By Dr. Merritt Jones, LAc, DAIM, FABORM
If you’ve ever sat across from an acupuncturist and nodded politely while thinking “I have no idea what she just said,” you’re not alone. Terms like Kidney essence, Liver Qi stagnation, and Blood stasis can sound abstract, even mystical, especially if you’re coming from a world of FSH levels, antral follicle counts, and IVF protocols.
Here’s the thing: Chinese medicine and biomedicine are describing the same body. They just developed different languages to do it, separated by geography, culture, and about two thousand years. Once you understand the translation, it often clicks in a deeply satisfying way.
This post is my attempt to build that bridge. Let’s walk through five core concepts in Chinese medicine and look at what they’re really pointing to through a biomedical lens.
1. Qi: Life Force, Cellular Energy, and Everything In Between
Qi (pronounced “chee”) is probably the concept that raises the most eyebrows, and honestly, it’s the hardest one to translate. That’s not a flaw in Chinese medicine; it’s just where the two systems don’t map perfectly onto each other.
Here’s what we can say: Qi operates on multiple levels at once. At the cellular level, it looks a lot like mitochondrial function and ATP production, which is essentially the western understanding of the body’s ability to generate and use energy. At the systems level, it looks like neuroendocrine signaling, autonomic regulation, and the coordination between your hormonal, immune, and circulatory systems. And at the most fundamental level, it’s something closer to what biomedicine calls homeostasis — the body’s innate drive to maintain balance — made visible through symptoms when it starts to falter.
So is Qi life force? Yes. Cellular energy? Also yes. A measure of how well everything is working together? That too. It’s less a single thing and more a lens that asks not just what is happening in your body, but how well your systems are communicating, adapting, and sustaining themselves.
When Qi is strong, things work. When it’s deficient or stagnant, something in that coordination breaks down, and that’s when symptoms show up.
2. Yin and Yang: Opposites, Cycles, and Rhythm of Your Hormones
Yin and Yang are probably Chinese medicine’s most recognized symbols, and also its most misunderstood. Most people think of it as a philosophical concept about opposites. And it is, but it’s also a framework for understanding everything that moves in cycles: day and night, seasons, rest and activity, and yes, the human body. Every system in the body has Yin and Yang qualities, and health is essentially the dynamic balance between them. In a reproductive context, that framework maps onto something very concrete and measurable: the interplay of hormones across the menstrual cycle.
Yin represents the cooling, nourishing, building, fluid-rich qualities of the body. Yang represents the warming, activating, transforming qualities. In a healthy cycle, you move through both.
The follicular phase, when estrogen is rising, the follicle is developing, the uterine lining is thickening, and cervical fluid is increasing, is a Yin-dominant phase. The body is building and nourishing. Ovulation itself, driven by the LH surge, is the pivot point: Yang rising to its peak to trigger transformation. The luteal phase is progesterone-dominant, warming the body (yes, literally — that’s your basal body temperature rise) and supporting implantation. It’s a Yang-dominant phase.
When a patient has Yin deficiency, we often see it as low estrogen, thin lining, poor follicular development, or low cervical fluid. Yang deficiency often looks like low progesterone, a short or symptomatic luteal phase, poor basal body temperature rise, or hypothyroid patterns. We’re not guessing at abstractions. We’re pattern-matching to hormonal realities.
3. Blood Stasis: Inflammation, Adhesions, and Poor Circulation
This one tends to resonate immediately with patients who have endometriosis, fibroids, heavy periods, or a history of pelvic surgery, because Blood stasis in Chinese medicine maps almost directly onto what biomedicine describes as impaired pelvic circulation, inflammation, and structural obstruction.
Blood stasis means blood is not moving freely. It’s accumulating, congealing, creating blockages. Clinically, we see it as painful, clotty periods (especially with dark or purple blood), fixed pelvic pain, masses or growths (like endometriomas or fibroids), and often a history of trauma, surgery, or chronic inflammation.
Biomedicine describes these same presentations in terms of elevated prostaglandins, increased inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress, reduced endometrial perfusion, and in the case of endometriosis, ectopic implants with surrounding adhesions that quite literally obstruct normal anatomy and blood flow.
Acupuncture’s effect on Blood stasis is one of the more well-studied areas in reproductive acupuncture research. The proposed mechanisms include increasing uterine artery blood flow (measurable via Doppler ultrasound), modulating prostaglandin levels, reducing systemic inflammation, and supporting nitric oxide production, all of which improve the local environment for implantation and reduce pain.
If you have endometriosis and your acupuncturist talks a lot about moving Blood stasis, now you know: they’re talking about your inflammation, your adhesions, your prostaglandins. Same thing, different map.
4. Kidney Essence: Your Biological Clock, Encoded in Ancient Text
In Chinese medicine, the Kidneys hold something called Jing, often translated as “essence.” Jing is your constitutional vitality, the deep reserve you were born with, which declines with age and is replenished (partially) through rest, nourishment, and healthy living. It governs reproduction, development, and aging.
This is Chinese medicine’s way of describing what we now understand as constitutional vitality: our genetic inheritance, our cellular aging process, our reproductive capacity. In a fertility context, ovarian reserve is one of its most measurable expressions.
When we measure AMH (anti-Müllerian hormone), antral follicle count (AFC), or follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), we’re essentially quantifying Kidney Jing in biomedical terms. A patient with diminished ovarian reserve (low AMH, high FSH, fewer follicles) has what Chinese medicine calls Kidney Jing deficiency. It doesn’t mean there’s nothing to work with; it means the reserve is reduced, and the treatment strategy needs to support and preserve what’s there while optimizing the quality of the eggs that remain.
Kidney Yin and Yang deficiency also layer on top of this. Kidney Yin deficiency often tracks with estrogen insufficiency and follicular developmental issues. Kidney Yang deficiency often tracks with progesterone insufficiency, poor luteal phase, and the kind of “cold” presentation we see in hypothyroid or low-metabolic states.
The concept of Jing also explains why Chinese medicine places so much emphasis on lifestyle, rest, sleep, and not running yourself into the ground, especially during fertility treatment. You can’t manufacture more Jing, but you can absolutely deplete it faster than necessary.
5. Liver Qi Stagnation: Your Nervous System Is Talking
Here’s the one that almost every patient has, whether they know it or not.
Liver Qi stagnation is Chinese medicine’s description of what happens when the body’s energy isn’t flowing freely, usually as a result of stress, emotional suppression, frustration, or feeling stuck. The Liver system in Chinese medicine governs the smooth flow of Qi throughout the body, regulates emotions (particularly frustration and anger), and plays a key role in menstrual regularity.
The biomedical parallel is chronic stress response dysregulation, specifically the effects of elevated cortisol and sympathetic nervous system dominance on reproductive function.
We know that chronic stress elevates cortisol, which suppresses GnRH pulsatility (the signal that tells your pituitary to release FSH and LH), disrupts ovulation timing, reduces progesterone in the luteal phase, impairs uterine receptivity, and can worsen conditions like endometriosis and PCOS. The HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis and the HPO (hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian) axis are in constant conversation, and when the stress axis is chronically activated, the reproductive axis pays the price.
Liver Qi stagnation also shows up physically: irregular cycles, PMS (especially mood-related symptoms or breast tenderness), pain that’s worse with stress, digestive irregularity, and tension in the neck, shoulders, and ribcage. These are classic signs of sympathetic overdrive.
Acupuncture’s effect on the stress response is one of its most robust areas of research. Studies have demonstrated measurable reductions in cortisol, normalization of sympathetic nervous system tone, and upregulation of beta-endorphin and serotonin with acupuncture treatment. When we needle points to “course Liver Qi,” we’re helping your nervous system downregulate and giving your reproductive hormones the space to do their job.
Putting It Together
Chinese medicine doesn’t replace the information you get from your Reproductive Endocrinologist or Gynecologist. It works alongside it, and in many ways, it asks different questions that lead to a more complete picture of what’s happening in your body.
Your labs tell us what your hormone levels are. Chinese medicine helps us understand why they might be where they are, and how your whole system (nervous system, immune system, circulation, sleep, digestion, stress load) is either supporting or working against your cycle health and fertility.
When your acupuncturist says you have Kidney Yin deficiency with Liver Qi stagnation, they might be describing someone with diminished ovarian reserve who is also under significant stress, with corresponding effects on both follicular development and hormonal signaling. Same patient. Two lenses.
Neither one has the full picture alone. Together, they get a lot closer.
Written by Dr. Merritt Jones, LAc, DAIM, FABORM | Clinic Director & Founder | Natural Harmony Reproductive Health
Dr. Merritt holds a Doctorate in Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine and is board-certified in reproductive acupuncture (FABORM). Her practice draws on the full spectrum of Traditional Chinese Medicine — acupuncture, herbal medicine, and functional nutrition — alongside evidence-based Western medicine to support her patients through every stage of the reproductive health journey.
Medically reviewed by the author. Last reviewed: February 2026.