National Infertility Awareness Week 2016  #NIAW2016

This week, I am partnering with Resolve in honor of National Infertility Awareness Week. This is an annual event highlighting patient and provider advocacy for infertility treatments and access to care. The theme for #NIAW2016 is #StartAsking. The goal is to empower those struggling to build their families with education, support, and resources. Over the coming week, April 24 – 30, you will see tags for #NIAW on all the social media platforms with links to great information.

As a provider, I support the 1 in 8 people who suffer with the disease of infertility. I practice East Asian Medicine (EAM) and treat couples struggling to build their families as either a stand alone treatment or as an adjuvant to assisted reproductive therapies like in vitro fertilization or inseminations. EAM is a whole system of medicine that utilizes several modalities to treat each patient as an individual. Those modalities include acupuncture, Chinese herbs, diet and lifestyle advice. I am also a clinical researcher investigating the impact EAM can have on pregnancy outcomes. One could say I have devoted much of my professional work to this issue. I love it! What I don’t love is that infertility is a national public health issue affecting both men and women. More research is needed to better understand why some couples are not able to conceive while others can. More insurance payers and employers should provide infertility benefits to their employees. Policymakers should allocate more resources to clinical research so patients will have access to effective care. More work clearly needs to be done.

Join me this week as we raise awareness about infertility. Together. You can find me on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Instagram.