Janice Mao

Pronouns

she/her

Akin Location

San Francisco

Education/Certification

Doctorate of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

Masters of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Board Certified Acupuncturist and Herbalist

Acupuncture, herbal medicine, nutrition therapy, cupping, moxibustion, Shiatsu

Words you live by

When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

Specific Expertise

Women’s Health, fertility, prenatal & postnatal care, lactation, peri-menopause & menopause

How did you decide to become a doctor of Chinese medicine?

I grew up in a family of doctors - the paternal side representing Western Medicine, the maternal side representing Eastern Medicine. My grandmother was a doctor of Chinese Medicine. She had a glorious apothecary of Chinese herbs stored in amber glass jars and her house always smelled of Asian cooking, herbal incense (moxa) and medicinal herbs brewing on the stove. I’m almost certain she kept a pack of acupuncture needles in her apron, because at the first sound of a sneeze or sniffle, she would come running to me armed with needles in hand!

At our house, food was more than a meal, it was medicine. My grandmother taught me about flavor/temperature profiles and their effects on our health. Even my father, a Western Medicine doctor, knew that mung beans are cool in nature and are beneficial to eat when fighting a viral (heat) pathogen. I was raised with the rituals and philosophies of Chinese medicine surrounding topics such as health and longevity, grief, sleep, monthly cycles, pregnancy and childbirth, that were passed down from one generation to the next.

My grandmother opened her first practice in the U.S. in 1983. My uncle, who apprenticed under her, joined the practice shortly thereafter. Since childhood, I had met many of their patients. I was truly inspired by the deep relationships they forged and the profound positive changes both my grandmother and uncle made in their patients’ lives. I decided to take the leap, and I began my journey in the study and practice of Chinese Medicine, proudly representing the 3rd generation of Chinese Medicine doctors in my family.

What is something you love to help your patients with?

Education and empowerment. I love empowering my patients to make educated decisions concerning their health and fertility. For my fertility patients, knowledge and understanding of the female and male reproduction process is essential in identifying potential problems, knowing how to optimize and preserve fertility, and knowing when to seek ART (assisted reproductive technology). Oftentimes patients are overwhelmed with too much/too little information, IVF protocols, cycle tracking, or making sense of lab reports. I love being a resource for my patients, to answer questions, and instill confidence in themselves and their bodies.

You have a particular strength in integrating Western medicine and Chinese medicine. How does this inform your work for those who are trying to conceive?

I am a believer in integrative medicine. I believe it’s crucial to understand the science of Western medicine, while integrating a holistic and individualized approach. For example, if a woman is suffering from a luteal phase defect, we evaluate the lab values, she may be supplemented with progesterone or gonadotropins. But let’s take a step further to examine the patient’s whole health constitution from a Chinese Medicine perspective and consider individualized clinical nutrition, herbal medicine, and lifestyle changes (ex: exercise, sleep, stress management) in addition to conventional Western medicine modalities, to address the underlying root cause. I believe that viewing fertility with multiple lenses allows us to see the picture more fully.

What inspires your work?

I’m inspired by my patients who entrust me to support them through their fertility journey, with such open hearts, vulnerability, strength, resilience, and determination.

I’m also inspired by becoming a mother myself. The miracle of conception, the ritual of birth, and the unconditional love that is being a mother.

What is your self-care ritual?

My self-care ritual includes being outside on weekends with regular doses of forest and ocean, quiet time for stretching, breathing and meditation, and creating something tactile with my hands (ex: sewing, pottery, gardening, and making homemade salves, balms, and soap with herbal infused oils). 

What are you watching/listening to/reading right now?

I’m revisiting an old classic, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I’ve also been watching Explained, a docuseries on Netflix - because I still don’t get cryptocurrency, do we linguistically overuse exclamation marks, what are the ethical controversies of gene editing, and what is the draw of K-pop??