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β β π Welcome to Her Fertility, the podcast revolutionizing the way women are supported on their fertility journey. I'm your host, Jess Tims, with years of supporting women as a fertility doula, I've seen the emotional pain caused by infertility, including my own struggle with unexplained infertility, and I always knew there had to be a better way to support women with their fertility, health, and healing.
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Spiritual perspective for your fertility journey, then press play. We are here to reclaim control, find clarity, and transform the fertility conversation.
β π π π Welcome back to the Her Fertility podcast. I am delighted to be kicking off 2026 with this very special guest, Dr. Susan Fox. When I met Dr. Fox, I knew instantly that she was an expert in her field, who not only has years of experience working one-on-one with people, but she really sees
the bigger picture, Dr. Fox, thank you so much for joining me. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I also love kicking off 2026 with this conversation because, we have all been through quite a year in 2025, and I really want to shift the energy, if you will, the qi as we call it, into
agency and optimism, because there's much that can be done to improve one's whole health and one's fertile health. So i'm a doctor of Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and I've been in practice for 24 years doing this specialty. So I've seen the industry grow from, you know, transferring
eight fresh eggs, eight fresh embryos to now, the, uh, genetic testing so that we are only transferring one good one. And I've been able to help coordinate that effort on behalf of my patients so that they get better outcomes out of the gate and having become a board certified
fertility specialist in the Chinese medicine field. And I wanna highlight that because a lot of people, really want to be helpful. They want to be fertility specialists but they don't have the training. I'm sure you see this all the time, Jessica and it creates unnecessary and sometimes really unfortunate delays in care.
You know one of the first questions I'm gonna ask a person when she comes through the door, and I'm just gonna use the acronym she, 'cause usually it is a she who comes through my door. How many children are you hoping to have? And if the answer's not, oh, one and done, that's it. Then let's talk about space and time continuum and how you know, how long it will take for you to really realize this family of your dreams without going into IVF.
And then how can we best support IVF or egg freezing even. Yeah, I'm so glad you highlighted the need for the board certified and the specialization with fertility because a lot of people understand that acupuncture and Chinese medicine can support fertility.
But then they think that all practitioners can, and the reality is that's not the case. And I have my own experience. I don't know that I've shared this with you, when I had infertility, I saw the, the big sign on the building saying like, this acupuncture place can help with fertility.
So I started going there they were covered under my insurance. Yes. That's some kind of sign. Yeah. And you know, it was these two male practitioners and I just wanted like anything to get me pregnant. Of course. I will never forget this. I was finally understanding my ovulation and then I go in for my treatment and whatever they did, I started my period.
Oh yeah I was like no and that ended my acupuncture experience at that point in time because I was so frustrated with all of that and then I realized later, like they weren't trained for fertility at all. They were trained in Chinese medicine and acupuncture and which is lovely. As much as you would not go to your dentist for cardiac surgery, you know, you don't wanna go to a generalist or a pain management person.
And I've seen that in my own practice where people have come into me after a year and, you know, it's clearly have got, age related fertility challenge and someone really let her wait a year before saying maybe you should find a specialist.
Oh, no. And that's just crushing to me. And that's why I'm so excited you're on the podcast so we can save people time. Yes. And the reality is yes, acupuncture does require like an in-person exchange, but the beauty about Dr. Fox is she has taken this technology and made it available to you anywhere. And I'm really excited to dive into this with you. I would love to explain more. This is what I wake for every day. So we know that there are acupuncture protocols where we as acupuncturists will put needles into certain points. Well, those points are accu points, and they don't necessarily require a needle in order to access the Qi our term, but also to, improve blood flow,
Reduce cortisol. You can do this in the comfort of your own home three times a week, because really it is numbers, you want blood flow, blood flow, blood flow, and if you can get this done every other day from the end of your menstrual cycle, either to ovulation or to egg retrieval, if you're in an IVF cycle.
You just don't do it when you bleed. Okay. Because we wanna make sure that while we're increasing blood flow, we wanna make sure we're increasing it at the right time. You know, when, if someone's menstruating, that is not a time to be moving blood about. We wanna make sure we know where it's going.
So these protocols have been tested over time. They're relatively new to the western world. It's done a lot in Asian countries and they had done a meta-analysis of more than 3000 women. Who've undergone these protocols and for the, demographic, which was a group of women aged 35 or older undergoing frozen embryo transfer, and using these protocols, we call them TEAS, the acronym TEAS, Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation.
While the outcome for this cohort was an increase in live birth rate by 42%. Positive pregnancy test, live birth rate. And that just brings chills to my body and tears to my eyes that we don't know about this because I don't need to tell you or your audience. The fertility journey is time and
emotional intensive, and if you can reduce the number of appointments you're running to, that's going to save time, money, and just the emotional upheaval of racing to yet another series of appointments. That's incredible. That statistic alone, right? I know. Like increasing the live birth rate by 42% just by these acupuncture points, which I say just, it is a
highly intelligent system that you're tapping into the body. Yes, it is. But we don't know any other, like, where else can you say, we've increased live birth rate by 42% so that this does it, that it's so easy to do and accessible. If you could improve your outcomes the first time and reduce the necessity for multiple retrievals, you know, again, win, win, win, put that money towards your child's college fund. Right?
Yeah. It's gonna save you time and money. Mm-hmm. Okay, so let's break this down a little bit more. Somebody wants to become pregnant, and acupuncture, like you said, uses the acupressure points of the body's system. Mm-hmm. Are they different points when we're talking about fertility?
Absolutely. Compared. Okay. Absolutely. There are empirical points that we have found to perform a certain function, and so you wouldn't necessarily expect it, there's a point on the wrist and a point on the inner ankle that open up what we call the conception vessel. We refer to it as the ren meridian, and this can be trapped and that conception vessel is what supplies energy through our lower pelvis, thus our ovaries and uterus.
So there are specific points that have been tested, and then there have been sham points that have been tested to prove that the real points are real points and are actually having an effect. Certainly sham points can have that sort of overall, well, I feel calmer, you know, I rested for, for 30 minutes.
You could feel calmer without a needle in you for that matter. I'm being silly about acupuncture, but there are specific points that have specific indications that we use specifically in these three separate protocols that we do. Because we also don't want the body to acclimate and adapt.
Our bodies are brilliant at saying, yeah, yeah, I know what you want me to do. Forget about it. So we use three different series. We'll do a TEAS protocol, one, take a day off a TEAS protocol, two, take a day off a TEAS protocol, three, take a day off, and so on. As a way of just kind of gently reminding and provoking the body to say, yep, we get the message, we're gonna dilate these blood vessels and help get more blood flow to ovaries and uterus. Then the program of course and the Chinese medicine is it's not just acupuncture. So we include nutrition. Oh, cool. We include mind, body guided meditations using binaural beats that really help to lower the stress threshold and to increase an awareness of what's going on in one's body at certain times in one cycle
'cause it's cycle related. We include Qigong exercises for the five phases of the four weeks of the menstrual cycle. So it's truly a whole program that you can do again without having to hire another coach or go to another appointment. And what a beautiful way, because I'm a big believer in like the body is an intuitive system.
And it knows what to do intuitively, but sometimes needs support, right? Mm-hmm. With these pressure points or with the nutrition, and so we can support, but I feel like Chinese medicine does it in such a beautiful, supportive way, rather than more of the western approach that feels very forceful. So what does TEAS stand for? It stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation and it uses a TENS unit. And we might know that if you ever had to go to a PT for an arm or back injury, that's called Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation.
So we use that same little unit. But we apply it to acupuncture points and we apply it at very, very, very low, voltage because we really just want a little tapping sensation to occur that's very relaxing, which is what lets the blood vessels dilate. And then the tapping is what acts like an artery, and it helps push that blood to the ovaries and uterus.
Fascinating. Yeah. So if somebody's not located in your area, they could get one of these units at their own home. Mm-hmm. And then run through the TEAS, one, two, and three to support the body in this beautiful way. I have people right now in Chicago, in Washington DC, I have, someone who just had her baby out of New York.
Dubai. There was somebody who was flying in from Dubai to see a specialist here. And of course I said, when you're here, I'm happy to treat you. But I'd much rather you save your resources, your time and energy as a resource and just do this at home.
I love that they tested a population that was 35 or over because I feel that for so many reasons, more of that group I'm in that group, right? Yeah. Like more of us are trying to have babies at this point in our life. Mm-hmm. And we know that age is a huge factor
with fertility. Absolutely. And with that age group, they saw an increase of 42% of live birth. Yeah. That's amazing. I know. It truly is. Our ovaries, our eggs don't fall off a cliff at our birthday, right? But there is a natural waning and reduction in every month's cohort.
And then just as we, you know, over time our bodies are not. Efficient in our sixties as they were in our twenties. It is not a, an aberration, it is a natural evolution. That being said, we can improve one's whole health, which then is mirrored and reflected in one's fertile health.
And then these results the testing, the research, kind of proved that. And ultimately, if you are someone who's choosing to invest in IVF and you are going into that cycle. Having something that is tested to improve your chances of live birth rate by 42%. Like that's incredible. And really, you know, the IVF technology is
fabulous. And it's getting better and better and better all the time. And still they can only, stimulate the eggs in the health that they are, retrieve them in the health that they are, make embryos in the health that the egg and sperm are transfer into a uterine environment that is as healthy as the person so we can make these fundamental changes that help improve
the health of ourselves of course, and the health of our babies all the way up to their adult life. Yeah. I'm, you know, over here Her Fertility support as fertility do like supporting people, and I just think this is such a beautiful way to support the body.
In whether, like you said, whether it's natural or you're using IVF, like this protocol will support you. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Or even, you know, if you're considering egg freezing, really there is no one for whom this protocol will not work except if someone has metal in their body, then we don't want them running electricity through their body.
So we do require a fertility assessment call of like a 15 minute to 20 minute call. I always go over to just kinda get a sense and make sure there aren't, any issues that would exclude this person from being, able to utilize it. But to date, I've never had anybody be unable to utilize it.
Yeah. So that's fascinating. So you go through the call, you get this machine that will be with you at home, and then it's tapping, but also sending electronic impulses through that point. Is that right? Exactly. That is instead of an acupuncture needle going in and creating part of the electronic field that we are, you know, kind of helping to be almost like the median lights of our body.
This device will do that for you. It uses pads instead of needles. So very easy to use. And I personally love that it is derived from Chinese medicine, which is my great love,
right? So, which is created out of observing us as human beings being part of the natural world.
I'm so glad you said that Dr. Fox, because I do feel like that's kind a bit of an unspoken thing with infertility, specifically, like we're talking about infertility, so not somebody who's choosing to freeze their eggs on their own or, but like if you are experiencing infertility, if you are not getting pregnant in the timeframe that you want, right?
Mm-hmm. That is a symptom of something in the body that is not aligned. Exactly. And Chinese medicine it really taps into that. Yes, exactly. In such a beautiful way. Exactly. And yeah, so I'm so, yeah, so you know, in conventional medicine we have diagnoses.
Yeah. In Chinese medicine we have patterns that we look for and the pattern can become the diagnosis because the diagnosis is simply insurance speak, right? So we name it so that we can see kind of, you know, go at it. But in Chinese medicine, we're not going at it.
We're not going at PCOS. We're going at the metabolic dysregulation that led to PCOS, the inflammatory markers and the components that cause the markers that lead to inflammation in the follicular fluid leading to PCOS. Mm-hmm. So we're really helping to adjust the whole environment of this person. And for someone who is listening to this thinking like, 2026 is my year for baby.
Mm-hmm. You could start this protocol now so that. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. In a few months you have these beautiful eggs ready to rock and roll. Ripe and juicy eggs ready to go into a stem cycle. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because again, I don't wanna be redundant, but the IVF docs can only
give back to you what you are offering to them in terms of the egg quality. Yeah. Well I'm so glad that you mentioned egg freezing. We had a couple episodes back, just someone talking just about egg freezing and it's fascinating how we're normalizing that more for women so that you can freeze your eggs, you have more options later in life.
But something like this could prepare your body and your eggs so that you're freezing beautiful eggs. Exactly, if you're young and wanting to freeze your eggs, that's one thing you have on your side.
So use this time to improve your whole health and your fertile health so that those eggs that are gonna be thawed, I don't know, maybe 10 years down the road, are going to be high quality. They'll remain high quality. That's amazing. Yeah. How exciting. It is very exciting. And you know, there's, I'm gonna give a plug to a documentary that I've seen a couple of times.
It's called Thaw and it is about egg freezing. Oh it's about the whole IVF process. But the takeaway message from many of these women whose story was sad. They did not have a happy ending was to go get your eggs frozen soon. And my caveat is if that is part of your plan, if that's part of your makeup, who you are. I don't wanna have create any fear or tension or hurry around this. And if this is something that you're thinking about, please just take that little bit of time as a prerequisite or co-requisite. Because really we know by the time you make that first call to the IVF clinic, you've got at least a month or two of prep before you're in your STEM cycle.
So you can have that, you can have two of the four months under your belt. If for whatever reason there is a rush for you to go into IVF. That's so beautiful. Yeah. How exciting. So if someone is listening and they're like, I want to learn more about this protocol and do it myself, how do they get started?
My website, I'll provide the, links in the show note. It's healthyouniversity.co and university is spelled YOU because it's the University of your health and then there's a fertility quiz at called yourfertilityquiz.com. It's just gonna help identify your
five elements, Chinese medicine, fertility type, and you might see yourself like, Ooh, that is where I'm going a little sideways. And Oh, thank you. This is where I can do some course correction. Then to get into the course, I mean, there's an outline of the course on the website, but I do require a fertility assessment call because I do wanna make sure that we're providing, only what's safe for everybody to utilize.
Yeah. And it's so beautiful and what a beautiful offering to have a call if you are thinking that this could benefit you, like go through the quiz, get on a call with Dr. Fox and there's an icon, a button right on the homepage saying, schedule your fertility assessment call there.
Yeah, I feel like the call is really an opportunity for someone to connect with you and get their questions answered. I think nowadays we're so used to just being on social media, clicking a button, clicking, clicking, and we lose the opportunity to connect. Right. And so having that chance to get on a call with you, you're gonna get your questions answered, but also you're gonna have that opportunity to have that one-on-one time that we don't always get so. Absolutely. And the course includes a coaching call with me. Oh, cool. Because it's kind of new and foreign. And if it can save you time and ultimately money then definitely look into it.
And so if we start to share, then more women will know. Yes, exactly. And that really that line, if only I knew it was the impetus for taking this on as my legacy work. Because it's shameful that we don't know much of this in sixth grade, let alone by the time we're 36 and wanting to grow our family.
We come out of college and postgrad and all of that with mountains of information and know nothing about our own bodies. Yeah. I just got the full body chills. Yeah, it's so true. Yeah. Right. It is. So true. Women are overdue for this information. Yes, indeed. Well, thank you so, so much, Jessica, for letting me help to share this.
'cause as I say, if I could stand from the mountaintops and scream it into the heavens, and let it trickle down into everybody's consciousness I would. Yes. And so check out the show notes, all of the links that you need will be there. And Dr. Fox, thank you. Thank you for the beautiful work that you do and for this amazing technology and for sharing it with us.
Well, thank you. I'm so grateful to be here. And I share the gratitude for what you're offering. βThank you so much for listening to this episode of the Her Fertility Podcast. In a sea of big name podcasts. Your support means the world to me. If you enjoyed the show, I would so appreciate your support by leaving a review on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or YouTube, wherever you listen to help me reach as many women as possible.
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