I became pregnant naturally in my 40s and gave birth to my son aged 42, after a period of wondering whether motherhood would ever happen for me, so I’ve been to some of the dark places fertility journeys can take one to. And I understand only too well how desperate and lonely those places can be.

Knowing that I’d always wanted to be a mother, I froze my eggs in my mid 30s. I had to learn as I went, educating myself on all things fertility, but not in time to influence the outcome. The cycle wasn’t a great success and I was frustrated and disappointed that I had invested so much physically, emotionally and financially into what was effectively just a fact-finding mission. Why wasn’t this information more readily available? And why had no-one told me where to look for it? I decided to use this experience to help and empower others on the same path. I made it my mission to become an expert in all things fertility; I trained as a counsellor and gained a diploma in Advanced Fertility Acupuncture – the gold standard of training for fertility acupuncturists. In short, I became the person I had needed with me on my journey.

I am now part of the Fertility Support Expert practitioner team – a group of whom I consider to be amongst the best specialist fertility acupuncturists in the country. We support each other by knowledge sharing, keeping up to date on the latest research, both in Chinese and Western medicine, and keeping abreast of developments within the world of fertility.

I support my clients to have a natural conception whenever possible. When, and only when, that isn’t possible, I support them in working towards achieving the best possible IVF or ART cycle they can, by working on egg quality and maturation, sperm health, stress factors, diet and lifestyle. I’m just as likely to talk about hormones and semen analysis results as I am to discuss Chinese Medicine terms such as ‘qi’ and ‘stagnation’. I believe that there is a middle ground between the two modalities and that by utilising both we can achieve the very best possible outcome.

For those I walk with on the fertility journey, I walk with them every step of the way.

To find out more about fertility acupuncture please click here.