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Damaged fallopian tubes due to chlamydia
One of my work colleagues has just told me she has been diagnosed with a chlamydia infection. Both fallopian tubes have been damaged and so although she is only 32, her only chance of conceiving will be by IVF. Can you recommend anyone who can help her cleanse her system and really prepare for this?
In the last decade, the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and the number of infected people seeking specialist help has doubled. Since 1995, for example, the infection rate of chlamydia has increased by an appalling 76% and if you think the word gonorrhoea got left behind in the trenches of World War I by your great grandparents, think again, because last year (2001) the number of cases reported to the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) rose by 27%.
The age group most affected are both sexes in their late teens and early twenties - and in females under the age of 19, infection rates for both these diseases have now rocketed to SIX TIMES that of the national average. Since both conditions are easily cured with antibiotics in the early stages, screening is important and if you think you may have contracted an STD, visit your local Genito-Urinary clinic and pluck up the courage to tell the person you have been sleeping with.
You will be prescribed antibiotics, which means you will need to take a good quality enteric-coated probiotic too. Probiotic is the general term for the healthy or “friendly” bacteria that keep the digestive tract working, support the immune system and help the body make important vitamins. Enteric-coated just means the capsules have a special coating to protect them through the acidic environment of the stomach, which would otherwise destroy the replacement bacteria that need to reach the large intestine to work their magic. One of the best formulations now available is Nutrition Now’s PB8 - which provides eight different stains of probiotics. To mail order, call Victoria Health on 0800-413596.
To prepare the body for pregnancy, the natural fertility expert I always recommend is Zita West since although she now specialises in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and fertility, she also has an excellent background in NHS midwifery and was the first practitioner to introduce acupuncture into maternity care in the UK. Visit www.zitawest.com.