I recently wrote this letter to the Victoria Fertility Centre (VFC). My hope is to educate the clinic about the usefulness of Naturopathic Care and to prevent patients from losing precious time waiting for expert help with making a baby. Please share with your fertility-concerned friends and colleagues!
Dear Staff and Clinicians at Victoria Fertility Centre,
We’ve shared innumerable patients in the last 4.5 years, since I relocated my practice to Victoria BC from Berkeley, California. I hear fantastic reviews from all of them; people are very happy with your care, as I am sure you are aware! Initially, many of our shared patients found me as your clinicians had recommended the Arvigo Techniques of Mayan Abdominal Therapy (ATMAT), and the practitioner you had listed on your website was no longer offering this service. As you are presumably aware, ATMAT improves circulation to the pelvis, uterus, and ovaries, facilitates lymphatic drainage and improves circulation, and also can reduce adhesions and improve organ mobility.
With all of that said, there is more to Naturopathic care that I feel could improve the results you are achieving at Victoria Fertility Centre. My patients are now reporting up to 6 months of wait time before they get to meet with you. I imagine that under the new ownership, you will want to see this improve. But for now, this is 6 months of lost time. It breaks my heart that I have my first meeting with so many patients on the eve of their initial meeting with VFC, when they could have spent those 6 months laying the foundation for a quick and successful experience of IUI or IVF. During that time we can be reducing oxidative stress on the ovaries and eggs, improving the corpus luteum’s capacity to produce adequate progesterone, helping patients to lose weight and improve insulin sensitivity, reducing scar tissue and adhesions from previous procedures, and improving sperm motility and morphology and so much more.
Supporting patients in this manner means that the number of eggs available for harvest goes up, the quality of these eggs improves, and the health of the embryos is enhanced so that the chances of a healthy pregnancy and an even healthier baby all increase. Naturopathic treatment concerns itself not only with achieving that pregnancy, but also improving the mitochondria and DNA that become a part of that human who will hopefully enjoy his/ her own long and healthy life. It does, however, take 3 months of Naturopathic care to improve all of these markers, given that both sperm and egg require roughly 90 days to come to full maturity, which makes getting a head start even more important.
My hope and my invitation to you is that when new patients call and you direct them to your webpage of resources, they will also find my practice listed. It would be amazing if the receptionist who books the patients in for you could make the suggestion that patients contact my office to get things going in preparation for their work with you several months down the road. Most extended health benefits plans cover Naturopathic care. It would be my honour to serve and prepare more of your patients with the goal of VFC achieving even higher rates of healthy pregnancies.
Thank you so very much for your time,
Dr. Jeannie Achuff, ND
