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Perimenopause begins some years before menopause, when the ovaries gradually begin to make less oestrogen. In the last 1 to 2 years, the drop in oestrogen speeds up, and many women have menopausal symptoms. Perimenopause usually starts in a woman’s 40s, but can start in her 30s or earlier. It lasts 4 years on average, but can range from a few months or continue for 10 years. It ends when a woman doesn’t have a period for 12 months, the technical definition of menopause.
Doctors often make the diagnosis from your symptoms:
If you have spotting between periods or during sex, your cycles are changing, or the periods are very heavy, you should see a doctor to rule out any other causes.
Simple blood tests to check hormone levels, like our Female Fertility Profile and AMH tests, can help diagnose it(we can help you to arrange them, with results coming out the next day). They are also the standard hormone tests to assess your chances of pregnancy, as used by some IVF clinics.
You can get pregnant if you’re perimenopausal, but with difficulty.
Thousands of eggs still remain in the ovaries during the perimenopausal period as they are still well-endowed with follicles while these endocrinal changes take place. As eggs’ DNA becomes less stable with age, they are usually “healthier” when she is younger.
More importantly, perhaps, is that your eggs are more responsive to hormonal changes fluctuations than age, per se. As women approach middle age, the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis — the invisible network of hormonal relationships governing reproductive status — becomes less stable. The body pays more attention maintaining other systems than the reproductive systems. As a result, the ovaries starve and become less predictable; the eggs within them respond less well to follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) as before.
However, the ovaries are still well-endowed with follicles and eggs do not have an expiry date and age is not as important a factor for natural pregnancy as many would like us to believe — rather, the ovaries respond to their surroundings, just as the rest of our bodily systems do. A woman’s ovaries and eggs respond negatively to poor diet, drugs, toxins and stress hormones, and positively to a healthy diet and lifestyle.
Our approach focusses on using natural herbal remedies and acupuncture to strengthen the reproductive system and general health, to improve the endocrine system and functions. We do not prescribe any synthetic hormones. There are no known adverse side effects.
Patients bring us their test results and medical record. We do a first consultation lasting 30 to 40 minutes, in which we do non-invasive and pain-free Chinese medical diagnostic procedures, in order to understand your particular condition and circumstances thoroughly.
Our specialist prescribes a unique herbal formula, usually consisting of around 20 kinds of herbs, from which you will make drinks and consume twice a day for 18 days in a month.
A month after the first consultation, you will be done with the first round of herbal remedy. We do a second consultation, lasting 30 minutes, doing another diagnostic procedure to see how well you’ve responded to the treatment. Another prescription will be written.
This monthly cycle will repeat 3 or 4 times before you are asked to have another AMH test carried out. Most patients see significant improvements, with increased AMH and lowering FSH. They also report their periods are now much more regular, which increases the chance of a successful IVF cycle (for instance, a higher dosage of stimulating hormone can be used). They then pursue a number of options, including working with us for longer to achieve natural pregnancy, or combining our treatment with IVF — we work some of the best IVF clinicians, who can offer the best of both worlds to our patients.
The fees come to about £480 to £530 a month on average. Given our success rate, the fees of our treatment programme compares very favourably with IVF — all 3 courses (9 months) of our treatment comes out to be around £4,500 whereas the minimum all-inclusive fee for one IVF cycle stands at £6,000.
Once a month. Most patients come from 3 to 9 months. Some combine our treatment with further IVF cycles.
A traditional Chinese medical consultation involves the following steps.
The practitioner may scrutinise your complexion, eyes, tongue, and movements to gain insight into how your organs are functioning. The tongue is a particularly important source of information, and its colour, body, coating, and moisture will all be taken into account.
The practitioner assesses the patient’s energy and general condition by taking into account your body heat, odour, skin sensitivity, and uses other senses to gain an insight into the your condition.
To gain a full picture, the practitioner will ask detailed questions about your complaint and your medical history. They will want to find out whether your problems vary at all according to the time of year and your diet, feelings or emotions.
This can provide a highly sensitive and detailed picture of your general health. The practitioner will take a number of different ‘pulses’ using three fingers put on the wrist of each hand of the patient. This enables him to gain further information about the quality and functioning of the five major organs. The practitioner will take account of your general health and strength, as well as all of your symptoms, whether they seem to you to be connected or not. This will be the basis for deciding on the best treatment.
Monthly consultations are required to gauge your progress. The prescriptions will be devised accordingly — for treating a changing condition, a fixed single herb or formula is unlikely to be effective over time.
Patients want to know how long they need to see us for. We say after 3 months of treatment, we will review progress, retesting hormones and check subjective experience, such as period cycle regularity and sexual interest. If they are at normal levels, we discharge the patients.
If they are better but still need further improvement, patients may need second course of treatment at the same or less intensity.
Typically, women see us for 3 courses of treatment, ie 9 months total.
The point is that the way we treat patients means they should not rely on our treatment for too long. Their improved health and function should stay with them if they look after their health.
We have just launched a second opinion service where you can send us your hormone test results, sperm test results and other results. Consultations will be done on the phone and it will not be a face-to-face medical consultation.
Since we work with IUI, IVF, ICSI, egg and sperm freezing specialists, we can explore a full range of options with you prior to your committing to a course of actions that may be best for you. There is no charge for this service.
We offer this service in good faith based on our clinical experience and our work with partner agencies such as IVF specialists. We do not accept any liability and we will urge you to triangulate opinions given with your own doctors before you decide what may be best for your circumstance.
Call us any time on 0207 096 0283 or fill out our enquiry form.
We would like to see the following test results (less than 2 months old):
If you have not done them yet, we can arrange them for you. Results come out in 1–3 days.
A booking fee of £100 (refunded when you attend) will be processed at booking.
Late cancellation fee £50
We appreciate that you might not be well or have urgent matters to attend. As a result you may have to postpone the appointment. We would like to have at least 24 hours' advance notice. A late cancellation fee of £50 is payable if advance notice is not given.
Yes. No medical system is foolproof and medical practitioners, however good, are not omnipotent. As great as our success rates are, they are not 100%. There are times patients do not respond to our treatments despite our best efforts.
Delayed improvements are possible when patients rest a little. However, even with rest, patients may still not respond well. Fortunately, these cases are in the minority. We minimise the number of these cases by trying to understand our patients’ conditions as much as possible before taking them on. We minimise time and financial commitments from patients by insisting they have hormone or sperm test results prior to treatment, and to get retested after 3 months — following our evidence-based approach.
At TCM Healthcare, we will always have your best interests in mind and we will do our best.
