Cork woman on a mission to help people conceive

Rachel O’Donnell-Barry, of the Harmony Clinic in Cork, reckons that for women having problems conceiving, 60% of issues are fixable.

And she says you don’t necessarily need to go to an IVF clinic.

Rachel, who trained with leading UK gynaecology expert, Dr Trevor Wing, is an acupuncturist, a nutritional therapist, and a Chinese herbalist.

She applies those areas to fertility treatment.

Rachel says acupuncture can increase blood flow to the womb “so it will give you better-quality eggs. It can help with endometriosis so the chances of getting pregnant with that condition will be improved”.

She added: “Acupuncture relaxes the body which reduces cortisol, the stress hormone. When a woman is under stress a lot of the time, too much cortisol is being released. It does a thing called the ‘cortisol steal’, stealing oestrogen and progestogen which means the woman can’t ovulate.

“We will reset the body so that this cortisol steal doesn’t happen and the woman will ovulate a lot better.”

Rachel says her experience is that Chinese herbs can also help a woman to ovulate.

Apart from stress, what else can result in an absence of ovulation?

“It could be polycystic ovarian syndrome. A lot of the time, women with that condition don’t ovulate.”

Always keeping up with developments to improve fertility, Rachel completed a course on the vaginal biome last year because “the microbiome of the vagina is so important”.

She also works with older women, aged anything between 39 years to 45 years, who are experiencing difficulty conceiving.

“The reason given by a lot of the clinics is that the eggs are not good quality, so that cohort would be going for donor eggs. That can be done in Ireland or abroad. We would support the woman through her journey.”

Freezing your eggs is something that Rachel recommends.

“More women are doing that. Female fertility peaks at 27 so any time before 35 – ideally, before 33 – is a good age. It’s really around 35 that women start thinking about freezing their eggs. You can do it in either of the two IVF clinics in Cork, Waterstones Clinic on the Glanmire Road and Sims in Mahon Point.”

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are on the increase and can affect fertility, Rachel says.

“Chlamydia, for example, has no symptoms and would cause infertility because it causes scarring on the fallopian tubes so that an egg can’t come down as it gets blocked.”

Male infertility is “a big issue”, she said , with sperm counts reducing.

“It can be down to lifestyle. A lot of guys today would have grown up in households where dinners weren’t prepared from scratch and there would be a lot of processed food.

“It’s also down to drinking, stress and working long hours and not eating properly.”

Men, however, can produce good sperm into old age. Actor Al Pacino fathered a child at the age of 83.

When working with men, Rachel refers to the morphology of their sperm.

“That’s how many of the sperm (in their millions) are normal. The World Health Organisation looks for 4% ‘normal’ sperm. That means it’s standard for 96% to be abnormal. The other important thing is progression. The sperm has to be able to move forward. If it isn’t going anywhere then it’s not going to go into the uterus.

“Sometimes, working with men, I find that the sperm is very sub-standard. I work with the man for three to six months, looking at their diet. I do acupuncture on men to improve blood flow. We give them Chinese herbs and regular Western supplements to optimise their sperm.”

Rachel, a former international IT saleswoman, selling all over Europe and South Africa for 15 years, became exhausted from travelling and wanted her life to have “a little bit more meaning. I was debating whether I’d go back to college and do medicine but my brain doesn’t work that way. I was never going to pass the exams to get into medicine. Then I looked at all the other modalities.”

Rachel’s study of acupuncture took her to China for six weeks which was “an amazing experience”.

She went on to study nutrition with the Irish Institute of Health and Nutrition. This all led to Rachel becoming a specialist in fertility, using acupuncture and advising on diet as part of her practice.

As well as applying acupuncture for fertility treatment, Rachel also does general acupuncture, dealing with back pain and other conditions.

Her own reproductive journey was relatively smooth.

Rachel met her husband, psychologist Stephen Barry, on a blind date when she was 37.

“I knew what I wanted and said to him after ten days that he was the type of fellow I’d like to settle down with, get married and have children. He was agreeable. He moved in with me after about six weeks.

“We found out we were pregnant within four months. So on the first anniversary of us meeting, we got engaged, married and had a one-month-old baby. Freddie was born a week before my 38th birthday. We wanted more. I had a miscarriage after that; then I had the other two.

“Freddie is now 14, Michael is 13, and Aurelia is nearly 12. I wanted to have my family finished by the time I was 40. I got in just before my 41st birthday.”

On top of her busy career and young family, Rachel is also the co-owner of the Hi-B bar on Oliver Plunkett Street with her mother, Nancy O’Donnell. She has “great staff” working there and “a very supportive, hands-on husband. I love what I do. I love problem-solving,” she adds.

See www.harmonyacupuncture.ie.