-IBIS-1.5.0-
tx
reproductive system
infertility: male
psychospiritual approaches

metaphors and correlations

• Fear and resistance to the process of life, OR not needing to go through the parenting experience. (Hay, 1984, p. 184)
• Behind all sexual difficulties there stands fear, and one such fear is of the obligation and responsibility a child would bring. (Dethlefsen, p. 190)
• Psychic or mental control: Based on the principle that we have control over bodily process rather than bodily processed controlling us, one can use thoughts and emotions to voluntarily control internal states such as conception. (Bliss, p. 271)

Chinese psychophysiology:
Kidney ~ Shen stores Jing (Essence) and governs birth, growth, reproduction, development, and aging; houses the Zhi (Will); expresses ambition and focus; governs Water to regulate body fluids; nourishes the brain to sustain concentration, clear thinking, and memory; manifests through the reproductive function, and governs the process of passing on life to offspring; and displays the effects of sexual dissipation (especially excessive ejaculation), overwork, chronic degenerative processes, and extreme stress.
»
Healthy expressions are gentleness, groundedness, and endurance.
» Kidney Xu (Deficiency) signs include indecisiveness; confused speech; dreams of trees submerged under water; cold feet and legs; abundant sweating (Seem, p. 28); fearfulness; apathy; chronic fatigue; discouragement; scatteredness; lack of will; negativity; impatience; difficult inhalation; low sex drive; lumbago; sciatica; and musculoskeletal irritation and inflammation, especially when worse from touch. As always, Yin Xu (Deficiency) predisposes to Empty Fire.
» Intense or prolonged fear depletes the Kidney. Often chronic anxiety may induce Xu (Deficiency) and then Fire within the Kidney. (Maciocia, p. 250) Overwork, parenting, simple aging, and a sedentary or excessively indulgent lifestyle all contribute significantly to Kidney Xu (Deficiency).

Liver ~ Gan is the home of the Hun (Ethereal Soul); it relates to decisiveness, control, and the principle of emergence; stores and cleanses the Xue (Blood); maintains smooth flow of Qi and Xue (Blood); has an intimate relationship with the genitals and Lower Warmer; and reflects emotional harmony and movement.
» Healthy expressions are kindness, spontaneity, and ease of movement.
» Liver Xu (Deficiency) signs include impotence; frigidity; pain in thighs, pelvic region, and throat; ready tendency to "the blahs" (Seem, p. 28); timidity; depression; irritability; vertigo; pruritus; dry eyes, skin, and/or tendons; asthma; aching at the waist; hernia; and difficulty raising head up and down. Liver Xue Xu (Blood Deficiency) predisposes to Xue Yu (Blood Stasis).
» Liver Qi Stagnation reflects and accentuates emotional constraint as the Liver's function of facilitating smooth flow in the body is constricted. Stagnation is associated with frustration, irritability, tension, and feeling stuck. With time this pattern tends to produce a gloomy emotional state of constant resentment, repressed anger or depression, along with tightness in the chest, frequent sighing, abdominal tension or distension, and/or a feeling of a lump in the throat with difficulty in swallowing. (Maciocia, p. 216) Xue Yu (Blood Stasis) often begins with Qi Stagnation.
» Mental signs of Liver channel disorders include irritability, difficulty developing ideas, depression, and lack of energy. (Seem, p. 28)


therapies

imagery:
• blessing of the field (Chavez)
• sun's entry (Chavez)

affirmation:
• I trust in the process of life. I am always in the right place, doing the right things, at the right time. I love and approve of myself. (Hay, 1984, p. 184)
• Psychic or mental control: Visualize healthy, active sperm swimming excitedly to magical union with the receptive ovum. Encourage them, with your thoughts, to successful union and fertilization . Meditate on union with your partner. (Bauman, p. 317)

psychotherapy:
• Every human being has both a masculine and feminine psychological aspect, and each of us, woman or man, needs to develop both of these inner aspects fully. Nevertheless, this difficult path demands that we first achieve total identification with the particular aspect that is represented by our physical gender. Only when we are capable of living out that one pole to the full, is the way free for us to awaken and so to integrate consciously, the alternative aspect of our psyche via the encounter with the opposite sex. (Dethlefsen, p. 194)

process paradigm: (experientially oriented)
• What is the symptom preventing me from doing? What is the symptom making me do? (see process interview: male reproductive system)

related materia medica listings:
the shadow and physical symptoms
converting a symptom to a signal
imagery: precautions
imagery: techniques
affirmations: guidelines and precautions
hypnotherapy
process paradigm


footnotes

Reprinted from The Foundations of Chinese Medicine, Maciocia, Giovanni, 1989, by permission of the publisher Churchill Livingstone, a division of Elsevier Limited.