Fertility guru reveals how her natural therapies helped more than 1,000 women become pregnant

(NaturalNews) According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated one out of eight couples, or 12 percent, have trouble conceiving or carrying a pregnancy until the end.

Dr Xiao-Ping Zhai, a doctor trained in both Western and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has helped more than 1,000 women worldwide get pregnant without the need for in vitro fertilization (IVF). She was a pediatrician in Guangzhou before moving to the UK and setting up The Zhai Clinic for fertility treatment in London.

She combines her knowledge of western medicine with a variety of natural remedies such as stress relief, mild exercise, acupuncture and specific combinations of herbs and other natural ingredients that must be taken daily. The treatment to improve egg or sperm quantity and quality varies depending on the diagnosis she makes.

She pays close attention to the mental and physical state of both partners. Through nutrition, exercise, and TCM, she helps prepare the body to conceive. In some cases, she will still make use of Western medicine in conjunction with TCM.

''When I tell a couple they do not need to waste their time and money on IVF, I know what I'm talking about," Zhai says. "Often it is a matter of clearing the system, increasing the blood supply to the ovaries, and restoring a level of general health in order to make pregnancy possible. Men are very easy to treat - sperm counts can improve very quickly - but I always treat the man and the woman to make sure there is optimum health."

She has stunned the western world with her success rates. Seventy-six percent of couples who came to her for treatment ended up getting pregnant. Among that group, about 23 percent miscarried, but 69 percent of those who miscarried went on to have a baby later. Meanwhile, the success rates of IVF are around 41 to 43 percent for women under 35 and just 13 to 18 percent for women over 40.

Although Zhai's methods get a lot of criticism from the skeptics of the Western medical world, many specialists in the field can no longer deny how effective her work is.

"We have had pregnancies occur in which her input has been critical. It is quite rare to come across somebody practising such therapies with a degree of credibility, but the thing about Zhai is that she doesn't only embrace her own philosophy. She works with us, not against us, and that overlap with western medicine is what makes her unique. I don't know if her success is to do with her acupuncture, her herbs or just her being a very, very good physician - which is an important part - but the feedback is remarkable. At our clinic, we think she brings something new to the table," said Stuart Lavery in The Guardian. Lavery is the director of the IVF unit at Hammersmith hospital and works in conjunction with Zhai to maximize women's chances of successfully conceiving.

Although Zhai's treatment isn't cheap and takes time and patience (at least six months), it is still cheaper than IVF and has a better success rate. An initial consultation with her will cost you around $400, herbal supplements cost around $450 a month, check-ups are around $150, and three sessions of acupuncture will cost around $540. While this might seem like a lot of money, a single IVF cycle will cost at least $12,000 to $17,000.

Small scale trials in association with Darren Griffin, a professor of genetics at the University of Kent, prove the effectiveness of her treatments, but the medical world still refuses to admit that a healthy lifestyle and natural products are helping couples to get pregnant.

According to Griffin, a larger scale trial would cost up to $1.5 million. He approached several institutions, including the Medical Research Council, the NHS, and the Welcome Trust charity, but none of them are interested.

"It is very hard to establish the veracity of non-standard medicine," Griffin says, "precisely because it is not controlled. Every treatment is different."

Sources:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

http://metro.co.uk

http://www.theguardian.com

http://www.zhaiclinic.com/

http://americanpregnancy.org