Let’s ask the questions to Daxa Vaishnav of Homeopathic Healing who has a MD in homeopathy from India and has been practicing homeopathy for about 36 years. She and her husband have set up homeopathy offices in the Bay Area of California where they have been practicing since 2012. Daxa has been dealing with the treatment of OB-GYN cases and her special area of interest has been Infertility and PCOS (Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome) apart from the other gynecological conditions like PMS, etc.
Can you tell us more about yourself?
I have been actively involved with homeopathy and women’s health since 1985. I was a Professor and Head of the Department of OB-GYN at a Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital in Mumbai till I migrated to the United States in 2011. I have also been a faculty for the Practitioner and Doctoral Programs in Homeopathy at the American Medical College of Homeopathy at Phoenix, Arizona, a visiting faculty at the Caduceus Institute of Classical Homeopathy, Santa Cruz, California, USA and taught at a seminar on homeopathy for medical students and MD doctors in Austria. I was also a subject matter expert and adviser to the Central Council for Research in Homeopathy, Govt. of India and have contributed their publications as an author and an editor.
What made you interested in Women’s Health?
Ever since I was a student in the medical college, my interest was in OB-GYN and as soon as I graduated, I started working with a gynecologist to hone my clinical and diagnostic skills. Around the same time, I got the opportunity to join the homeopathic college as a lecturer. When a vacancy arose in the OB-GYN dept., I jumped at it and helped start building the department from scratch. From 4 or 5 patients per day, over the years, we built the out-patient intake to about 60 patients per day. I got ample opportunity to successfully treat not just simple cases but even conditions that would have otherwise required a surgical treatment. We also had a lot of obstetric cases and I was helping them not just for the usual discomforts of pregnancy, but also helped cases of prolonged labor and malpositions of the baby with just homeopathic management. I have developed a great passion for homeopathy and its role in treating OB-GYN cases and the results give me a lot of joy and satisfaction.
In developing countries, women’s health is a much neglected issue and often, there is not much awareness of the different problems that are peculiar only to women.
So what is so special about women’s issues?
A woman has been given an uncharitably defined a biped who micturates (or urinates) once a day, defecates once a week, menstruates once a month, and parturates (or delivers) once a year. In the current world that we live in, this is a politically incorrect but accurate definition of a woman’s physiology. Unlike a man, a woman goes through a lot of hormonal changes throughout her life and that can cause a lot of physical and emotional disorders. Hence, a woman needs a lot of physical and emotional support and help through her life. As a female and a homeopath; I can empathize with a woman who needs medical help.
Why did you start treating infertility cases?
My interest in infertility developed gradually as I started seeing a lot of cases in the Out Patient clinic. And then one day my assistant doctor came to me asking if I could help her conceive, since she had seen me help so many others in our practice. I realized then what infertile couples go through and have worked hard to give my best to them.
It is a well known fact that the desire for children by the normal woman is stronger than self interest in beauty and figure, even stronger than the claims of a career. Infertility can cause personal unhappiness and ill health and having children cements a threatened breakdown of a marriage. It is therefore a very satisfying and unenviable position to be in- helping infertile couples conceive.
Let me give you an example of a recent case. She was a very difficult and complicated case with a history of fibroids in the uterus that had been previously removed and a septum in the uterus that also had been surgically excised. So she had a scarred uterus. She also had a cyst in the ovary, two abortions, and failed IVF procedures on three occasions. Her Prolactin was high and her Anti-Mullerian hormone or AMH levels were very low (which means the ovaries were failing and she was going into premature menopause). Before she came to the US, she had had 3 frozen embryos stored at a fertility doctor’s clinic in Mumbai. She was planning to go back to Mumbai to get another IVF done. Meanwhile, her old neighbor in India who had been my patient, asked her to contact me here. She started her homeopathy treatment in September 2019 and in January 2020 she conceived. She followed up with me throughout her pregnancy, since she had aborted in her previous pregnancies and I treated her with constitutional homeopathic treatment till she delivered in October 2020.
There was another patient who had been given up by the gynecologists in the US. Frantic telephone calls and e-mails to prominent fertility specialists in India and elsewhere had left her dejected and depressed because all had given the same response. Her AMH levels were very low and she was going into premature menopause. Fertility specialists in the US had suggested procedures with an exorbitant cost per cycle but no one could guarantee a positive outcome. She still decided to fly to India and persuade a fertility specialist to help her conceive. In the meantime, a homeopathic doctor she had contacted in India suggested that she should meet me as he had seen my results with homeopathy in infertility and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or PCOS. Within 2 months of homeopathy (she was on no other treatment) this patient conceived. Homeopathy not only helped her conceive, but it saved her a lot of time, effort, money and anguish that she would have continued going through if she had persisted in seeking from the gynecologists what they felt was impossible.
You just mentioned PCOS. What are your thoughts about PCOS and homeopathy?
PCOS is usually thought to be a life time female hormonal imbalance where maturing eggs fail to be expelled from the ovary, creating an ovary filled with immature follicles (somewhat misleadingly called cysts). These ‘cysts’ then contribute to the hormonal imbalance that causes more cysts. When I graduated from the homeopathic medical college in Mumbai, nobody had heard of the Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome because at that time it did not even exist in textbooks. There was a short description of the Stein Leventhal syndrome (which was first described in 1935) in the books of gynecology as a symptom-complex associated with raised LH (Leutinizing Hormone) levels and oligomenorrhea, absence of ovulation, hirsutism (excessive hair growth, especially on the face and other parts), infertility and recurrent miscarriage.
This condition is rising at an alarming rate among South Asians and especially in Indians. Recent research has indicated higher insulin concentrations and lower insulin sensitivity in South Asian women with PCOS compared to Caucasian women with PCOS. Over the past 20 years, I have seen a sudden rise in the number of people with complaints of hormonal issues like PCOS, primary infertility or secondary infertility due to repeated abortions. I have helped a lot of young girls and women suffering from PCOS. The periods become regular and those whose infertility issues are due to this condition have been able to conceive naturally with a little help from homeopathy
What causes PCOS?
There are many theories about the cause of PCOS.
Earlier, the role of a woman in society was limited to looking after the home.
The women of today are more independent and ambitious and are trying to adopt a man’s role in society. Possibly, the woman’s body is not physiologically adapted and evolved to face the pressure and strain of stressful jobs?
As I started treating more and more cases of PCOS, it became apparent that the life situation of many of the young girls showed a traumatic or stressful condition during puberty or at adolescence.
These people are the best candidates for Homeopathy because it is a holistic system of medicine that assists the natural tendency of the human body to heal itself.
This holistic approach is also called constitutional homeopathic treatment and has led to many success stories in PCOS and unexplained infertility.
So stress has an important role to play in PCOS?
There are SIX BASIC FEELINGS
Love
Sexual feeling
Joy
Anger
Sadness
Fear
SUPPRESSION or blocking of one of the six basic feelings may lead to physiological changes that may cause physical damage to the individual. This is especially important in people with PCOS and infertility.
I remember a lady who came for consultation with the diagnosis of Primary infertility. She also had a disease of the heart valves. When quizzed about the saddest moment in her life, she said “I was in love with a boy about 4 years ago and we were going steady for quite some time. But, when he came to know of my heart complaints he started avoiding me. I understood and let him go. This was the saddest moment. I feel he has deserted me. I feel if the person whom I loved and chose did not support me, how could I expect an unknown person to care for me? Why did he do that?” This history of grief and disappointment in love made me prescribe a homeopathic remedy Natrum muriaticum and her pregnancy test came positive within 2 months of starting the treatment.
What else should a person with PCOS do?
Apart from homeopathic constitutional treatment, I ask the client to exercise regularly. Regular exercise helps control insulin levels. What is required is just a 30 minute walk, 3-4 times a week. Aerobics, weight training and swimming are also encouraged. Certain life style modifications are also necessary to control PCOS. A proper diet, reducing alcohol and quitting tobacco smoking are very important.
What about Male infertility?
That is a very good question.
Much has been said about female infertility and in practice, the male is often neglected when the infertile couple is being evaluated and treated. It is often the OB/GYN doctor who doubles as an infertility specialist and it is no wonder that she directs all attention towards the female often missing out reversible causes of infertility in the male.
A low sperm count is often encountered in the infertile male and there are many causes for this and many homeopathic remedies too. The testes cannot function efficiently in a hot environment. Hence, there is a low sperm count in males who work in foundries, furnaces and anyplace where the temperatures are very high. People wearing tight jeans may also have a lower sperm count because of the higher local temperature.
I have often encountered cases where the female has been thoroughly investigated and found to have no abnormalities but the male was not even examined. One of the common problems that I have seen found in my male infertility patients is the presence of a varicocele (a varicosity of the testicular veins). The enlarged, dilated and tortuous veins around the testes increase the local heat and inhibit sperm production. There are homeopathic remedies for this condition, but sometimes I refer these patients to a surgeon who examines them and helps confirm this condition and if severe, treats them surgically.
One recent case had the male partner under so much pressure that he found it difficult to perform, a condition I would like to call psychical impotency. The correct homeopathic remedy helped him ease his stress and his impotency got corrected.
The infertile couple should be treated as one unit. Both the partners need to be given equal attention. The stress of struggling to become pregnant affects both equally and so both may need to be treated with homeopathy. In my practice, if the male partner feels uncomfortable talking to me, I ask him to meet my husband who is also a homeopath and we work as a team to help the infertile couple.
Thank you very much Daxa for sharing your experiences of treating infertility and PCOS with homeopathy.
For homeopathic consultation for your symptoms you may visit Homeopathic Healing or send an e-mail to office@drvaishnav.com to meet the Homeopathic Specialists.
Please note: A detailed history followed by constitutional treatment by a good and qualified homeopathic practitioner is necessary to treat the complaints that appear due to any disease. The homeopathic remedies mentioned in this post and video and elsewhere on this blog are for informational purposes only. The information contained on this site is general in nature and is not meant to substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other health care professional. None of the statements on this site are an endorsement of any particular product, or a recommendation as to how to treat any particular disease or health-related condition. It is not advisable to resort to self-medication for any disease.
Disclaimer: Daxa Vaishnav and Vijay Vaishnav are licensed and registered homeopathic physicians in India and are not licensed physicians in the State of California. They are providing services under Sections 2053.5 and 2053.6 of California’s Business and Professions Code, subject to requirements and restrictions. The nature of the services provided by them involves an interview to gather the information needed, analysis of this information, recommendation of a homeopathic remedy and assessment of the action of the remedy at follow up consultations. Their services are alternative or complementary to healing arts services licensed by the State of California, are therefore limited in scope, and not a substitute for medical supervision and advice. If you suspect you have a disease or health-related condition of any kind, you should contact your health care professional immediately. Please consult with a health care professional before starting any diet, exercise, supplementation or medication program.