoption And/Or Third Party And/Or Are Genetically Related. Carolyn is a clinician in NYC and Westchester with a practice devoted to Fertility, All Forms of Family Building and Adoption.

Judy Kottick-LCSW-Known vs Unknown Donors & Disclosure Judy is a Clinician in Private Practice facilitating Donor Parenting groups, is on staff at IVF NJ facilitating Donor and Recipient Screenings, has presented at ASRM and The NYC Gathering.

Long Island Parents via DS-will show us their photo story books, discuss their experience meeting donor sibling family, and share their journey with us.

REGISTER NOW. Contact saxel95@aol.com

Poor Sperm Quality Equals Poor Embryo Quality

At the Berkley Center for Reproductive Wellness we have been treating male factor infertility for many years based on the knowledge of 3000 years of traditional Chinese medicine. Acupuncture and herbal medicine in conjunction with certain vitamins and amino acids promote significant change in pathologic sperm. We have had excellent results in improving sperm count, improving morphology and motility as well as reducing sperm DNA fragmentation percentages.

The importance of this cannot be overstated. In the typical IVF Center, doctors will note that sperm quality is important in that in its pathological state in may not be able to penetrate the egg and facilitate fertilization. This can be overcome with intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection or ICSI. While fertilization with ICSI is possible and often occurs, a good embryo quite often is not produced and pregnancy does not ensue.

A ‘good’ embryo is created by combining a ‘good’ egg and a ‘good’ sperm. Embryos created with poor quality sperm are, in my opinion, based on thirteen years of clinical experience, one of the main reasons for failed IVF cycles including those undergoing donor egg transfers even though fertilization with ICSI is facilitated.
Frequently the doctor will report that the embryo is “beautiful”, yet the cycle fails. You can no more judge the quality of an embryo by visualization than one can judge the health of a person by visualization. For example, the healthiest looking man can be HIV positive. Or, the healthiest looking woman can have breast cancer. One cannot judge a book by its cover.

The best and most reliable means of improving fertility outcomes either as a result of intercourse, IUI or IVF is to first improve the quality of the components that are responsible for the creation of the embryo; sperm and egg.

FSH of 21 Now Pregnant!

My patient was told by her doctor that her only option was donor egg or forget it!

N came to The Berkley Center for Reproductive Wellness seeking support on her journey to family.

She had been become pregnant on her own at thirty-six years of age and unfortunately miscarried during the second trimester. She is now thiry-eight years old and has been trying ever since then to have a baby. Her FSH is 21. Her doctor told her expressly NOT to use herbal medicine but that acupuncture was fine.

At the time N came to the Center she was not doing any assisted reproductive medicine and she decided to use acupuncture and herbal medicine.

A little more history...between the time of N's miscarriage and the time she came to see me she had undergone an attempted IVF cycle which was cancelled due to empty follicle syndrome. Then, N attempted to do another IVF but it was converted to an IUI due to poor ovarian response.

Then she wanted to try another IVF cycle but her doctor then said, that based on her history of empty follicle syndrom and low ovarian response, he would only proceed if N were willing to do a donor egg cycle.

N was extremely upset about this and I helped her find a doctor that would try "one more time" with her own eggs. So, she bought $4000.00 worth of reproductive medicine for the upcoming IVF cycle. By the time the medication arrived at her home her menses was two days late. She tested positive for being pregnant.

The pregnancy occured with acupuncture, herbal medicine and timed intercourse.

High FSH
High FSH is an indicator of poor egg quality and low ovarian reserve. This is true. What is not true is that each and every egg is a bad one. But, sadly, the majority are.

Having an elevated FSH does not mean that one cannot conceive and that one should not try.

One must try. One can achieve a viable pregnancy just as N has.

Yes, I totally believe in and fully support IVF.

My message is this: Don't give up. If you can't afford IVF, try acupuncture and herbs. If you can afford IVF, you'd be mistaken not to include acupuncture and herbs in your protocol.

Acupuncture and herbal medicine practiced by the talented hand of a licensed and board certified practitioner can cause no harm. The combination will help you or it won't (just like IVF) but...they will not hurt you.

Western reproductive medicine has been practiced for approximately forty-years.

Acupuncture and herbal reproductive medicine has been practiced for three thousand years.

One definition of the word 'classic' is: "Serving as the established model or standard". I think that a medicine with a three-thousand-year-old history can be said to be an 'established model.'

I am more than happy to review your case and to prescribe herbs for you to help transform you from patient to parent.

Schedule your consultation by calling 212-685-0985.

You can do it!

Best wishes.
Dr. Berkley
http://www.berkleycenter.com