Fertility Acupuncture
A study published in the journal Fertility & Sterility, found acupuncture improves pregnancy success rate by
50% in women undergoing in-vitro fertilization, or IVF.
[Paulus W, et. Al., Influence of acupuncture on pregnancy rate in patients who undergo ART. J Fertility & Strerility, 2002 April;77(4):721-4.]
Please click here to see more research on acupuncture.
In fact, the evidence that acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine have been used to aid fertility, can be found in early medical literature dating back to year 3 AD.
Please click here to learn about gynecological and menstruation disorders from TCM view.
How does acupuncture work for fertility?
According to the principles of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), a person's health is determined by having a balanced flow of "Qi", the vital life force circulating throughout the body.
Acupuncture and herbal medicine are means of influencing this energy to induce a particular effect in body.
In modern terms, acupuncture can affect the nervous and endocrine system.
Many modern researches have confirmed its benefit in the following areas:
Regulating the menstrual cycle.
Invigorating sperm by enhancing a man's sperm count and motility.
Enhancing general health that is very critical for optimum fertility.
Reducing stress, controlling anxiety, enhancing sleep and increasing energy levels.
Balancing endocrine system.
Improving blood flow in pelvic cavity.
Incleasing the chance of pregnancy for IVF, or IUI.
Stimulating the neurotransmitters that trigger the production of (GnRH).
Who can benefit from fertility acupuncture?
Good candidates for acupuncture and herbal medicine are people who have a functional, rather than structrural etiology for infertility. Infertility due to hormonal imbalance i.e. fluctuating FSH, immune disorders, amenorrhoea, irregular menstruation, dysmenorrhoea, dysfunctional uterine bleeding, fibroids and cysts, stress and age related factors, low sperm count, low sperm motility, all fall into the category of functional infertility.
Stress can dramatically decrease fertility in both women and men. Acupuncture can increase fertility chances by reducing stress.
For those whose infertility involves structural issues, such as fallopian tube damage or severe endometriosis, a complete medical evaluation is recommended to understand the exact nature of the problem before initiating TCM treatments.
What to expect?
Your initial visit is usually about 1.5 hrs and includes an evaluation based on TCM and an acupuncture treatment for fertility. Follow up visits are only one hour long.
A customized herbal medicine treatment plan, will start from your second visit. Herbs are administered as raw herbs that you take home and cook them once a week, and keep the decoction in a glass jar in the fridge and normally drink it 2-3 times a day.
You also follow a reasonable diet as well as proper exercises.
Give the treatment 6-9 months, but there are patients who can get pregnant earlier than that, since every one responds differently to the treatment and there is no set time. Click here to hear it from the people who had success with their fertility treatments.