Episode 004: Acupuncture & Fertility with Ashlee Manos

This week, we were so excited to get to sit down and chat with Ashlee Manos, owner of Maha Holistic Wellness. Ashlee is a Master of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Herbalist, Licensed Massage Therapist, Registered Yoga Teacher, Certified Holistic Birth Doula, Mother, and so much more.

During the episode, Ashlee breaks down the benefits of acupuncture and Chinese medicine for women on the path to motherhood.

Hot Topics

· Her Why behind Maha Holistic and how it all started

·Benefits of Acupuncture: provides a better blood flow to the ovaries and uterus which helps give you a stronger chance of conceiving. There is a lot of hormonal imbalance that can happen in a women’s body and acupuncture can help support that. As well as reduce stress in the body. Stress can create us to not ovulate, and have liver qi stagnation. Acupuncture can also help women emotionally and help support emotional drainage.

·What it looks like as a first time patient and the process of your first initial treatment. Each treatment is personalized for each patient and work with them based on their specific needs and imbalances.

·Breakdown of Chinese Medicine: the main concept of Chinese medicine is to bring the body back into balance. During the 28 day cycle treatment looks different depending on the phase that you are currently in.

·Phases:

-Follicular Phase Cycle Day 1-before ovulation, estrogen is increasing, stimulate the lining of the uterus, estrogen is equal to blood and yin. We want to nourish the blood at this point and supporting the yin.

- During Ovulation Phase- estrogen peeks and triggers that surge of LH, ovulate 24-48 hours after that surge and the egg is released. Hot circulates the blood to the liver, and the qi in the blood is very important. Acupuncture during this phase will help support the liver qi and regulate the liver blood.

-Luteal Phase- 14 days, where estrogen declines and progesterone increases

-Implantation- supporting the kidney (yin and yang)

If it possible to come every week - best practice so they can work on different phases the entire month.

If you could only come once a month Ashlee suggests coming right before ovulation*

·Recommends at. least 3 months to help focus on the yin and to change the quality of a women’s blood

·Spleen, liver, kidney and heart are the main organs when dealing with fertility

· Where do the needles go? Differs depending on the time of your cycle

·A few take aways from the episode:

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine are beneficial during all different phases of your cycle. If you can, definitely start treatment a few months prior to trying to conceive, each patient gets their own personalized treatment to best fit their needs. Important to remember that acupuncture is extremely beneficial even after you get that positive test to help support the pregnancy.