Chinese medicine is its own complete system for understanding the body. It isn't a variation on Western medicine, but a genuinely different lens on how the body works and what keeps it well. Acupuncture is one tool within that system, but it's far from the only one: herbal medicine, dietary therapy and lifestyle guidance all sit inside the same framework. When people hear "Chinese medicine," they often picture needles and nothing else. In practice, it's a whole way of reading patterns in the body, and acupuncture is just one of the ways that gets applied.

Functional medicine looks at optimal health, not just the absence of disease. Rather than only asking whether something is wrong, it asks whether everything is actually working well, using testing and a detailed history to understand how your body's systems relate to each other. It's one of the three lenses, alongside Chinese medicine and Western reproductive medicine, that shapes how I work with you.

It means no single system of medicine has all the answers, and your care shouldn't pretend otherwise. I hold a double degree in Human Biology and Chinese Medicine and a Masters of Reproductive Medicine, with ongoing training in functional medicine. In practice, your symptoms are looked at through several lenses at once, and your plan draws on the combination best suited to you, your life and your budget.

Functional medicine is concerned with optimal health, not just the absence of disease. Where a standard blood test confirms you're within a normal range, functional medicine asks where you sit within that range, how your results relate to each other, and what that might mean for how you're actually feeling. It's investigative rather than reactive, and it works alongside your GP's care rather than replacing it. The questions are simply different, and for hormonal health those questions matter.

Because your body is already telling the story. It just needs to be read properly. Tracking your cycles, sleep, energy and symptoms over time gives us real information to work with rather than a single snapshot. It also gives you something that lasts: the ability to read your own patterns and make informed decisions. You shouldn't need a master's degree to understand what's happening inside you.