spleen qi deficiency

As blog readers know, I am TTC but it didn't work this month. I've been reading
The Infertility Cure: The Ancient Chinese Wellness Program for Getting Pregnant and Having Healthy Babies and according to it, my basal body temperature chart shows some signs of spleen qi deficiency in the luteal phase.

Reading further, in her excellent chapter on fibroids, the author gives the case study of a patient with a large fibroid that initially didn't respond to herbs, but when she added herbs for spleen qi deficiency, the fibroid had disappeared by the patient's next gyn visit. Although my bleeding is under control now, I also saw that too long and heavy menstrual bleeding is also a sign of spleen qi deficiency.

So, I marched into my acupuncturist and said, we had better work on my spleen. She agreed that made sense. and gave me Jia Wei Xiao Yao San. This works a lot on the liver, but one needs to calm the liver in order to help the spleen, to stop the liver from "insulting" the spleen. I'm using the Evergreen brand, not the ones on these pages, but the following pages have some good info about this formula:
http://www.activeherb.com/jwxiaoyao/
http://www.heavenearthcmhc.com/free-and-easy-wanderer-plus-teapills-p-33.html

Ingredients in this are: Dang gui, Bai Shao, Fu Ling, Bai Zhu, Chai Hu, Zhi Gan Cao, Mu Dan Pi, Zhi Zi, Wei Jiang, and Bo He.

The Infertility Cure also lists Shan Yao as one of the best herbs for strengthening spleen, and what do you know it's ingredient #1 in the Tao of Wellness Hot Herbal Cereal that I mentioned in a previous post. No wonder I love it so much! I discovered though, that it does not taste good sweet but is wonderful as a savory dish. I buy one turkey thigh and throw that and the cereal in the crockpot. Sometimes I add garlic, onion, carrots or even potatoes, but sometimes not. I cook it overnight and it's ready for breakfast. My husband likes it too (I usually give him the turkey thigh). This cereal also contains Fu Ling, a component in the formula mentioned above.

Good news too, my acupuncturist says she can give me some herbs to work on my spleen even post-ovulation, when blood-breaking herbs are contraindicated because I'm trying to get pregnant. That will be a different formula than the one above. This is good because it's been bothering me not to be taking any herbs during the second part of my cycle. I like to feel like I'm always doing something!