Interview with Dr. Jennifer Mercier

I interviewed Dr. Jennifer Mercier so she can talk about the Mercier Technique, which specializes in fertility, pregnancy, and women’s health. I began to follow her work after I attended another pelvic visceral manipulation course and the other students were talking about her technique. Her clinic has extensive knowledge and experience in working with women who have experienced fertility challenges due to endometriosis, PCOS, diminished ovarian reserved, blocked fallopian tubes, recurring miscarriage, failed medical attempts, and other secondary fertility issues.

Who Is Dr. Jennifer Mercier

Aside from the clinic Expect A Miracle, Jennifer is also the founder of Mercier Therapy. She has been working on it for 25 years, but Mercier Therapy was only in operation for the past 15 years. It is a gynovisceral manipulation course and offers a three-day women’s health advanced professional training certification program for midwives, massage therapists, chiropractors, physical therapists, nurse practitioners, naprapaths, naturopaths, and physicians.

How Did She Create The Program

Jennifer talked about how she started creating the program during our interview. She said that it was born of the need for her own endometriosis. Jennifer pointed out that there were no good options to treat it other than Lupron suppression therapy or oral contraceptives. She never did Lupron suppression therapy, but tried oral contraceptives and underwent three surgeries to clean up the disease. However, she gained a lot of weight, had wretched headaches from oral contraceptive pills, and it was not an overall good experience for her.

She decided to research more about it to help with her needs. While studying for her undergraduate degree, she also worked for a large reproductive endocrinology and fertility clinic. She was only 19 or 20 years old and was learning to do an intrauterine insemination, semen analysis, pelvic ultrasound, endometrial biopsies, pap smears, egg retrievals, embryo transfers, and more. Because of her experience, it’s already a language she is familiar with and speaks. According to Jennifer, nothing much has changed today regarding reproductive medicine, but there are more drugs that are less potent than the ones produced before and they remain not very good.

Dr. Jennifer Mercier’s Take On IVF

Jennifer added that you can check out the data available through Society For Assisted Reproductive Technology or sart.org before you decide if in vitro fertilization (IVF) is good for you. IVF is a complex series of procedures used to help with fertility or prevent genetic problems and assist with the conception of a child.

Jennifer is also a researcher and a midwife. She spends a lot of time researching to bring truthful information to everyone. She does this so women can have the ability to make good and sensible choices for their care. In case they still want to get IVF, Jennifer will be there to create a good environment for their body prior to going to the procedure, which is a highly complex journey.

Jennifer actually produced a documentary regarding how long the fertility field has been around and the success of procedures that help women with their issues regarding fertility. A lot of my patients and friends spend a ton of money on IVF and the percentage of success is not that high. Jennifer pointed out that there’s only 22 to 23 percent pregnancy rate and a 19 percent live birth rate regarding IVF. 

Aside from the financial restraint that IVF brings, there isn’t much information regarding the long-term effects of IVF on a woman’s body. Through IVF, you take the cycle up so high to create a lot of embryos. 

She is thankful that IVF was discovered because there are women who really need it. However, there are so many components you have to consider when you undergo IVF. She strongly believes that there are specific cases that only IVF can help become pregnant, but there are also so many cases where women are pushed to get IVF even if it’s not what they need. 

For Clomid, though, Jennifer also has reservations and caveats regarding this procedure. She pointed out during the interview that it’s used for ovulation induction, but there is a gentler way to help women and these are ultrasound monitoring for the follicular growth, LH testing at home, and an induction of ovulation with an HCG trigger shot. These are less invasive than Clomid, as Clomid causes poor fertile mucus. It causes an acidic environment with the vagina. The Clomid cycle must also be coupled with intrauterine insemination, which bypasses the vaginal environment altogether because it is inhospitable to sperm.

With Clomid and Femara cycles, some women have been taken down to bare bone levels of estrogen. Both drugs suppress estradiol production. Estradiol thickens the endometrial lining and creates a good, healthy environment. If we do not have enough estradiol in the beginning of the pregnancy, the embryo will implant but it might not go further than six weeks because there is a deficit of estradiol, which is responsible for growing the vital organs of the embryo – the brain, the heart, and the spinal cord. 

This is the reason why Jennifer likes induction of ovulation with an HCG trigger shot. She said that it is the lesser of the two evils.

All About Mercier Therapy

Mercier Therapy is a deep pelvic visceral manipulation that helps to enable better movement to release restrictions in the reproductive organ system. It also increases blood flow. Blood flow is equal to life. Jennifer gave an example during the interview wherein when you cross your legs, your foot actually falls asleep. It becomes numb, you cannot feel it, and you cannot stand up and walk around and bare weight at it. What we do when this happens is we uncross our legs, we tap out our foot, and the pins and needles start. The restoration of blood flow is a strange sensation and may almost be painful.  That’s the same as what happens in the pelvis. Scar tissue can be locking everything down and into place.  Jennifer gets in there and goes very deep. She manipulates the organs to restore their movement, which brings the blood flow back.

It consists of six one-hour sessions and is a tender process, but it works well.  After the sessions, it can cause some tenderness and patients will be aware of the space. Most women may have a memory of the area between the naval and the pubic bone that is not quite settling. It may be an unwanted sexual trauma or experience, painful menstrual cycles, pregnancy loss, abortion, stillborn, or whatever the case may be, it is something that is unpleasant in the memory of that space. Jennifer goes back in there and flips the light switch on and it brings about a cascade of events such as connecting the pituitary and the pelvis again to make more estrogen. When this happens, there will be better lubrication and better ovulatory cycles. Jennifer said it is just a simple method, but that’s exactly what the body needs – a gentle nudge.

Once the work is done, Jennifer said that her patients no longer need to go back to her, but they are always welcome to consult with her again. If she is working with someone who has to have a surgery in the future, she tells them to wait after the surgery so they can follow up with the Mercier therapy to address surgical adhesions. When she has to do the Mercier Therapy after surgery, she waits around six to eight weeks to do the work.

Working With Endometriosis, PCOS, And The Like  

Jennifer shared during the interview that she worked with a lot of patients who have endometriosis, PCOS, and similar cases. She helps soften and break-up adhesion tissue in the pelvis. Like what she mentioned above, she said that she also has endometriosis and with Mercier Therapy, it helped her have healthy babies. Jennifer said that if she did not have her own work and did not research on a better way to help women, she would not have had babies. A group of students actually worked on Jennifer for her to become pregnant as she did not want to get IVF.

For PCO and PCOS, she helps them with Mercier therapy but couples the sessions with bioidentical hormone and supplemental protocol. She also helps them understand dietary changes because of the precursor of diabetes for PCO and PCOS.

Jennifer calls Mercier Therapy and all the work she does an all-encompassing program that is a holistic reproductive endocrinology and fertility program without stepping on the toes of the medical industry.

The Usual Clients Attending Her Courses

Jennifer’s Mercier Therapy course work is open to everyone. She usually has physical therapists, massage therapists, chiropractors, naprapaths, naturopaths, physician assistants, physicians, nurse practitioners, doulas, midwives, childbirth educators, Pilates instructors, and more.

She said that she does not think there is a limit on who attends her courses. As long as they have a license to put their hands on people or want to be helpful in their community, the courses under Mercier Therapy are free to do so.

Developments In The Courses Under Mercier Therapy

By January 1, 2022, Jennifer will combine her three-day original course with the fertility certificate course. For those who want to train with Jennifer must have both courses. If they do not have such, they cannot go out and use Mercier Therapy for women with fertility challenges.

Mercier Therapy And Prolapses

With Mercier Therapy, they work directly with the ligamentous system in the pelvis, they are pulling the uterus up into the pelvis, retraining the ligaments in essence. When she works with women who have severe prolapse, she will ask their gynecologist to fit them for a pessary device while she does her work.

If you want to connect with Dr. Jennifer Mercier, you can check out her work at the websites of Expect a Miracle and Mercier Therapy. You can also check out her Facebook page here.

If you have any questions, you can drop it in the comment section or you can send me a message through Facebook or Instagram. I’d be happy to do another podcast about your questions. Also, if you want me to talk about something specific, let me know!

You can also check my TikTok account as I use the platform to educate viewers about movement, chiropractic education, yoga, pregnancy, and more! 

Thank you for listening and see you next week!