ACUPUNCTURE FOR INFERTILITY
Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine are characterized by great clinical versatility and are most definitely an option and a resource for infertility patients whether you use high tech fertility treatments or choose more natural method.
Acupuncture has an adaptogenic (strengthening) effect on health and therefore it promotes woman’s natural, inborn capacity to conceive. The goal is to help you become pregnant naturally. To do this we need to create optimum health balance. The first thing we need to understand is that balanced and harmonious body is a result of the choices we make each moment. Whether the choice is with food, exercise, avoiding stress or getting enough rest. Your commitment to making healthier choices is the commitment made to your future child
Modern research shows that acupuncture is safe and effective at triggering vasodilation and uterine blood flow which is essential for improving the chance of conception. Oocytogenesis as well as spermatogenesis take on the average a little over three months. This means that every egg needs minimum three months maturation time to develop from the follicle to mature egg. The same time table pertains to sperm. This should put things in the right perspective as far as planning. If you would like to include acupuncture treatments with or with-out herbs in your preparations for healthy parenthood, you should ideally start as soon as you can. Since the efficacy of acupuncture treatments will increase with repetition, weekly treatments are most optimal. Most doctors recommend at least three full cycles of treatment with acupuncture and herbs to fully regulate the body and prepare for successful conception.
Provided there are no physical barriers such as blocked tubes, uterine abnormalities or male factor, acupuncture helps couples to conceive by having a positive effect on regulating menstrual cycle, regulating stress and thereby production of hormones, improving ovarian function by encouraging production of follicles and enhancing their quality. Acupuncture aids in strengthening immune system, improving sperm count, motility and morphology.
Many women feel a sense of urgency – worry about running out of time, however it stands to reason that pregnancy is more likely o occur in a “healthy” versus “unhealthy” women. Since it will take more than three month to improve quality of oocytes, taking care of the reproductive health via Chinese Medicine should be understood as giving the body a head start rather than a loss of time. If you don’t conceive naturally and decide to use IVF or IUI, time spent doing acupuncture will give you best support for the ART method of your choice. Modern research shows that acupuncture treatments administered along with IVF treatments increases the success of IVF by stunning 61.1% vs. just 37.4% for those who did not have any acupuncture during IVF procedure (Cridennda DK, Magarelli PC, Cohen M. Acupuncture and in Vitro Fertilization: Does number of treatments impact reproductive outcomes? Integrating IVF & Acupuncture Seminar. May 18, 2007. Vancouver, BC.) Researchers suggested that the ideal number of treatments prior to IVF-ET is nine per their statistical analysis. Definite conclusion was made that the administration of acupuncture did not harm the study subjects or adversely affected their outcomes. In fact, acupuncture was credited with increasing conception by improving blood flow to ovaries and uterus, lessening uterine contractions after embryo transfer, lessening the side effects of medications and reducing miscarriages.
Many millions of Americans suffer from inability to conceive but only 1% of population is truly infertile. With responsible approach to fertility issues which considers the achievements of modern reproductive technology along with the ancient wisdom of natural healing there is much help and hope for many couples in their journey towards healthy and happy parenthood.
