Fertility Support
"Nothing comes before regulating the cycle"
The first sentence of the Donguibogam's Women's chapter is a treatment plan: the way of engendering a person begins with seeking a child, and in seeking a child nothing comes before regulating the menses. Fertility, in this tradition, is downstream. The cycle is upstream. Four centuries later, that is still where we start.
What the classical texts say. The chapter opens by listing what to ask a patient who has not conceived — timing, volume, when the pain falls relative to the flow, color, clotting — which is, recognizably, an intake form. Then it does something less expected for its era: it addresses both partners, in the same breath and at equal length. The woman needs her cycle regulated; the man needs his essence sufficient. An entire shelf of formulas is stocked for male factor, and the source asks pointedly: how could the fault be charged wholly to the mother's Blood?
It is also precise about body type in a way that still holds up. The thin patient whose uterus is described as dry gets Blood and Yin. The heavier patient, where damp and phlegm are seen as crowding the uterus, gets movers and dryers. Two opposite prescriptions for the same complaint — which is why a single "fertility formula" has never existed in this tradition, and why we don't offer one.
→ Women — full translated chapter
→ The Womb — the menstrual chapter behind it
How we treat it. Treatment is staged: regulate the cycle first, then support conception. Acupuncture is used throughout, and is commonly combined with IVF or IUI cycles — many of our patients are doing both. Formulas are chosen by pattern:
Ojayeonjong-hwan 五子衍宗丸 — the tradition's enduring male fertility formula, five seeds and nothing else.
Okyakgyeyeong-hwan 玉鑰啓榮丸 — for the case the chapter describes exactly: regular cycles, no other illness, and still no pregnancy.
Hobakjogyeong-hwan 琥珀調經丸 — for the cycle irregular in every respect at once.
Gobongeonyang-dan 固本健陽丹 — for male-factor depletion with fatigue and cold signs.
A note on scope. We work alongside reproductive endocrinology, not in place of it. If you have not yet had a workup — including semen analysis for your partner — we will encourage it, because knowing what you are treating matters more than starting quickly.
This approach may help if you're dealing with: difficulty conceiving · cycle irregularity affecting conception · support alongside IVF or IUI · male-factor concerns · recurrent early loss · secondary infertility · preparing for conception in the year ahead.
The Donguibogam translation project at formulas.raahacupuncture.com is researched and translated by Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.