Vatomer Devorah

בינה אקרי אמא עלאה (Zohar)

So, after a certain amount of procedures and interventions a woman may be informed of diagnostics that look at the environment of the womb. Is the uterine lining receptive to progesterone, is it inflamed? Up until then it is assumed that you can proceed with interventions without this knowledge, even though uterine inflammation is highly prevalent as an underlying cause of infertility.

So many doctors proceed without bina- without discernment and without knowledge of the womb. Additionally, women are often told they have no issue with the hormones being administered during treatments, when many women actually do.

Chana* was ready to have an egg retrieval. Her doctor explained that these are hormones just like the ones in her body that she has no issue with. Her doctor prescribed estrogen priming (something not included in every protocol). She was put on medication to stimulate the ovaries. At one point the doctor raised the estrogen to a higher dose, but then lowered it back to the original recommendation, when her estrogen spiked. In the days during and after the egg retrieval , Chana had some intense stomach pain and she did not feel well at all. She spoke to her friend, the nurse who was helping her administer the meds, who told her this was not normal. Chana contemplated going to the hospital because of how much pain she was in.

Some time after this she did the receptivadx and it was positive for the bcl6 inflammatory marker. The doctor explained that her body had an issue with excess estrogen. He recommended months of Lupron shots -estrogen suppression.

I discovered that there are some doctors who take endometriosis/uterine inflammation into account and gather this information early on. It doesn’t even need to be through the Receptiva test. There are doctors who have something like a checklist or questionnaire, simply by being familiar with signs of inflammation, they assess whether this may be an issue to consider with their patient. There are also other tests available that look at the uterine environment. But why is the health of the uterus simply ignored by most doctors for as long as possible?

The Standard of Care

I don’t know the answer to this question, but I know that most doctors often are following the “standard of care”. Most fertility offices are protocol driven and looking into these underlying factors is not seen as a basis for care, but as a last resort, even though that means many people go through months or years of treatments that have much lower success rates when the womb is not receptive.

After seeing and experiencing this standard of care, I wanted to see it upgraded. I wanted people to have access to information and early diagnostics that consider the environment of the womb, before they go through many months or years of interventions which can be upwards of tens of thousands of dollars or much more, and take a large physical and emotional toll.

I began thinking about Tomar Devorah, Devorah’s date palm and all it represents, life, truth, fertility.

I remember going to a general naturopathic office and another couple sitting next to me. At this point I had started to contemplate writing down my thoughts. The husband randomly turned to me and asked what I think of this doctor. Then, surprisingly, he shared that they are going through fertility challenges and coming here for help. I remember looking over at his wife and recognizing myself in her face. I saw a kind of repressed anger, a silent feeling of helplessness behind her smile.

The next day I was still contemplating writing down my thoughts. I went shopping to buy a dress. On the way there I thought, G-d, I need a sign, maybe I will find a dress with palm trees on it.

I got to the store and there were no dresses with palm trees. It was the end of August, and the summer stock was already out, and the new fall collection was on the shelves. I went to the check-out counter to pay. In front of me was a women wearing a very unusual dress. It was a brown dress with green palm trees printed all over it. Later that day I started to write.