Editing Traditional Chinese medicine (section)

=== Infertility ===
Infertility, not very well understood, posed serious social and cultural repercussions. The seventh-century scholar [[Sun Simiao]] is often quoted: "those who have prescriptions for women's distinctiveness take their differences of pregnancy, childbirth and [internal] bursting injuries as their basis."<ref name="uHbrTu" /> Even in contemporary ''fuke'' placing emphasis on reproductive functions, rather than the entire health of the woman, suggests that the main function of ''fuke'' is to produce children.

Once again, the kidney visceral system governs the "source ''Qi''", which governs the reproductive systems in both sexes. This source ''Qi'' was thought to "be slowly depleted through sexual activity, menstruation and childbirth."<ref name="uHbrTu" /> It was also understood that the depletion of source Qi could result from the movement of an external pathology that moved through the outer visceral systems before causing more permanent damage to the home of source Qi, the kidney system. In addition, the view that only very serious ailments ended in the damage of this system means that those who had trouble with their reproductive systems or fertility were seriously ill.

According to traditional Chinese medical texts, infertility can be summarized into different syndrome types. These were spleen and kidney depletion (yang depletion), liver and kidney depletion (yin depletion), blood depletion, phlegm damp, liver oppression, and damp heat. This is important because, while most other issues were complex in Chinese medical physiology, women's fertility issues were simple. Most syndrome types revolved around menstruation, or lack thereof. The patient was entrusted with recording not only the frequency, but also the "volume, color, consistency, and odor of menstrual flow."<ref name="uHbrTu" /> This placed responsibility of symptom recording on the patient, and was compounded by the earlier discussed issue of female chastity and honor. This meant that diagnosing female infertility was difficult, because the only symptoms that were recorded and monitored by the physician were the pulse and color of the tongue.<ref name="uHbrTu" />