Fertility acupuncture is a general term we use to describe using whole systems Chinese Medicine to improve a patient’s fertility. Yes, acupuncture is involved however there is a significant amount of lifestyle and nutrition advice and coaching, stress reducing techniques, work on improving stress tolerance and personalized herbal medicine used as well. There are generally 4 types of people who will benefit from fertility acupuncture:
Pre-conception care: These are couples who would like to start trying in the next 6 or so months and before that want to improve their health, maybe get a bit more fit or lose some weight and focus on egg and sperm quality. We love these couples! Fertility acupuncture is shown to reduce the body’s stress response, regulate the hormonal system (in both men and women!), and improve egg and sperm quality through implementing health promoting behaviors and targeted herbs and supplements. This work is especially important for couples that are a bit older since the number of genetically normal eggs and sperm lowers with age. This makes optimizing health even more important! A typical timeframe for preconception care is 3-4 months.
Trying for 3-12 months with too much stress or irregular cycles: It’s often surprising to couples if they don't get pregnant right away. I mean, we were told as teenagers that you just had to look at a girl and she would get pregnant! The reality is that each month the change of conceiving ranges from 25%-less than 5% depending on age! It can be so stressful if things don't happen when you expect them to! You can obsess about what you are doing right or wrong and it might seem like suddenly all your Facebook friends are pregnant! A great fertility acupuncturist is key in these situations! We can give you expert advice, help with stress and anxiety and work to regulate cycles. If you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious or lost when it comes to trying to conceive, please let us help!
A health condition is interfering with conception: This could be a male factor problem that is discovered after a semen analysis like low motility, morphology and just low sperm count. It often is a gynecological condition like PCOS, endometriosis, absent or irregular periods or ovulation. All of these health conditions can be effectively treated either with fertility acupuncture/Chinese Medicine alone or in conjunction with your MD. If there is any health condition that may be interfering with conception, please consider speaking with a trained fertility acupuncturist. We truly believe, based on our experience, there are very few cases that absolutely need to move onto IVF; most can improve their fertility and conceive with less invasive and expensive treatments.
Physical and emotional support during IUI, egg freezing or IVF: We are so lucky to have more advanced treatment these days when they are needed. IVF and other Assisted Reproductive Technologies provide possibilities to patients with tubal obstructions, significant male factor problems, low ovarian reserve and same sex couples among others. At Downtown Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine we strongly believe that medicine is never either/or when it comes to western medicine and Chinese medicine. In fact, fertility acupuncture has been shown to improve outcomes in IVF as well as decrease stress and anxiety during treatment! Going through fertility treatment can be so stressful! All the appointments, medications, “what if’s” and unknowns. Fertility Acupuncture will help calm your mind, lower anxiety and reduce stress through the process.
If you want questions on how Fertility Acupuncture may benefit you, please feel free to call or text us at 479-437-9056 or book a free consultation at downtownacupuncture.janeapp.com